Settlement offer

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A settlement offer or offer to settle is a term used in a civil lawsuit to describe a communication from one party to the other suggesting a settlement - an agreement to end the lawsuit before a judgment is rendered.

Attorneys typically negotiate terms of a settlement on behalf of their clients, so a settlement offer is usually conveyed by one party's attorney directly to the other party's attorney.

The objective of settlement offers is to promote the settlement of cases out of court, thus freeing up the resources of the court system. In the US, the evidence of settlement offers within the context of litigation is generally inadmissible in a court of law.

In Australia and the United Kingdom, offers of settlement may be called Calderbank Offers, and Offers of Compromise and often have a major impact on the allocation, by courts, of legal costs between parties.

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