Settlement Offers

The variety of legal actions on offer

There are millions of litigations initiated every year, and there are three levels of action you can take against your defendants. The first level is a small claims procedure, which involves compensation amounts of up to £3,000. The second is a tribunal or County Court case, which involves amounts over £3,000 but no more than £25,000. The third level of action is High Court proceedings, where the amount is over £25,000. Civil litigation will typically include; bankruptcy, divorce, contract problems, debt recovery and property disputes etc. These disputes are normally resolved quickly. When a dispute is carried over to a tribunal or County Court it can be relatively costly and timely and as cases occasionally do not reach a judgement a settlement is usually offered.

Symmetry

Settlement offers were introduced to prevent you from forking out the expenses involved in civil litigation. The defendants also have the right to offer a settlement to solve the dispute. This can be done by paying the entire disputed amount or a portion of the amount to court via a written compromise. New rules allow both parties to put forward their own proposals in solving the claim.

Mediation and ADR

Another type of settlement is an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) or mediation. Mediation is a quicker more flexible process which starts with both parties describing their point of view in written form to a neutral mediator with a meeting between everyone to follow which will allow both parties to state the cases.

There are several petitions filed every year and it is important to at least consider a settlement. A lot of time and effort is required in the process so a settlement may make more sense in the long run. Agreeing to some sort of mediation or Alternative Dispute Resolution is very likely to shorten the process and costs as well as potentially avoiding any financial sanctions.