Public Policy Doctrines For The Exclusion of Relevant Evidence - Offers To Settle A Claim

Offers To Settle A Claim

Offers to settle a claim, and related statements made during a settlement conference, are generally inadmissible under FRE 408. The primary public policy motivation is to encourage litigants to settle their disputes. This rule also recognizes that parties may make settlement offers even where they believe they have no actual liability, in order to avoid the expense of litigation. A 2006 amendment to the rule permits the admission of statements made during settlement discussions between a private party and a regulatory body, when those statements are offered as evidence in a criminal case, subject to FRE 403.

The inadmissibility of settlement claims only prohibits the admission of statements, not the admission of facts. Thus, if a party to a settlement conference mentions that she possesses a certain document relevant to the proceedings, the other party may seek to discover that document through legal processes, despite it having first been mentioned in the settlement conference; merely disclosing a document's existence and mentioning it during a settlement conference does not insulate it from being discovered and admitted.

Additionally, the public policy exception of excluding relevant evidence arising out of an offer to settle cannot not apply if the evidence sought to be introduced is a claim made in a period before a dispute between the parties arose.

Example: Florida-based piano teacher P gets her expensive, snow white tile floors polished by North Carolina-based cleaning company C on March 22. C mails P a bill for $100,000 on March 29. P thought that the service would only cost $75,000.00, and disputes the $100,000 charge. Unable to come to a compromise with P, C brings suit on May 8 in federal court to collect $200,000. FRE 403 does not prohibit P's introduction of the $100,000 March bill into evidence as an admission by C that the total amount disputed cannot exceed $100,000.