preview

Settlement Privilege Essay

Satisfactory Essays

Settlement privilege, where the law is concerned, is a mechanism that safeguards information that is exchanged between a plaintiff and any defendants while settlement negotiations are in progress. This legal device allows parties involved in negotiations to freely discuss matters of trial without having to worry that their their concessions can be used against them. Settlement privilege laws were created by the courts to promote settlements outside of court, which assists in lowering Canadian public resources and legal expenses. Canada's "Law of Evidence" stands as a test that can be employed to decide when settlement privilege applies. These legal guidelines can be reviewed below. Alternatively, you can locate these rules in Canada's …show more content…

Settlement privilege also safeguards any litigation discussed from document discovery. One can locate document discovery requirements in the Rules of Civil Procedure (Rule Thirty), which serves to facilitate relevant documents exchanges involved in a case between all of it's parties. Settlement privilege does have a few exceptions, and some of them are explained below. • If issues exist that affect time limitation elements in a sometimes settlement privilege can be broken. • If any of the settling parties have been fraudulent in some any way, settlement privilege is void. • If the settlement becomes questionable or if it becomes necessary to examine case documents to determine if a settlement has been achieved, an exception may apply. • At times, a settling defendant can opt to reveal evidence that might benefit a different case for the plaintiff’s involving other defendants in a trial in progress. • In certain cases, settlement privilege can be violated to safeguard against double recovery, which is when a plaintiff attempts to collect from both settling and non-settling defendants, which requires

Get Access