Question for lawyers: Civil Suit

Factual Questions
1

Question for you attorneys: I am involved in a civil suit in which the other party’s attorney sent an offer to settle the matter and gave me until the end of the month to consider.

Today, I get a letter where the other party has filed a Motion For Summary Judgement.

Is this proper form when a settlement offer is pending? Can the settlement offer be withdrawn or is it binding?

Since IANAL, I could be way off base, but it seems that you shouldn’t attempt to settle out of one side while continuing to pursue the matter on the other…

2

This is typical, it keeps the lawsuit timeline intact in case you reject their offer.

3

Thank you. After checking my records, they offered a settlement, and then I counteroffered. They then accepted my counteroffer.

So, I guess it was they who knew that the case was settled, yet they filed this motion. Still typical?

4

Yes. The date the court would rule on the Summary Judgment would most likely not have been until after the date of your last chance to accept the offer had passed.

I don’t quite understand second statement though. Did they file the Summary Judgment after they accepted your counteroffer? That’s not typical and would be pointless, assuming your settlement fully disposed of all the issues in the case.

5

Yes. Last week they mailed me a letter stating that they accepted my counteroffer and included a stipulation of settlement for me to sign and return. The letter also instructed me to send payment to their corporate offices by the end of this month.

I mailed the documents on Monday. Now today I get this Motion for Summary Judgement that was filed.

Am I safe to assume that they are filing this just in case I didn’t send payment?

6

This is starting to seem like legal advice and I’m not sure how that’s handled in GQ. I’ll be general.

IANAL, and I am not offering legal advice.

So, it just seems like they are being efficient/timely and/or putting a little pressure on you to settle. If you’ve signed/dated/in writing the settlement agreement, just ask (by letter, email) the other side to call the court and pass the Summary Judgment Motion because the case has settled. Or if you have you’re own lawyer, ask him to inform the court a settlement has been made and a ruling on the Summary Judgment would be moot.

I don’t know what the other sides intentions are, but summary judgments are very common.

7

I am most definitely not offering you legal advice on your case. You cannot take anything I say as having any value on the subject other than what you paid for it. :smiley: I am not your attorney; you are not my client.

Probably they had the SJ in the works while waiting on your signed stipulation. Possibly, they had not received the signed stip by the time they filed the SJ motion.

You could always simply call and ask what the deal is. :wink:

8

Thanks for the Not Legal Advice. I called the other attorney today and he told me that it was just his office’s standard practice. That until all parts of the settlement are signed, sealed and delivered, they continue the other track of pursuing the law suit.

It just seemed strange to get a letter one day saying that “We accept your offer of settlement” and then two days later getting another letter with a Motion for Summary Judgement in it.

I guess some people use settlement discussions in bad faith in order to delay the process?

9

Without wanting to sound too cynical, I’ll just point out that it lets them squeeze a couple extra billable hours from their client.

10

Both of these are accurate possibilities. :frowning: