[sdurkin]

All attempts to negotiate or compromise cannot be offered in court as proof of liability.

Rule 408. Compromise and Offers to Compromise

(a) Prohibited uses.—Evidence of the following is not admissible on behalf of any party, when offered to prove liability for, invalidity of, or amount of a claim that was disputed as to validity or amount, or to impeach through a prior inconsistent statement or contradiction:

(1) furnishing or offering or promising to furnish or accepting or offering or promising to accept a valuable consideration in compromising or attempting to compromise the claim

Those are the Federal rules. They vary from state to state, but most are pretty close.

[cperciva]

furnishing or offering or promising to furnish or accepting or offering or promising to accept a valuable consideration in compromising or attempting to compromise the claim

Does "the claim" here mean "anything people were arguing about", or does it specifically mean a lawsuit which had been filed?

[sdurkin]

A claim means any dispute for which one party believes it is entitled to a remedy. Its not necessary that a suit have been filed.

If you're worried about ways settlement offers can potentially be used against you, remember that the rule only bars using such evidence for the purpose of proving liability. As long as its offered for some other purpose, it can be allowed in. And once a jury hears the evidence, in practice it doesn't really matter for what purpose they were told to consider it.

[cperciva]

Thanks! I doubt I'll ever need to know this stuff (I certainly hope I'll never need to know it!) but I always like learning about how such systems work.