Offers Of Settlement – Subjective Objectivity

In 2005, the Georgia Legislature adopted comprehensive tort reform legislation. One component of that initiative is known as the offer of settlement statute. Rule 68 is designed to encourage litigants to make and accept reasonable settlement offers instead of going to trial. It can work in one of two ways:

• A defendant makes a settlement proposal for the resolution of a tort claim under the offer of settlement statute. The plaintiff rejects the offer, goes to trial and "wins", but recovers less than 75% of the sum offered by the defendant in settlement. In that instance, the offer of settlement statute generally requires the plaintiff to pay all reasonable attorney's fees incurred by the defendant that accrued from 30 days after the offer was conveyed, through the end of trial.