A commonly held view is that the frequency and value of pre-trial settlements in civil disputes are greatly influenced by the cost allocation regime that is in place if the case goes to trial. There is a large and growing theoretical literature on this subject but almost no empirical evidence....

A common procedural arrangement that is thought to influence the pre-trial settlement of civil disputes in one which allows the defendant to make an offer to settle which if it is rejected by the plaintiff and not subsequently bettered by the judge's trial decision will affect the division of...

A common procedural device aimed at increasing the probability that pre-trial negotiations will lead to out of court settlement is defendant offers into court. Both in the UK following the Woolf Report (1996) and the Cullen Report (1995) and in the USA, the idea of extending the arrangements to...

This paper reviews the use of cost shifting devices intended to encourage pre-trial settlement. Both the well-known instrument of judicial offers (tenders) and the more recently introduced pursuers' offers are discussed. Numerical examples are provided and experimental evidence is reviewed. Both...

In the jurisdictions both of England and Wales and of Scotland, the civil justice system is currently the subject of intense critical appraisal. This paper considers the current status of civil justice, beginning by asking what we expect from our system of civil justice and going on to analyse...