settlements out of court

[hantsman]

Offers outside a tribunal normally fall into two catogaries the first is what is called nuisance value. This is normally to offer you a few hundred pounds so that Royal Mail do not have to shed out in solictors fees and barristers fees and taking managers out on work etc for the day. This offer has nothing to do with the merits of the case just a cost saver for Royal Mail.

The second is if Royal Mail in preparing the bundles and in exchanging witness statements and other details from both sides believe they then do not have a reasonable chance of success and may lose the tribunal, this offer is normally a bigger offer than the first one, but remember a tribunal may find that you have still be unfairly dismissed but have contributed to your dimissal by a set percentage say 30% then any comphensation that you would have been due would be reduced by 30%.

You need to decide whether the offer was based on nuisance value or indeed based on a bigger reason.

Good luck

Dingo is spot on here IMHO RM dont offer normally at all, you can see by what happened last year with their ET cases taken out against them.

[brothermagrew]

With regards to personal injury cases and contributory negligence it works like this:

Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945:
Section 1
(1) Where any person suffers damage as the result partly of his own fault and
partly of the fault of any other person or persons, a claim in respect of that damage
shall not be defeated by reason of the fault of the person suffering the damage, but
the damages recoverable in respect thereof shall be reduced to such extent as the
court thinks just and equitable having regard to the claimant’s share in the
responsibility for the damage ....