If it isn't signed by the party offering it, it is not valid.
Always make it expire 1 minute after the motion/trial/court appearance. There is case law out there where the father made an offer to settle and it did not expire. The trial was over a few days. As the trial went on the mother realized that things were not going well for her so she accepted the offer to settle just before a decision was to be given by the judge. No costs could be sought as a result. I do not have the caselaw link or info to provide, this was told to us by the lawyer we used in the background in preparation of our trial.
Offer your position (another offer within the offer) should your offer to settle not be accepted. Something like: ...in the event that this offer is not accepted I am willing to pay XX in child support, etc.
Don't just waive certain costs in your offer, seek to "waive and release". Apparently waiving means putting them aside in legal terms but it does not release you from those costs.
Make your offers only acceptable in whole and not in part. That way they can't pick and choose what they want as most offers tend to be wholesome in their approach (you would be willing to waive arrears if they absorbed something else kind of thing).
Spell out why you are offering what you are. For instance, we spelled out that we were offering XX amount of dollars more than we were obligated to for extra curricular and said why we were doing this and the benefits to the other party. This served multiple purposes. 1. It told the other party the benefits that she could discuss with her lawyer and 2. It also would tell a judge a story when and if the judge came to read the offers if and when dealing with costs for trial.
If I think of more things I will post here.
Always make it expire 1 minute after the motion/trial/court appearance. There is case law out there where the father made an offer to settle and it did not expire. The trial was over a few days. As the trial went on the mother realized that things were not going well for her so she accepted the offer to settle just before a decision was to be given by the judge. No costs could be sought as a result. I do not have the caselaw link or info to provide, this was told to us by the lawyer we used in the background in preparation of our trial.
Offer your position (another offer within the offer) should your offer to settle not be accepted. Something like: ...in the event that this offer is not accepted I am willing to pay XX in child support, etc.
Don't just waive certain costs in your offer, seek to "waive and release". Apparently waiving means putting them aside in legal terms but it does not release you from those costs.
Make your offers only acceptable in whole and not in part. That way they can't pick and choose what they want as most offers tend to be wholesome in their approach (you would be willing to waive arrears if they absorbed something else kind of thing).
Spell out why you are offering what you are. For instance, we spelled out that we were offering XX amount of dollars more than we were obligated to for extra curricular and said why we were doing this and the benefits to the other party. This served multiple purposes. 1. It told the other party the benefits that she could discuss with her lawyer and 2. It also would tell a judge a story when and if the judge came to read the offers if and when dealing with costs for trial.
If I think of more things I will post here.
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