The Place of Settlement Negotiation in Civil Procedure
Settlement negotiation is the route by which the parties to a civil dispute reach their own agreement on the subject matter instead of awaiting the court's decision. The Civil Procedure Code of Georgia gives this route a complete legal framework: it regulates the judge's duty to facilitate settlement, the distribution of court costs upon settlement, and the securing and enforcement of agreements reached through mediation. Settlement allows a dispute to end on terms that satisfy the parties' real interests while significantly reducing time and expense.
The Judge's Role in Facilitating Settlement
Article 218 of the Code gives the court an unambiguous direction: the court must facilitate settlement in every way and must take every measure provided for by law so that the parties end the case by settlement. For this purpose the judge is authorised, on the judge's own initiative or at a party's motion, to announce a recess during the court session and, without the presence of other persons, to hear only the parties or only their representatives. The norm further provides that the judge may point out the possible outcomes of the resolution of the dispute and propose settlement terms to the parties, and may propose to the parties the possibility of ending the dispute by transferring the case to a mediator. Before the case is ended by settlement, the parties must submit a certificate concerning a public-law restriction, confirming that no public-law restriction is registered on the subject of the dispute — whether a thing or a non-material property benefit — and containing the data in force at the moment of the settlement.
The Distribution of Court Costs Upon Settlement
One practical question of any settlement is costs. Article 54 of the Code regulates the distribution of court costs and attorney's fees where the claim is withdrawn or the case is settled. If the claimant withdraws the claim, the defendant does not reimburse the claimant's costs. The exception is the case where the claimant failed on the claim only because the defendant voluntarily satisfied it after the claim was filed: at the claimant's request, the court will then charge the defendant with reimbursing all costs incurred by the claimant, including attorney's fees. If, however, the parties themselves determined the distribution of costs in their settlement, the court decides this question according to their agreement.