Cassie v Diddy; Learning About Out Of Court Settlement

The news that Casandra Elizabeth Ventura Aka Cassie was taking her ex-partner, Sean “P Diddy” Combs to court over the allegation of sexual abuse was the highlight of this week. Due to the celebrity status of the persons involved it appeared that the whole world was/is interested in the case to see and know what comes of it but to the utmost dismay of folks we got another news yesterday that the parties involved have settled out of court and will no longer be dragging themselves to both the traditional court and before the court of public opinion. 

Someone reached out to me to ask me about the possibility of withdrawing a matter that had already been filed from the court for the parties involved to go and settle the matter amongst themselves. This is very much possible and it is well acknowledged by our laws even in Nigeria; it is called “out-of-court settlement” and it is sometimes even advised by the court that the parties before the court should consider this method. 

Out-of-Court-Settlement is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) whereby a matter that has been filed in court is put on hold by the court and time is given to the parties for them to go and negotiate amongst themselves and arrive at a settlement. The parties involved make this request to the court to pend the matter for them to go and explore the avenue of settling amongst themselves and for them to come back later to update the court within a fixed time if they have agreed on a settlement or if they have not; if they have arrived at a settlement, they will have to file another document known as notice/ terms settlement in the court where the matter is pending thereby adopting the terms of settlement in court for the terms to officially become the decision of the court and for the matter to come to an end but if they were unable to arrive at a settlement amongst themselves they will inform the court that they were unable to arrive at a settlement, therefore, the matter should proceed in the court.

Once the terms of the settlement are signed by the parties involved, it becomes binding to everyone and it becomes officially binding when the court has adopted the terms of settlement as its judgment and no party is allowed to renege from the agreed terms of settlement. 

This settlement out-of-court method of ADR is oftentimes utilized by big companies that are open for share subscription from the general public. Due to the well-known fact that lawsuits and scandals affect stock performance in the stock exchange market, most companies when involved in lawsuits instead of rolling the dice to see the possible outcome from the court would rather quickly hush the matter and settle the matter out of court to make the whole thing go away as quickly as possible. 

I (personally) have utilized this avenue in some of my cases. We utilized it last year when I represented Sabinus (Mr Funny) as his lawyer and we had to sue a big corporation for trademark infringement; the company had to reach out to us through their lawyers and ask us that they do not want the matter to proceed in court since it was clear that they did infringe on our trademark; they requested for out of court settlement and we tabled before them our demands; once our demands were met and we reached a compromise and we signed the terms of settlement and filed same in court notifying the court that we have settled the matter amongst ourselves and therefore will not be proceeding with the suit any longer; the court adopted the terms of settlement we filed as it judgment and we put the matter to rest. (Some information about the case is online, you can read it up there). 

Settlement out of court is well recognized and it is always advisable that conflicting parties should explore it unless the matter is a matter that the court must sit on like divorce proceedings and some criminal prosecutions.