How to initiate out of court settlement

Alternate Dispute Resolution is the need of the hour. It is more convenient to settle a case outside the court in a regulated mechanism than to fight the same in the court of law. The concept of ADR comes as a rescue to help people settling their cases out of court.

The most common types of ADRs are

1.  Arbitration
2.  Conciliation
3.  Mediation
4.  Neutral Evaluation

Arbitration as a mechanism of ADR is used mostly by corporate entities. Mediation is mostly used to settle matters relating to family disputes. Conciliation is a form of arbitration but it is less formal in nature. It is the process of facilitating an amicable resolution between the parties, whereby the parties to the dispute use conciliator who meets with the parties separately to settle their dispute.Neutral Evaluation is a new mode of ADR introduced in India in 2007.

Cases relating to property disputes usually take years to settle. Therefore, an alternative of mediation is always available to settle the dispute. This is a form of out of court settlement the only condition is, all the parties to the dispute must agree to out of court settlement.

Section 89 of the CPC talks of out of court settlement through the means of Alternative Dispute Mechanism. Mediation, Conciliation, Lok Adalats are the new tools of the justice dispensing system. It is to be understood here that, it will be wrong to infer from the provision that if the parties agree they can take the case completely out of court’s court. Still, the case will be regulated as per the provisions of the relevant ADRs Act

• Make it sure you mention your clear intention of out of court settlement before the court.
• Under Order 23 Rule 1 of CPC when a suit is withdrawn for an out of court settlement, litigants are precluded from initiating fresh proceedings of the matter withdrawn.
• Out of court proceedings can be quashed by the court. Court can do this only under special circumstances.