Drafting & Enforcing Effective Domestic & International Settlement Agreements

Introduction

The majority of disputes end in settlement or compromise rather than being decided by a court.

Settlement can be achieved by simple negotiation or as a result of mediation or some other form of (alternative) dispute resolution.

The recent Report by the Civil Justice Council concluded that parties can legally be compelled to mediate and in many cases, it is desirable and effective. This is seen by many as the ‘green light’ for an increase in the number of mediations, and a consequent increase in drafting and enforcing of settlement agreements.

This, coupled with the UN Singapore Convention on Mediation, enforced in August 2019, is likely to raise the profile of mediation as a primary dispute resolution tool, rather than it being previously considered as ‘alternative’. The Singapore Convention has been considered by many to be the mediation equivalent of the NY Convention for arbitral awards. Although the UK has not ratified the Singapore Convention yet, it may apply to mediations involving UK businesses in any event as its application does not depend on reciprocity.

The EU Mediation Directive continues to apply to mediations with an EU cross border element. Following Brexit, the EU Mediation Directive no longer applies in the UK.

The aim of this webinar is to update you on the current law and practice regarding drafting valid and effective settlement agreements for use both domestically and internationally.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• The effect of a settlement
• Privilege and without prejudice status of negotiations
• The different ways of documenting a settlement and ensuring watertight agreements
• How to set aside a settlement
• The UN Singapore Convention - rules for recognition and enforcement of mediation agreements internationally
• Recognising and enforcing mediated settlement agreements in the EU - the EU Mediation Directive
• How to enforce a settlement and in what circumstances can a settlement agreement be found to be unenforceable
• How can mediation settlement agreements be recognised and enforced within the EU? What is the UK position following Brexit? How would the UK re-joining the Lugano Convention change matters?
• Recent case law:
• Yukos Hydrocarbons v Gerogiades 2020 - what is the nature of a general release
• Integral Petroleum v Petrogat 2020 - what might constitute an abuse of process
• Simantob v Shavleyan [2019] - Requirements for valid settlement - what constitutes consideration

This webinar was recorded on 23rd November 2021