Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Bertuzzi/Moore: It Ain't Settled Until the Fat Bailiff Sings

It's settled.

It's not settled.

Hang on - it's settled.

Wait - it's not settled. And that's where we are now.

Until such time as a Notice of Discontinuance is filed with the Court, there is no settlement. This type of Notice is filed with the Court with the consent of both parties letting the Court know it's over. Anything short of that means it's not technically over. And technically means a lot. 

These things can go sideways at the 11th hour and it's not unusual to believe that settlement has been achieved when in fact it has not.

I mentioned yesterday on Twitter it was highly unusual, if not completely unprecedented, to see a play by play of the tail end of settlement talks. I've never seen that in the context of an Ontario action and expect I never will. That made me wonder as to the legitimacy of the claims being made.

Ultimately, it is unclear where this confusion is coming from. However, it does raise some interesting questions.


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