"Without prejudice" letters.?

snodgrass

We are in a neighbour dispute,over the garden fence and boundary,our neighbour(she has no solicitor)we do,sent US this "WITHOUT PREJUDICE" letter trying (supposedly)to settle the matter.

The final paragraph "I am quite willing to go to mediation,if you wish to take this option.Otherwise i will go ahead and remove your fence and put a new fence in the correct position"

How can this be a letter to settle the matter,when iin the next breath she is threatening to take down OUR fence.

Without Prejudice letters,are supposedly marked with those words,if there is a genuine and sincere attempt to settle a matter,but surely the last sentence,shows that this was not a genuine offer,just a scare tactic.

If that is the case could this letter be used if needed in court as evidence,regardless of the "WP" heading??

Can any one help,thanks.

mlz1413

I also though WP was combined with a settlement offer.

You have a solicitor who knows the details of the case, show the letter to them and get a response out to neighbour in writing.

Troubled_Joe

Your understanding is basically correct and it's a sensible question to raise.

For something to retain its w/o p status it must contain a genuine attempt to settle. Whilst the threat is clearly not, the offer to enter mediation is.

If you wanted to use it for whatever reason you would need to make an application within the proceedings to determine this issue. I'd be wary of doing so due to potential costs consequences in failing though and not being overly confident of your position.

In any event the contents of the letter and even the threat would not change the facts of the case (which I don't know) and would most likely only be useful in terms of deciding the issue of costs after a judgment has been made.

snodgrass

It has gone past that point.When we recieved the letter,we wanted to go to mediation,but our solicitor having read the letter,advised us not to.We have just recently won our case against them over their blocking a ROW,they must remove blockage and were to pay all legal/court costs etc.But we were just told by our solicitor,that they have countercliamed now,over the boundary/fence.With a boundary dispute,we will have to use our household legal insurance,who will select a new solicitor for us,as they say they will take on the case.
So our local solicitor is really not to deal with this new case,everything has been sent off to our insurance firm.
So whilst we wait for the new solicitor,we would like to know if this letter could be used as evidence,as it seems like things are escalating.