Prejudice, Without - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition prejudice-without

Definition :

Prejudice, without, is a term given to overtures and communications between parties in the course of negotiate on, or between litigants before action or after action, but before trial or verdict. The words import an understanding that if the negotiation fails, nothing that has passed shall be taken advantage of thereafter; so, if a defendant offer, 'without prejudice,' to pay half the claim, the plaintiff must not rely on the offer as an admission of his having a right to some payment.

The rule is that nothing written or said 'without prejudice' can be considered at the trial without the consent of both parties--not even by a judge in determining whether or not there is good cause for depriving a successful litigant of costs, Walker v. Wilsher, (1889) 23 QBD 335; Hulton v. Chadwick, 35 TLR 620. There must, however, be an existing dispute for the rule to apply [Re Daintrey, (1893) 2 QB 116]. The word is also frequently used without the foregoing implications in statutes and inter partes to exclude or save transactions, acts and rights from the consequences of a stated proposition and so as to mean 'not affecting,' 'saving,' or 'excepting.'