§ 14.10 SETTLEMENT PRIVILEGE

• Jurisdiction: North Carolina

§ 14.10. SETTLEMENT PRIVILEGE

The Sixth Circuit recognized a privilege that would shield negotiations from third-party discovery.⁴⁰ Other courts, however, have rejected such a privilege: "Adopting a settlement privilege would require us to go further than Congress thought necessary to promote the public good of settlement, or in other words, to strike the balance differently from the one Congress has already adopted."⁴¹

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Notes:

^[40] Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Chiles Power Supply, Inc., 332 F.3d 976, 979-83 (6th Cir. 2003).

^[41] In re MSTG, Inc., 675 F.3d 1337, 1344 (Fed. Cir. 2012) ("In enacting Rule 408, Congress did not take the additional step of protecting settlement negotiations from discovery."); accord In re General Motors Corp. Engine Interchange Litigation, 594 F.2d 1106, 1124 n.20 (7th Cir. 1979).