Focus on Litigation: Settlements

In the Sultanate of Oman, as in other jurisdictions, not every litigation matter proceeds all the way to a decision by the Court. What happens if the parties to an Omani court case reach a settlement in the middle of the litigation process?

Sadly, this rarely happens in Oman, primarily because the Omani system has no concept of “without prejudice” negotiations. Furthermore, the fact that the losing party does not have to pay the winner’s legal fees is another reason why Omani court cases often go the full distance to a Supreme Court judgment.

However, settlements can and do occur. The settlement is normally recorded in full detail in a settlement agreement which is in Arabic and signed by the parties. The respective lawyers of the litigant parties normally present the settlement agreement to the Court, and ask the latter to adopt the agreement as the terms of a “settlement judgment” between the parties. This means that the Court gives a judgment, stating that the parties have settled the dispute on the terms stated in the settlement agreement.

In this way, the terms of the settlement agreement become part of the actual text of the Court judgment. The result is that, if one party then breaches the settlement agreement, the innocent party can apply to the Enforcement Department to enforce the terms of the settlement agreement.

It also should be noted that the above mechanism requires that the advocates for both sides be in possession of powers of attorney from their respective clients which empower them to settle the dispute. This is necessary in order to make the request to the Court to adopt the agreement as the terms of a “settlement judgment.”