Compromise and Negioitation

Question 1

What are compromise negotiations and admissions of fact?

Answer 1

FRE 408 holds that compromise negotiations after a claim has been made is inadmissible. A filing of a suit is not a prerequisite but a claim must be made. Therefore, a party’s statement before a claim is made is generally admissible.

A statement to pay medical bills does not prove liability.
However, unlike compromise negotiations admissions of fact accompanying an offer to pay medical bills is admissible.

An offer to pay medical expenses is not admissible to prove liability for the injury due to public policy concerns. Thus, the defendant’s statement to the plaintiff that he would pay for the plaintiff’s hospital bill is inadmissible to prove liability.
A naked offer to pay medical expenses is not an admission. Furthermore, such an offer is specifically deemed inadmissible for public policy purposes.
Even if the excited utterance exception applied, the statement would still be inadmissible because it is an offer to pay medical expenses.
Whether or not the defendant actually kept his promise to pay is irrelevant to the determination of whether the offer to pay is admissible.