Is there a legal term for the opposite of a “Without Prejudice” letter?
Any letter relevant to the case can be shown to the court unless it is privileged. It can only attract legal professional privilege (such as letters between client and solicitor) or privilege on the basis of it being an bone fide attempt to resolve a dispute or issue. EG: “I don’t accept I owe you anything, but I’ll offer you 50% to solve the dispute”. That is a without prejudice offer, whether the letter is headed that or not. It is not possible to hide all correspondence from the court simply by placing ‘without prejudice’ at the top of it. whether it is genuinely ‘without prejudice’ is determined by the content, not the label. All other letters (and documents) are ‘open’ in that they are open to inspection.
The correct term for the opposite of something written “without prejudice” is an “open letter”.It’s not so much that “without prejudice” means inadmissable evidence it merely allows one party to make an offer to settle but without admitting the full claim and allowing them to continue to defend the action if the offer is refused. A “without prejudice letter” needs to be headed “without prejudice”.You don’t have to label an “open letter” as open.If you are really interested in this area you could also Google “Calderbank letters” and “without prejudice save as to costs”.
