Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

You don't have time for settlement with the statute of limitations running in 10 days. Get your paperwork together and file a lawsuit now!

You can make a settlement offer for any time period you want.

However, that does NOT extend the statute of limitations and if you are ten days from the expiration of the statute of limitations, you should file your all necessary papers with the court immediately. Failure to timely file your necessary paperwork with the the court will bar your claims forever.

Don't delay a minute--get the lawsuit filed!

You are thinking of an offer made under section 998 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Those must remain open for 30 days, but that only applies to offers to settle litigation that is already ongoing. I agree with the other answers that there is NO reason to give ANY settlement before filing suit. You will have at least 60 days to serve them with the suit once you file it, and saying "I have filed suit, but I will dismiss it without even serving you if we can settle" is actually a perfectly valid negotiation option.

I generally agree with Messrs. Roach, Glen and McCormick.

Note that, if this is a medical malpractice case, you have to notify the defendants and the appropriate medical board of your intent to due at least 90 days before you file your lawsuit. (See Code of Civil Procedure sections 364, 364.1, and 365.) That notice does not have to include a settlement proposal, but most do. When that notice is served less than 90 days before the limitations period runs out, the deadline is extended to the 90th day after the notice is served. Be careful, though; calculating these dates is much more complicated than my brief explanation suggests. There are many technicalities, and I can't begin to explain them here. Calculating them incorrectly could doom your case.

I'd also like to note that the procedure Mr. McCormick describes under Code of Civil Procedure section 998 is only available after a complaint has been filed and the defendant has answered. More to the point, the statute does not actually require you to keep the offer open for thirty days. A 998 offer can be rescinded or revoked at any time. But section 998 provides certain benefits (like a greater likelihood of recovering various costs) to the party that makes the offer as long as it remains open for at least thirty days. The party is allowed to withdraw the offer before then, but she will lose the benefits if she does.