Rule 77.04.Offer of Judgment--Recovery of Costs.

Rule 77.04 sets up Missouri's offer-of-judgment procedure, a formal way for a party defending against a claim to put a settlement number on the table with real consequences attached. The offer must be served more than thirty days before trial begins, and it proposes that judgment be entered against the defending party for stated money, property, or other relief, plus costs accrued to that point.

The adverse party then has ten days after service to accept in writing. If accepted, either side can file the offer and the notice of acceptance with proof of service, and the court enters judgment on those terms. If ten days pass without acceptance, the offer is deemed withdrawn, and the rule makes clear that evidence of the withdrawn offer is not admissible later in the case.

The rule's real force comes into play when the offer is rejected and the case goes to judgment anyway. If the adverse party fails to obtain a judgment more favorable than what the offer proposed, that party loses its own right to recover costs incurred in the circuit court from the date of the offer forward, and it must instead pay costs from that point on. In effect, rejecting a good offer and doing no better at trial converts a party from a potential cost-recoverer into a cost-payer for the remainder of the case.

Because the rule ties consequences to a comparison between the offer and the eventual judgment, both sides have reason to think carefully before letting an offer lapse. It rewards realistic settlement offers and discourages a party from forcing a trial only to land on a result the offer already covered.