Rule 68.Offer of Judgment; Payment into Court.

Rule 68 gives a party defending against a claim two ways to try to end a case on its own terms before trial. The first is an offer of judgment: more than ten days before trial begins, the defending party can serve a written offer letting judgment be entered against it for a stated sum, property, or other specified relief, plus costs accrued to that point. The other side then has ten days to accept in writing; once it does, either party can file the offer and the acceptance, and the clerk enters judgment without further proceedings.

The second tool, payment into court, is older and less common elsewhere: the defending party deposits money with the clerk on account of the claim, framing it as compensation or amends, and pleads that it owes no more than that amount or that the claimant hasn’t suffered greater damages. The claimant then chooses one of three paths — accept the tender and take judgment for costs, reject it outright, or accept it as partial payment and keep litigating only the amount of damages still owed.

Neither device works quietly in the background if it’s turned down. An offer or tender that isn’t accepted in full is treated as withdrawn: the jury never hears about it, and it can’t be used as evidence except later, when the court is deciding interest or costs. But it isn’t forgotten entirely — if the claimant eventually recovers a judgment no better than what was offered, the claimant must pay the costs that piled up after the offer was made.

Rhode Island is one of the few states that still pairs the modern offer-of-judgment mechanism with the older payment-into-court practice in the same rule, giving defending parties two distinct routes to shift the financial risk of an unreasonable refusal to settle. Turning down an offer or tender, or accepting only part of one, doesn’t use up a party’s chance to make another offer later in the case.