Rule 2:408.COMPROMISE OFFERS AND CONDUCT OR STATEMENTS DURING NEGOTIATIONS.

Settlement talks work only if parties can speak candidly without fear that every concession becomes evidence later. Rule 2:408 protects that candor. Subdivision (a) bars evidence, offered by any party in a civil case, of furnishing, promising, or offering valuable consideration to compromise a claim — or accepting, promising to accept, or offering to accept it — along with conduct or statements made during the negotiations themselves. That evidence cannot be used to prove or disprove the validity or amount of the disputed claim, and it cannot be used to impeach a witness through a prior inconsistent statement or by contradiction.

Subdivision (b) keeps the exclusion from becoming a blanket shield. A court can admit compromise evidence for a purpose other than the ones subdivision (a) bars — proving a witness’s bias or prejudice, for example, or negating a contention that a party unreasonably delayed the case. The evidence is barred only from the specific uses the rule lists, not from every use imaginable.

Subdivision (c) protects evidence that existed before the negotiations started. A document or electronic communication that would otherwise be admissible does not become inadmissible just because a party disclosed, produced, or discussed it during compromise talks. Parties cannot turn pre-existing, otherwise-admissible evidence into inadmissible evidence by the accident of mentioning it while trying to settle.