Div 8Evidence of settlement negotiations

Division 8—Evidence of settlement negotiations 67C—Exclusion of evidence of settlement negotiations (1) Subject to this section, evidence of a communication made in connection with an attempt to negotiate the settlement of a civil dispute, or of a document prepared in connection with such an attempt, is not admissible in any civil or criminal proceedings. (2) Such evidence is, however, admissible if— (a) the parties to the dispute consent; or (b) the substance of the evidence has been disclosed with the express or implied consent of the parties to the dispute; or (c) the substance of the evidence has been partly disclosed with the express or implied consent of the parties to the dispute, and full disclosure of the evidence is reasonably necessary to— (i) enable a proper understanding of the other evidence that has already been adduced; or (ii) avoid unfairness to any of the parties to the dispute; or (d) the communication or document included a statement to the effect that it was not to be treated as confidential; or (e) the proceeding in which the evidence is to be adduced is a proceeding to enforce an agreement for the settlement of the dispute or a proceeding in which the making of such an agreement is in issue; or (f) the evidence tends to contradict or to qualify evidence that has already been admitted about the course of an attempt to settle the dispute; or (g) the making of the communication, or the preparation of the document, affects the rights of a party to the dispute; or (h) the communication was made, or the document was prepared, in furtherance of— (i) the commission of a fraud or an offence; or (ii) the doing of an act that renders a person liable to a civil penalty; or (iii) the abuse of a statutory power. (3) Subsection (1) does not apply to parts of a document that do not concern attempts to negotiate a settlement of a dispute, if it would not be misleading to adduce evidence of only those parts of the document.