The Settlement Planner’s My Offers tab is the platform’s negotiation tracker. Every offer made or received gets logged with date, terms, status, and how it compares to the analysed Step 1–4 position. Over the life of the matter, the offers history becomes both a strategic record and the evidence for any future costs argument.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.rytz.com.au/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Why an offer tracker
Three jobs:Strategic memory
What did you offer in March? What did they reject in April? What did each side counter with in June? Without a tracker, the thread of negotiation becomes fuzzy.
Reasonableness evidence
Under r10.05 of the Family Law Rules and the Calderbank line, offers a party reasonably made and the other party rejected can support a costs order against the rejecting party. The tracker records offers in a form that supports these arguments.
Negotiation discipline
Logging each offer alongside the analysed position helps you avoid drifting away from your own analysis under negotiation pressure. The tracker shows you whether each offer is conservative, aligned, or aggressive against the framework.
Pattern detection
Their offer trajectory tells you something — if their offers move toward yours, you’re closing; if they’re static, the path may not be settlement.
Logging an offer
Per offer:- Direction — made by you, made by other party
- Date
- Terms — what’s being offered (asset list, property allocation, super split, lump-sum payment, ongoing arrangements)
- Status — open, rejected, accepted, expired, withdrawn
- Privilege classification — without prejudice (most common), open offer, or Calderbank
- Notes — strategic context, who proposed, any conditions
Reading the tracker
The tracker shows three views:Timeline
Chronological — every offer in order. Useful for understanding the negotiation arc.
By party
Yours vs theirs side-by-side. Useful for “where did we converge / diverge?”.
Comparison to analysed position
Each offer plotted against your Step 1–4 analysed position (Settlement Planner’s headline number). Shows visually whether each offer is conservative, aligned, or aggressive.
Open offers
Just the offers currently open with expiry dates. Useful for “what’s pending?”.
Privilege and ‘without prejudice’
Most negotiation offers are made without prejudice — meaning they are inadmissible at trial as evidence of liability or as concessions. This protects parties who make settlement offers from having those offers used against them at trial. The Family Law Rules have a specific concept — the Calderbank offer — which is a particular form of without-prejudice offer that is admissible on the question of costs (not on liability) if the offer is reasonable and not accepted. The tracker classifies every offer:- Without prejudice — default; not admissible at trial
- Open — admissible at trial
- Calderbank — without prejudice as to liability but admissible on costs
Privilege under FDR
A separate but related point: offers made during Family Dispute Resolution are confidential under section 10H of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) — meaning they cannot be repeated in court, even on the question of costs. The tracker flags FDR-context offers and excludes them from any export-to-court generated document.Costs implications under r10.05
Where one party rejects a reasonable offer and ultimately receives a worse outcome at trial, the court may make a costs order against them. The tracker supports this argument by:- Recording each offer with date and terms
- Recording acceptance or rejection
- Comparing each offer to the eventual outcome (when known)
- Producing a Calderbank-suitable letter format if the offer needs to be re-issued for costs purposes
Common offer-tracker patterns
| Pattern | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Your offers conservative, theirs aggressive | Negotiation may not produce settlement; consider escalation |
| Your offers align with analysed position, theirs significantly above | Your position is realistic; theirs is opening high |
| Both sides move toward each other over time | Settlement is approaching |
| Offers static for 60+ days | Stalemate; consider FDR or pivoting strategy |
| Their counter-offer above your previous offer | Reverse-engineering signal; their floor may be higher than expected |
Without-prejudice etiquette
A few practices:What the tracker will not do
- It will not negotiate for you. Offers and counter-offers are yours.
- It will not classify privilege automatically beyond default settings. You confirm classification at offer time.
- It will not advise on whether to accept. Acceptance decisions are strategic; the platform structures the analysis.
What’s next
Settlement Planner overview
Step back to the framework.
AI smart suggestions
AI-driven negotiation reasoning.
Strategic Planning
Wider strategy that frames negotiation choices.
Limitation periods
The deadlines that frame negotiation timing.