Getting to settlement is one thing. Making it stick, protecting your position and managing the costs consequences is another. Strengthen your approach to settlement when the stakes remain high, even after the parties appear to have reached a deal. Examine what happens when settlement negotiations fall apart, when parties can be bound without signing, and how without prejudice privilege operates when a deal collapses. Sharpen your strategy around Calderbank offers and Offers of Compromise, including timing, drafting and the risks of rejecting an offer. Then get practical guidance on recovering costs following settlement, costs expert evidence, security applications and gross sum assessments. Learn from experienced practitioners and take away strategies you can apply when negotiating, documenting and resolving your next dispute.
Thursday, 4 March 2027
Chair:
Ian Upjohn KC, Chapman's List Barristers
Description
Attend and earn 3 CPD units in Substantive Law
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
4.00pm to 4.15pm Break
3.00pm to 4.00pm When the Deal Falls Over: Reopening Settlement Discussions After a Failed Settlement
- Was there ever a deal?
- Bound without signing: lessons from Papanastassis v Papanastassis [2026] VSC 302
- Heads of agreement, "subject to deed" and "without prejudice until executed": what these labels do and don't protect
- Without prejudice privilege after a collapse: when s 131 of the Evidence Act 2008 (Vic) lets your negotiations into evidence
- Back to the table: restarting negotiations without weakening your position
Presented by Alexandra Tighe, Partner, Clayton Utz
2.00pm to 3.00pm Calderbank Offers, Offers of Compromise and Costs Consequences: Getting the Strategy Right
- Calderbank offers and Offers of Compromise: the current Victorian position
- Strategic timing, wording and structure of settlement offers
- Costs consequences of rejecting reasonable offers
- Multiple offers, sequential offers and offers between multiple parties
- Assessing the risk of rejecting the other side's offer
- Practical drafting: offers that actually engage the costs regime
Presented by Nicholas Bird, Barrister, Chapman’s List Barristers
4.15pm to 5.15pm Recovering Costs After Settlement: Costs Expert Evidence, Security Applications and Gross Sum Assessments
- Recovering costs following settlement, including the practical steps from settlement to assessment and recovery
- Costs consequences arising from Calderbank offers and Offers of Compromise
- When and how costs expert evidence may assist in security for costs applications
- The role and limitations of costs expert reports in costs disputes
- Gross sum costs assessments and practical considerations in the Costs Court
Presented by Antonella Terranova, Principal, Casta Legal Costing
Presenters
Antonella Terranova, Principal, Castra Legal CostingAntonella Terranova has been in practice for 27 years. She became Principal and Director of Castra Legal Costing Pty Ltd in 2010. Antonella appears regularly in the Supreme Court and is also retained as an expert. Prior to her current role, Antonella worked in personal injury litigation. She has been a past winner of the Law Institute of Victoria (LIV) Suburban Lawyer of the Year Award and in 2021 was the recipient of the LIV Distinguished Service Award. Antonella delivers ongoing legal education, is a member of the LIV and the Chair of the Costs Law Executive Committee. She has also Chaired various Committees, including the Litigation Costs Review Committee concerning the changes to the recovery of party-party costs and has also been involved in other consultations including the Threshold Disclosure issues under the Unfirm Law and its Standard Forms; the VCAT Remuneration and Probate Filing Fees. She is a Panel Solicitor for the LIV Member Advisory Panel and has sat on the Judging Panel for the Suburban Lawyer of the Year Award. Additionally, Antonella has held the role of President of the Northern Suburbs Law Association Inc., since 2010 and together with the executive committee arranges bi-monthly CPD events, organised 3 international conferences, liaises with the LIV and promotes young lawyers and women to the profession.
Alexandra Tighe, Partner, Clayton Utz
Alex is a partner in the Dispute Resolution & Litigation Group with more than 15 years’ experience practising as a senior lawyer. Alex specialises in commercial dispute resolution, regulatory investigations and Royal Commissions. Alex is an accredited advisor with Family Business Australia and regularly works with family businesses, trusts, high net worth individuals and private clients in a range of disputes including minority shareholder claims, breach of trust and wills and estates claims. Alex is a highly proficient litigator and has been recognised by her peers as a Leading Victorian Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Lawyer in Doyle’s Guide since 2018. In 2020, 2022 and 2023, Alex was a finalist in the Lawyers Weekly Partner of the Year Awards. In 2020 Alex was named Partner of the Year – Big Law, at the Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards. Alex has also been recognised in Australasian Lawyer’s list of Elite Women and is listed in Best Lawyers for Government Practice for 2024.
Nicholas Bird, Barrister, Chapman’s List Barristers
Nicholas came to the Bar in 2019 and has acted in a broad range of commercial matters. He has experience in disputes concerning, among other things, property, corporations, building and construction, insolvency, consumer law and succession. Nicholas is a contributing author for Victorian Courts, a publication by Thomson Reuters on civil procedure issues, and is a reporter for Victorian Reports. He is a contributor to The Law Handbook, published annually by the Fitzroy Legal Service.
Ian Upjohn KC, Chapman's List Barristers
Ian Upjohn CSC KC is a barrister at Chapman’s List Barristers practising principally in commercial law, equity and trusts, and insurance, with additional experience in common law, personal injury and intentional torts. He was admitted to practice in Victoria in 1992, signed the Victorian Bar Roll in 1993 and was appointed Silk in 2014. Alongside his legal career, Ian served in the Australian Army Reserve. He commanded the 4th/19th Prince of Wales’s Light Horse Regiment and was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross in the 2007 Queen’s Birthday Honours for outstanding achievement as its Commanding Officer. He subsequently commanded Australian soldiers in the Solomon Islands and, in 2011, was appointed an Honorary Aide de Camp to the Governor of Victoria. Ian holds honours degrees in Law and Arts from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Laws from the University of London
