> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://vaquill.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Settlement Negotiation Memo
> BATNA, ZOPA, and decision-tree analysis with comparable settlements sourced from public court records, never invented
**Best for:** mid-case settlement analysis, post-discovery and pre-trial, where the partner wants a defensible BATNA, ZOPA, and counter-offer memo with verifiable comparables and a decision tree they can stress-test in the room.
Includes per-claim probability analysis, a damages model with record citations, expected value at trial, a reservation price, a recommended counter-offer with talking points, and ranked comparable settlements drawn from public court records.
Every comparable's dollar figure is tied to a primary source, a 10-Q or a settlement-approval order, or is explicitly marked "Confidential, amount not public". No invented dollar figures.
| | |
| -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Category | Litigation |
| Jurisdiction | US |
| Practice areas | Litigation, civil, commercial, employment, personal injury, IP litigation |
| Runtime | 5-20 minutes |
## What you need
| Slot | Required | Count | What goes in it |
| --------------- | -------- | ----- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Case record** | No | 0-500 | Documents the memo should cite for probability and damages grounding. The complaint is effectively required; expert reports and key discovery responses are strongly recommended. |
## Inputs
| Field | Type | Required | What it changes |
| ----------------------------------- | --------- | -------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Matter / case | Text | No | Memo title. |
| Case caption | Long text | No | Parties and court. |
| **Primary claim type** | Select | **Yes** | Employment discrimination, employment retaliation, wage and hour, breach of contract, fraud, personal injury, IP infringement, antitrust, securities, products liability, consumer protection. Drives comparable-settlement retrieval. Pick the dominant claim if there are several. |
| **Matter facts** | Long text | **Yes** | Two to five sentences. |
| Opposing party's latest offer (USD) | Text | No | Numeric. Drives the ZOPA estimate. |
| Prior offers history | Long text | No | The negotiation to date. |
| Remaining cost to trial (USD) | Text | No | Remaining attorney fees, experts, and depositions. Feeds the expected-value comparison. |
| **Client risk tolerance (1-5)** | Select | **Yes** | 1 is very risk-averse and settle-leaning, 5 is trial-ready. Drives the risk adjustment on the reservation price. |
| Settlement authority cap (USD) | Text | No | The maximum the client has authorized. |
| Court | Text | No | A court code if you want comparables narrowed to one district. |
| Comparable filed-after date | Date | No | Restricts comparables to recent matters. Defaults to 1 January 2020. |
| Additional comparable keywords | Text | No | Extra search terms ANDed with the claim-type keywords. |
## How it runs
Reads the uploaded record for the facts, claims, and damages evidence the analysis needs to cite.
Searches public court records for comparable settlements matching the claim type, court, date window, and any extra keywords, then ranks them.
Builds the BATNA, the decision tree, the reservation price, and the recommended counter-offer, adjusted for the client's risk tolerance.
Writes the memo, the comparables workbook, the decision-tree worksheet, and the citations appendix.
## What you get
| Artifact | Format | Contents |
| ---------------------------------- | ------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **BATNA / Settlement Memo** | DOCX | Per-claim probability with element-by-element rationale, damages model with record citations, rolled-back expected value at trial, reservation price, estimated ZOPA, recommended counter-offer with non-monetary asks, talking points, and the risks of not settling. |
| **Comparable Settlements** | XLSX | Ranked comparables from public records. Every dollar amount is tied to a primary source or labeled confidential. |
| **Decision Tree Worksheet** | DOCX | Branch-by-branch tree you can stress-test live: probability of liability at each branch, damages distribution, settle-versus-try expected value. |
| **Citations and Authorities Used** | DOCX | Deduplicated authority appendix. |
## What this will not do
* Negotiate the settlement. The memo prepares the analysis; you run the negotiation.
* Replace partner review of the probability assignments. AI-assigned probabilities are a starting point for human calibration, not an answer.
* Find non-public settlement amounts. It labels them confidential rather than guessing.
* Predict opposing counsel's strategy or the mediator's framing.
* Substitute for structured verdict-data subscriptions such as VerdictSearch or Lex Machina in sectors where their data beats docket inference.
## Related
The underlying case-law surface the comparables come from.
For the pre-litigation stage before any of this applies.