Why would 'without prejudice' be used on a letter?

[plainlyconfused]

I received a letter from school about some action they've taken which appears to be possibly unlawful.

Does 'without prejudice' mean that they are aware that their actions are a bit 'dodgy'? I don't understand why this would be put on a school letter. Any information/advice would be helpful.

Can you give context?

Normally without prejudice would be used to prevent a useable admission of guilt.

I work in benefits. We use it to mean that we might still prosecute you.

Essentially it means that further action might be taken and this letter doesn't affect that.

It related to an exclusion in possibly 'irregular' circumstances.

I used it yesterday when talking to another witness in a case we are giving evidence in. We are on opposite sides of the argument and we need to talk to each other but agree not to divulge the contents of our discussion to the court.

Without prejudice means that any offers you make to settle a case cannot be drawn to the attention of a judge later on. If the letter contains any admissions, those admissions might not be capable of being without prejudice, but you'd have to take legal advice on that.

A "without prejudice" letter cannot be used as evidence in a future legal case. Taken literally it means that the sender is saying whatever is in the letter without prejudicing their legal position.

But if it contains an admission of fact, that might be admissible.

If the school has imposed an unlawful exclusion, putting "Without Prejudice" on the letter doesn't make it lawful or prevent you challenging it.

When I worked in road traffic accidents recovery cases, it was used like this:

We would offer you 800 quid to settle your losses, marking the letter "Without Prejudice".

If you didn't accept, and it went to court, and we then argued that you were only entitled to 500 quid, you couldn't then wave the letter in front of judge and say that earlier we had agreed that you were entitled to 800 pounds.

If we hadn't written "Without Prejudice", then you could have brought it to the judge's attention.