Tomlin order
A court order that records a settlement agreement and makes it enforceable without revealing its terms publicly.
Definition
A Tomlin order is a form of consent order used in England and Wales to record the settlement of court proceedings. The order stays the proceedings on agreed terms scheduled to the order. Because the terms are in a schedule — not the order itself — they do not appear on the public court record. If one party later breaches the terms, the other can apply to enforce them without starting a new action.
In practice
If you reach a settlement and want it to be confidential and court-enforceable, ask for a Tomlin order rather than simply discontinuing the claim. Discontinuance alone does not give you an easy enforcement route if the other side defaults.