Compressibility of soils is one of the basic Engineering properties of Soils, and it mostly occurs through thernprocess of consolidation. Consolidation is a time dependent process in which expulsion of water from a soilrnmass occurs due to the application of stress on it. Consequently, there exist change in volume in the verticalrndirection of the soil mass and this difference in thickness results the settlement of the structures constructedrnabove the soil. On the other hand, degree of consolidation and extent of settlement varies with types of soils.rnTherefore, on this study an effort was made to reach the unique behaviour of residual laterite soils withrnregard to consolidation and settlement properties focusing on the western Ethiopia which is rich of such soils.rnTo achieve the intended objective of the research, papers, journals and different books have been scrutinizedrnunder literature review, samples from the research area were collected, and then laboratory tests for indexrnproperties and primary consolidation have been carried out using disturbed and undisturbed samplesrnrespectively.rnFrom the test results, it has been observed that index properties of lateritic soils greatly are affected by pretestrntreatment and manipulation, and in the case of consolidation and settlement behaviours, laterite soils atrnintermediate and high stress levels depict very similar behavior to transported soils, but at the initial phasernthe lateritic soils behave as if overconsolidated due to their cementation bond whereas transported soils showrnoverconsolidation due to the past stress history