Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: I am in middle of law suit

I highly suggest that you have an attorney draft the settlement agreement for you. Settlement agreements are extremely important documents which may or may not cause you problems in the future. If you get a "canned" settlement agreement the agreement will not be specific to your situation and will not include many legal clauses that should be in there and may contain other clauses that should not be in there. As a laymen you may read over the canned settlement agreement (if you find one) and say to yourself that this clause looks good etc etc when you do not know all of the legal nuances and consequences of the clause you leave in the agreement and as stated you will almost certainly not have some important clauses in the agreement. A lawyer should not charge much to prepare this agreement for you and you would be well advised to have an attorney prepare it.

If you would like representation so that a qualified attorney can prepare your settlement agreement then please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for your question.

Re: I am in middle of law suit

If you were the plaintiff, you need to file, and have served, a Notice of Settlement (CM-200), a Request for Dismissal (CIV-110), and finally a Notice of Entry of Dismissal (CIV-120) with the court. These are Judicial Council forms, available from the court clerk in most counties. Read all the instructions on the forms. They are not settlement agreements. Get a signed settlement agreement with the defendants BEFORE filing any of these forms.

Actually, most settlement agreements are lawyer-drafted and are a blend of boilerplate provisions from the lawyer's word processor files and newly-written, case-specific language describing the case that's being settled, what the defendant agrees to give in settlement, what the plaintiff will then do to wind up the case, and reciprocal release clauses.

I would be leery of any pre-printed or off-the-shelf forms. There would be too much inapplicable language, but more important, stuff that should be in there would be omitted.

You might ask the defendant's lawyer to provide a draft settlement agreement for your review. That would spare you the major drafting effort, leaving you only to read the other side's proposed language very carefully to find everything that needs editing. I believe every settlement agreement should contain an attorney fee clause allowing a non-breaching party to recover fees if necessary to sue the other for breach of the settlement. The settlement agreement should be made expressly subject to enforcement under Code of Civil Procedure section 664.6.

Re: I am in middle of law suit

You will be well advised to have an attorney prepare and draft any release based on the circumstances of the case and settlement. You will surely overlook some key issues if you use a form or prepare one yourself.