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Final Settlement Agreement - Glover/Albrecht Class Action form

okay and hi again attorney Steve on during business and real estate lawyer welcome back to another exciting episode of ask attorney Steve and we are talking in this video about sample California mutual release and settlement agreement okay so what does that mean basically when you settle a lawsuit here's my website ask attorney Steve calm take you to my website but when you settle a lawsuit you basically the end the very end of the lawsuit you're going to have a settlement agreement okay so if you're involved in a lawsuit a business dispute real estate dispute intellectual property dispute you name it if you get to the end personal injury you get to the end there's going to be a mutual settlement agreement now sometimes it's just called a release agreement sometimes it's just called a settlement agreement you know lots of times and the kinds of works I I do you're basically looking at a mutual release that means both parties are releasing they're settling they're resolving this case once and for all so I have a sample document up on Scribd II you can find it on my website you can go to ask attorney Steve calm and just type in you know contract and basically he contract you'll come up in my search bar but let's go over here to scribd II and let's take a look at this document okay so I have it up here on the web you can download it it's free no charge bringing you the information that you need so it's free and you basically just take a look but this is kind of the sample terms you're gonna see in a mutual release and settlement agreement this is gonna be a quick and dirty overview I am NOT going to discuss all clauses that may be in there these are just some of the clauses you're likely to see okay so usually it talks about the beginning section is really just you know here's the parties here's who they are then there's a recital section you know and usually where as is the the choice of words for for lawyers don't ask what where it came from but whereas the parties have a bonafide dispute regarding bla bla bla bla bla and so what you usually want to do is like a whereas this and whereas that one two three four five whatever you want to do but to outline your dispute so you can lock in what the what the dispute was all about for other purposes so you want to be detailed about what the dispute was about okay there's a sex here where the parties continue to dispute the allegations neither one admits to anything of course you never want to admit to anything that's how these agreements go and as as you can see here in order to avoid further litigation expenses and uncertainties bla bla bla the parties agree to the following so you'll usually have a little section in there on payment you may have other terms you know sometimes cases are settled on other terms besides payments like take down the defamatory postings you know you know fix the repairs and the in the property those kinds of things so it could be all kinds of terms so you're gonna have a terms a payment section those kinds of things you're going to put insert your mailing address where the checks should be mailed to when it should be mailed to you I think five business days is a reasonable time so but that may may differ and these terms are all negotiable these are the terms that the parties negotiate okay so you may find a little section on tax reporting you may find something about both parties being represented by counsel where this is important is because the usual general rule in California anyway we practice in California in Arizona is that ambiguities in a contract are going to be construed against the drafting party okay that's the general rules you can't tell what's going on vague and ambiguous terms construed against the drafting party if both parties are represented by counsel or have a chance to be represented by counsel then you can agree that in debt no ambiguities as it says no ambiguities shall be construed against either party so that's what you want in case there's a dispute that arises later usually upon execution of settlement agreement lots of times parties are gonna bare their own costs and attorney fees again negotiable lots of times you're gonna see a confidentiality clause parties agree to maintain the conditions confidentially unless there needs to be a lawsuit a subpoena reporting you know those kinds of things so confidentiality is usually part of it non-disparagement also usually a part of it don't say anything negative about me and I won't say anything negative about you in a nutshell again no admission nobody's admitting anything here choice-of-law form you may say well you know if there's a dispute this this dispute will be heard in in regards to the settlement getting the pain in this and that you know pick a court that will retain jurisdiction could be County of Orange Los Angeles San Francisco if you're in Arizona could be Maricopa County Arizona and so forth and so on so you want to just put in a little choice of law form severability this is something that you'll see basically while this means is if any portion of this agreement is void or invalid against public policy whatever whatever then the rest of the contract will remain in effect so it's one of those things binding effect the agreement shall be binding upon beneficiaries heirs Gardens successors assigns all kinds of thing you can sell these wonderful words we use so I'm not gonna go into detail take up your time on that but the binding effect of this agreement on your your your successors and assigns and whatnot now this is a big clause that's real important when people do their own contracts they always forget to put this many times but it's called a merger clause this is what you learn in law school merger clause basically you're saying that everything that we've agreed to you may have you may end up going back and forth with your opponent for two hours two days two months you know it's six months entering into a settlement agreement but all this merger Clause says is everything that we talked about all our terms are contained in this final agreement if it's not in here it's not admissible it's not it's not something that we're gonna be bound by so you have this what we call the merger closet I'd love that I just love the name of that I don't know why the merger clause do you have a merger clause in there and if not you know you may have a situation where if there's a dispute the parties can go into court and say that's not what this meant you know he told me he was gonna do that they said they were gonna do this the company was supposed to do that so forth and so on okay so a merger Clause very important you got your counterparts you know really that's very simple all that means is I can sign and fax this over to you you can sign a fax one over me the copies will be deemed original so it's all good we put the parts together and we got a contract so that's really all that is nice to have and there are amendments any agreement to this may only be modified in writing that's usually a standard clause you don't want any oral modifications of anything going on here headings all you're saying here is lots of different headings you know you can see 13 14 15 16 they're just saying the headings are for reference only does it doesn't you know shall not be used to interpret or construe the language of the terms and conditions so this agreed so you have a little headings Clause mean this is in case there's a problem over interpretation of the settlement agreement at some future date okay you have time times of the essence you know let's get it done kind of thing the things in here have to get done waiver of the Civil Code section 1542 this is a big one we wrote a good blog on this if you're wondering how to bust a 1542 clause it's not easy usually these things are pretty firm but I wrote a blog on some of the grounds where these clauses have been busted so to speak but basically all these are gonna do is release all your claims known now known will exist in the future anything bla bla bla so if you're entering in a settlement agreement the parties want to buy their piece they do not want to be bound by some future litigation that pops up because you say hey wait a second I forgot to sue you for this so the 1542 clause usually those are highly enforceable however you got to look closely at those you need to get the statutory language in there you can check out my free document in here take a look at that okay so that is your 1542 waiver very important and really just an execution section now don't like I said keep in mind there's lots of other clauses that you might want to put in here just it really depends on what type of dispute you're litigating or arbitrating or if it's a mediation and you're settling your case following a mediation so you want to just make sure you're if you don't know what you're doing that you're hiring counsel getting a good firm like ours litigation real estate firm and getting them in there making sure that you're buttoning up your rights okay then there's an execution section you sign it date it you say if you're the president of the company so forth and so on and then sometimes not in this one but sometimes you'll get these signatures notarized so you can lock those signatures down so that people can't say that wasn't my signature so you want to lock it down okay so that's a real quick basic dirty overview of what you're looking at when you're entering into a mutual release and settlement agreement this is attorney Steve and you need legal help find out more information about our services at ask attorney Steve comm don't be afraid to download this document get me from seven views which is pretty lame but I just uploaded it so I'm hoping for greater success and yeah find us a task attorney Steve comm feel free to share this video on your social media networks we appreciate your followship and you can find out more I had an attorney Steve videos our main YouTube channel we hope you subscribe ok have a great day thanks a lot