As we should know, a Full and Final Release is an agreement between the parties of a dispute which results in that dispute’s finality, preventing parties from bringing further claims in the future for the same dispute.
The substance of a Full and Final Release depends upon the party drafting the Release. I have seen 5-page Releases; however, our Releases are usually a sensible 1-2 pages at most.
The purpose of our Release is to protect our clients’ interests. If you want our client’s money, you’re signing our Release. It is not up for negotiation.
Our Release puts a party on notice that the terms and conditions of the settlement, including any payments made by our client, remain strictly confidential and they are prohibited from disclosing the terms of the settlement, except for any disclosure required pursuant to any legal or financial reporting, of course.
In this day and age of social media, it is also important to include a term in the Release strictly prohibiting a party from publishing any articles or making any public statements, and disparaging our client on social media about the dispute.
Recently, I had a discussion with a Deputy Judge during a Settlement Conference who seemed annoyed by the fact that I required our Full and Final Release to be signed by the Plaintiff prior to our delivery of settlement funds to them.
The Deputy Judge felt the one sentence in the Terms of Settlement they drafted was sufficient. That sentence read:
“Provided that the terms of settlement are complied with, the above parties fully and finally release one another from all claims related to the facts and issues raised in this action.”
The Deputy Judge felt that anything beyond this sentence was “ridiculous,” because this was a Small Claims Court matter. I disagreed, respectively of course.
Settlements are supposed to remain confidential. The simple sentence within the Deputy Judge’s Terms of Settlement failed to address issues of confidentiality and the prohibition of making online, disparaging statements. What made the requirement of our Release to be signed more vital to protect our client’s interests was that the Plaintiff was self-represented.
The failure of the Deputy Judge’s Terms of Settlement to address confidentiality could result in potential damages to our client’s reputation that could exceed the realms of the Small Claims Court jurisdiction. For the record, our client did nothing wrong and the minimal settlement reached was a simple business decision to bring this matter to an end, avoiding a multiple-day Trial (which I would have loved to do) and multiple employees being required to testify.
It’s our job to advocate for our clients, even if that means annoying a Deputy Judge or two (or more), and insisting that our Release be signed was necessary.
So, if a party wants our client’s money, they will be signing our Full and Final Release before receiving those funds.