Settlement Agreement and Release

Summary

This template is a settlement agreement and release that may be used in a federal district court case. This template includes practical guidance, drafting notes, and alternate and optional clauses. When drafting or reviewing the agreement, try to address all the issues about the settlement terms and eliminate any ambiguity. For example, specify deadlines for making settlement payments. The agreement should list the rights, claims, obligations, or interests that will be released in the settlement as well as any claims or obligations that are not part of the settlement. For a full listing of key content covering fundamental civil litigation tasks throughout a federal court litigation lifecycle, see Civil Litigation Fundamentals Resource Kit (Federal). For more on settlement agreements, see Settlement Fundamentals and Tactics (Federal), Settlement: Drafting a Settlement Agreement Checklist (Federal), and Settlement: Reviewing a Settlement Agreement Checklist (Federal).