Say It LOUDER for the People in the Back! (Why You Need a Signed Settlement Agreement)

I just posted a comment on a LinkedIn post that deals with 'should have knowns'. It was ironic because I just got off the phone with a lawyer calling to tell me a client has finally realized a 'should have known' really is what it is. And, what was that?

Folks, I'm going to yell this through a bullhorn: YOU MUST GET A SIGNED SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT AT YOUR MEDIATION OR IT ISN'T SETTLED!!! Let me yell this a different way, for emFASSSSSiSSSSS (as my Latin teacher used to say): ABSENT A SIGNED SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT, YOU HAVE NO MEDIATED SETTLEMENT!!!

It's right in the rules about mediation. My office manager gave me the business two weeks ago about cleaning up my email signature that people get at the bottom of my emails, highlighted in red, with the rule numbers and everything--and the date of effect October 1, 2022. "Do you really need this? Shouldn't all of these lawyers and claims people and business clients know this already?"

They should know, and I'm also saying it again anyway and keeping it in my signature. Why? Because of calls I get just like this morning.

Get settlement agreements. Keep clients at the mediation until everything is signed. And for heaven's sake, if your mediator isn't getting signed settlement agreements on your mediated Florida cases, there are so many "SHOULD" questions that flow from that that I "should" let 'sleeping pigs fly' (a few of you may get that file reference from yore)...