A Pierringer release or Pierringer Agreement is a type of
settlement agreement. In law, a settlement is a resolution between disputing parties about a
legal case
A legal case is in a general sense a dispute between opposing parties which may be resolved by a court, or by some equivalent legal process. A legal case is typically based on either civil or criminal law. In most legal cases there are one or mo ...
that is reached either before or after court action begins.
The origin of the case is the Wisconsin tort law case of ''Pierringer v. Hoger''.
Pierringer v. Hoger
124 N.W.2d 106, 21 Wis.2d 182 (1963)
Features
A Pierringer Release has the following features:
* the settling defendant
In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case.
Terminology varies from one jurisdi ...
’s liability is segregated
* the satisfaction of the settling defendant’s liability to the credit of all parties to the litigation
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil acti ...
* the plaintiff
A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...
’s ability to continue with the action against the remaining defendants
* the plaintiff’s agreement that it will indemnify the settling defendant for any contribution sought from it by the non-settling defendant(s).
References
Sources
* Peter B. Knapp, "Keeping the Pierringer Promise: Fair Settlements and Fair Trials," 20 William Mitchell Law Review 1 (1994)
External links
Multi-Party Settlements: Breaking the Logjam
(.pdf), Peter Cronyn & James Brown, November 2002.
Civil procedure
{{law-term-stub