Thanks to Charles Flick, Miami litigator specializing in product liability & personal injury defense for this Tip:
Bill:
Here is my tip that you can pass on. As someone on the defense side of product liability and personal injury cases, I have found it best to always prepare, in advance of the mediation, a proposed Release and Stipulation for Dismissal. The amount of the settlement will be left blank, of course, and filled in at the end of a successful mediation.
Doing so accelerates the process of closing the case out, something which insurers and corporate defendants are always eager to do. It also reduces or eliminates debates with opposing counsel over changes to the release. Any changes required can be made at the mediation. Having settlement documents prepared in advance and executed at the mediation also tends to reduce changes of heart after a mediation. (Occasionally, an individual Plaintiff will go home and be told by a neighbor or relative that they settled too cheaply, that their lawyer sold them out, etc, and want to wiggle out of a mediated settlement.) Having a release executed at the mediation tends to reduce that possibility.