Settlement Terms Drafter

Settlement Terms Drafter

Purpose

Turn the settlement actually reached into an executable instrument with no hidden gaps between commercial agreement, closing steps, release, and disposal of proceedings.

Required inputs

Obtain:

• every settling party's exact legal identity, capacity, signatory authority, and advisers;
• the disputes, claims, contracts, proceedings, awards, or notices within scope;
• the agreed commercial terms and points expressly left open;
• payment, performance, security, tax, confidentiality, announcement, and timing details;
• intended release scope, preserved claims, third-party effects, and costs allocation;
• governing law, forum, settlement process, mediator or conciliator role, and intended legal status; and
• execution method, conditions precedent, approvals, filing, registration, stamping, or court disposal required.

Treat party identity, agreed consideration, release perimeter, conditions, and intended binding point as blocking. Do not fill a material open term with a supposed market default.

Method

1. Create a settlement ledger before drafting: agreed term, source or confirmation, responsible party, deadline, dependency, evidence of completion, consequence of failure, and unresolved instruction.
2. Define the settlement perimeter precisely. Identify released claims, unknown or future claims if authorised, preserved rights, affected contracts, affiliates, officers, insurers, guarantors, and non-parties. Do not use full and final as a substitute for this analysis.
3. State when binding effect begins: signature, last signature, mediator authentication, payment, approval, court order, or another condition. Separate formation from later completion obligations.
4. Draft payment mechanics completely: amount, currency, tax or withholding treatment, invoice, destination, instalments, dates, banking costs, interest, security, escrow, early payment, and receipt evidence.
5. Draft non-monetary performance with objective completion criteria, responsible persons, access, documents, delivery method, cooperation, verification, and long-stop dates.
6. Sequence proceedings and releases. Decide whether withdrawal, consent disposal, satisfaction, discontinuance, return of security, or release occurs before, simultaneously with, or after performance. Protect each side against an unsecured sequencing gap.
7. Draft default consequences proportionately: notice, cure, acceleration, interest, security enforcement, revival or preservation of claims, agreed judgment or consent order where lawful, costs, and forum. Check penalties and enforceability under the governing law.
8. Address admissions, confidentiality, permitted disclosures, compelled disclosure, announcements, non-disparagement, references, data or document return, and survival. Make exceptions workable for advisers, regulators, tax, audit, insurers, and enforcement.
9. Address authority, representations limited to settlement mechanics, no reliance if agreed, costs, tax responsibility, third-party rights, assignment, variation, waiver, severability, entire agreement, counterparts, electronic signatures, and notices.
10. Verify the intended statutory status. Check whether the settlement needs mediator authentication, registration, court recording, an arbitral consent award, stamping, notarisation, or another formality. Do not state that it has award or decree status without the applicable legal basis.
11. Run cross-document, arithmetic, date, defined-term, signature-block, release, and closing-sequence checks.

Output

Produce:

1. Settlement agreement or consent terms, in the requested form.
2. Closing checklist — action, party, deadline, dependency, and completion evidence.
3. Proceedings-disposal checklist.
4. Open-issues schedule, separating essential terms from drafting choices.
5. Verification note — authority, tax, stamp, registration, mediator authentication, court or tribunal steps, and local execution requirements.

Guardrails

• Do not broaden the release, confidentiality duty, admission, indemnity, or default remedy beyond the recorded agreement.
• Do not make a non-party release claims or assume obligations without authority and consideration analysis.
• Do not draft impossible dates, circular conditions, unsecured sequencing, or contradictory revival and release provisions.
• Do not state that tax, stamp duty, registration, enforceability, or consent-award treatment is settled without current jurisdiction-specific verification.
• Preserve mediator and caucus confidentiality; include only agreed terms, not confidential explanations of how agreement was reached.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: rohasnagpal
• Source: rohasnagpal/legal-ai-skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.