Rule 3.1382.Good faith settlement and dismissal

When one defendant among several settles with the plaintiff, the other defendants often want to know whether that settlement was reached in good faith, because a good-faith finding cuts off their ability to seek contribution from the settling defendant later. Getting that finding requires a motion or application asking the court to make the determination. Rule 3.1382 lets the settling party fold a second request into the same motion: dismissal of the pleading, or the part of it, that the settlement resolves.

The rule also tightens what the notice of that motion has to say. It is not enough to announce that a settlement occurred; the notice must identify each party and each pleading or portion of a pleading the settlement covers, along with the filing date of the affected pleading. That level of detail lets everyone else in a multi-party case see exactly what is being dismissed and against whom, so they can decide whether to object before the court rules.