§ 664.6.

This is the section litigators reach for to enforce a settlement without filing a new breach-of-contract lawsuit. When parties to pending litigation stipulate to settle — either in a writing signed outside court or orally before the court — subdivision (a) lets the court, on motion, enter judgment on the settlement's own terms. Alternatively, if the settling parties or their counsel so stipulate, the court can dismiss the case without prejudice and keep jurisdiction to enforce the settlement until every term is performed.

Subdivision (b) is specific about whose signature counts as the party's own: the party personally, an attorney representing the party, or — where an insurer is defending and indemnifying — an insurer-authorized agent, so long as the party wouldn't be on the hook for anything above the policy limits under the settlement. Subdivision (c) carves attorney and insurer-agent signatures out of civil harassment, Family Code, Probate Code, and juvenile or dependency matters, and subdivision (d) exposes an attorney who signs without the party's actual authorization to professional discipline, absent good cause.

Subdivision (e) adds a mechanism for conditional settlements: once a plaintiff or other party seeking relief files a notice of conditional settlement, the court can set an order to show cause, on its own motion, about dismissing the whole action without prejudice while retaining enforcement jurisdiction — though this doesn't reach class actions under § 378 or PAGA actions under Labor Code § 2698. Subdivision (f) keeps the door open after dismissal or judgment: parties can still file motions tied to the settlement — good-faith settlement determinations, lien disputes, minor's-compromise petitions, or motions to enforce unperformed terms — without paying a second first-appearance fee, and the clerk must accept those filings. Subdivision (g) confirms nothing here blocks a later dismissal with prejudice.