California C&R Settelment Opinion/Advice

[mia walles]

Jurisdiction

California

can a defendant's attorney reserve the right to subpoena or depose me after i signed a C&R settlement?
i am the employee and have been offered a draft of a C&R settlement for my workers compensation case ( in CA), in it the defendants attorney stated that "AS AN EXPRESS CONDITION OF THIS SETTLEMENT, APPLICANT AGREES TO MAKE HERSELF AVAILABLE, IF REQUESTED BY NOTICE FROM OR BY SUBPOENA ISSUED ON BEHALF OF A PARTY TO THE CONTRIBUTION PROCEEDINGS, FOR ANY FURTHER PROCEEDINGS RELATED TO CONTRIBUTION, INCLUDING FURTHER DEPOSITION AND/OR ARBITRATION TESTIMONY AND PQME/AME MEDICAL EVALUATION, OR TRIAL TESTIMONY."

if the case is settled why would they need this clause in it? my attorney recommends i should just sign as is and cannot provide me a good explanation or reason why this is included.

any ideas or suggestions would be great.

 

[army judge]

It seems your employer might appeal your decision.

If he did, you could be subpoenaed anyway,

Be smart, stop fighting and blocking your settlement, sign the form.

If your employer appeals, or if fraud is suspected, you could still be brought back into court.

I suppose the employer's lawyer put the requirement into the settlement to make your employer think he or she did something.

Signing it won't harm you.

Refusing to sign it, will delay you being paid.

Good luck.

 

[Betty3]

It seems the settlement agreement contains that wording & you need to sign it to make the settlement effective.

 

[ElleMD]

You can always be subpoenaed. This sounds like a case with a third party lien, but it could also just be their boilerplate language. If your attorney is advising you to sign, I certainly am not going to recommend against it. Once the settlement is signed and approved, this case is done. It has no effect on any other litigation or subrogation which might be pending.