Pierringer release

A Pierringer release or "Pierringer Agreement", a species of Settlement Agreement, has the following features:

• the settling defendant’s liability is segregated
• the satisfaction of the settling defendant’s liability to the credit of all parties to the litigation
• the plaintiff’s ability to continue with the action against the remaining defendants
• the plaintiff’s agreement that it will indemnify the settling defendant for any contribution sought from it by the non-settling defendant(s).

The origin of the case is Pierringer v. Hogan, 124 N.W.2d 106, 21 Wis.2d 182 (1963).

References

• Multi-Party Settlements: Breaking the Logjam (.pdf), Peter Cronyn & James Brown, November 2002.
• Peter B. Knapp, "Keeping the Pierringer Promise: Fair Settlements and Fair Trials," 20 William Mitchell Law Review 1 (1994)