Deal or No Deal ? Oral Agreement in Florida Court is an Enforceable Settlement Agreement

Watch out what you say –and agree to — in court, you Palm Beach estate beneficiaries. If you are involved in Palm Beach probate litigation or even a Palm Beach probate that doesn’t have an inheritance lawsuit yet, don’t think that just because “something isn’t in writing” means that an agreement is not enforceable.  This April 4, 2014 case from Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeal stands for the proposition that ” a deal is a deal“–even when the agreement is oral & in open court.   This is a good case for those estate beneficiaries and family members and heirs at law who want to “Monday morning quarterback” or re-neg on what they previously agree to.  You can’t agree to a deal in a court on a Monday, and then deny it on a Tuesday.

Written Settlement Agreements in Probate Disputes

• Lots of probate disputes end in resolution — settlement or some type of deal
• Sometimes a settlement resolves all estate issues or maybe just some
• Many times before a Palm Beach inheritance lawsuit goes to trial, the parties are ordered to attend mediation
• The personal representative of an estate, a trustee of a revocable trust, or beneficiaries may enter into a written settlement agreement

Florida Law on Agreements in Court

• But sometimes the parties don’t agree at mediation and they go to trial
• I had a case set for trial and — on the first day of the probate trial in the Delray Beach courthouse — the parties settled
• The parties put the settlement agreement on the record — in front of the Probate Court judge in Delray Beach and in front of a court reporter who produced a transcript of the hearing — and the agreement
• If you agree to something in court, it’s as good as if it were in writing.

Tricky Points Of Oral Agreements in Court

• “an oral agreement that is announced to the trial court is considered a fully enforceable settlement agreement.”
• to be enforceable, the settlement agreement must be mutually agreeable
• on EVERY essential element
• the party seeking to later enforce the oral settlement agreement reached in court has the burden to prove the mutual reciprocal agreement to each and every term

To read the case, which is not a probate case but is a family law case, see Fritz v. Fritz, 39 Florida Law Weekly D 715, Florida’s 2nd  District Court of Appeal, Case 2D13-2746.