(6/9/2023) -- The state Supreme Court has issued a new rule on sanctions for failure to deliver settlement funds. Settlement funds are any form of monetary exchange to a plaintiff pursuant to an agreement of settlement.

Under the new rule, a plaintiff who does not receive settlement funds within the time required by the subdivision may seek to invalidate the agreement of settlement, or impose sanctions on the defendant. According to the explanatory comment by The Honorable R. Stanton Wettick, chair of the Civil Procedural Rules Committee, the sanction imposed includes an award of interest on the settlement funds “for the period during which the defendant has failed to deliver the funds to the plaintiff as required by the rule.” The calculation of the rate of interest is identical to the manner of calculating damages for delay pursuant to Rule 238.

A copy of the new rule may be found on the court’s Web site.