Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

Re: cash settlement between both parties in auto incident

You are welcome for the response, and I will give you a very general answer.

The problem is that I am giving a significant amount of time to Law Guru pro bono, and refuse to research or spend an inordinate amount of time. Don't forget, that with lawyers, as with doctors, you are getting many years of experience in each answer, and paying clients pay hundreds of dollars per hour for that knowledge and experience.

A full release and a 1542 waiver may be separate, because the 1542 problem may not be something that the parties are aware of when they sign the general release.

They are separate forms, and may be available in template form. Frankly, I don't know, and my paralegal and secretary don't know, because I didn't ask them.

Unless you make a career of signing releases after an accident (I am 69 yrs, old, and it hasn't occurred in my life), I don't know why you'd keep a "couple" in the glove compartment.

You sound like a law student trying to outfox a sharp professor.

Re: cash settlement between both parties in auto incident

The party obtaining the release should be the person paying cash. It protects that party from a later lawsuit or claim based upon the same incident. The 1542 waiver protects that person from an inventive claim that a creative lawywer or litigant mae come up with later. The document must state the absolute release of all liabilities for any and every claim, quote Section 1542 of the Civil Code and explicitly state the that person signing the release waives the protection of that section. There is no "form." Any document that does these things will do. The glove compartment issue, is I think, not an issue since this would not typically be done at the scene of an accident.