When your compensation claim settles the insurer will require you to sign a document called a ‘Release’. This can also be called a Discharge. It will be an implied or expressed term of any settlement that you sign the Release.
Your lawyer should fully advise you on the Release, its terms, and the meaning and effect of the Release.
Settling Your Personal Damages Claim
When you settle your Queensland personal injury compensation claim you are essentially selling your claim to the insurer in return for receiving a lump sum of money. In other words, you own your claim and the insurer is buying it, by paying money to you on certain conditions.
Generally, the idea of a Release is that it finishes your claim once and for all, and for all time. You cannot make any further claims and you are indemnifying the insurer and discharging the insurer from its obligations to you.
Some Releases have a confidentiality clause in them stopping you from talking to anyone about your claim and the settlement and how much money you received.
Almost every Release has a clause in it that the settlement and payment of money are made without any admission of liability.
The Release is a very important document and your lawyer should advise you fully on it and what it means to you.