The 2009 schedule includesxxxAs any lawyer or hearing officer will attest, it is almost always better to settle a
case than to go to hearing. There are several reasons for this. First, it avoids the
delay, expense, uncertainty and emotional strain associated with a hearing.
Second, hearing officers are relatively limited with respect to the types of relief
that they can order, while there is much more flexibility to craft a remedy in a
settlement agreement.

However, there are few agreements that are more legally complex than a settlement
agreement. While a well crafted settlement agreement can be very effective in
resolving disputes and allowing the parties to move forward, a poorly crafted
agreement can create new problems and sometimes give rise to even more
litigation. The purpose of this article is to explain how a settlement agreement is
structured, the meaning and purpose of the legal boilerplate that most settlement
agreements contain, and to point out some common pitfalls to avoid.

Steve Wyner and Marcie Tiffany have provided a sample settlement agreement at:
http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/art/wynerandtiffany.settlementagreement.pdf. For convenience, the different sections of the Sample Settlement Agreement discussed are indicated by bold capital letters in brackets, which correspond to the bold, bracketed items in the Sample Settlement Agreement. Each specific paragraph of the Sample Settlement Agreement is also referenced and explained.

They have provided a companion article that explains the basis and importance of each clause in the Settlement Agreement. Be sure to print both the Settlement Agreement and the article, and have both beside each other as you read and understand each section. The link to the explanation about the Settlement Agreements is at: http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/art/wynerandtiffany.settlementagreementarticle.pdf. 

About the Authors

Steven Wyner is a partner in the law firm of Wyner & Tiffany. In 1988, he began advocating for the special education needs of his oldest son, involving him in extensive legal research and analysis of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA"), the California Education Code, and federal and state law regulations promulgated under such laws. In 1993 he opened his own law office, focusing on special education law. Since then he has represented hundreds of children and their families in connection with various special education issues in litigation before the California Special Education Hearing Office, the federal district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. Wyner graduated King Hall Law School at the University of California, Davis in June 1977, where he was named a member of the Order of the Coif and served as an Editor on the Law Review. He served as a law clerk for the Honorable William P. Gray, United States District Court Judge. He received an LL.M. from New York University in 1981. He practiced law at various law firms including Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue and Wyman, Bautzer, Rothman, Kuchel & Silbert, and as a sole practitioner, before forming the firm of Wyner & Tiffany in February 2003.

Marcy J.K. Tiffany is a partner in the law firm of Wyner & Tiffany. Ms. Tiffany is a seasoned litigator who successfully argued on behalf of the FTC before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Indiana Federation of Dentists v. FTC, 476 U.S. 447 (1986), and has also appeared before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in numerous cases in federal district court cases and in administrative due process hearings.

Before developing her practice in special education law, Ms. Tiffany was a community/parent activist on behalf of special needs children, and helped form the Palos Verdes Parents Coalition to provide education and support for parents of special needs students in her local community. Prior to forming Wyner & Tiffany in February 2003, Ms. Tiffany practiced special education law as a sole practitioner.

Ms. Tiffany graduated from UCLA Law School in 1977, where she was named a member of the Order of the Coif and served as an editor on the Law Review. She received a M.A. in Economics from UCLA in 1978. She clerked for the Hon. Marianna Pfaelzer, USDC, Central District, California and for the Hon. Abner Mikva, USCA, D.C. Circuit.

She has served in various government positions including: Antitrust Counsel and Chief Economist to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Acting General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission, Director of the Los Angeles Regional Office of the Federal Trade Commission, and United States Trustee for the Central District of California. She also practiced law at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, in Los Angeles, and at Hughes, Hubbard and Reed, in Washington D.C., and served as General Counsel of Hughes Electronics.

Wyner and Tiffany Cases and Settlements

This California Firm was involved in the landmark case Draper v. Atlanta GA Schools case in Which ...(add a very short summary) URL's for more about Draper are on the Wrightslaw at: (add several links.)

The firm is also known for a 6.7 Million Dollar Settlement Agreement against the Manhattan Beach Unified School District and the California Department of Education. URL's for more about Porter v. Manhattan Beach and the California DOE settlement, go to: (and then add several of the links to that case.)

Future Settlement Agreements

As we receive more Settlement Agreements from Wyner and Tiffany and other attorneys, we will post links to them on this webpage. (If you have one for our readers, please feel free to forward it to Wrightslaw. If names of parties are confidential, or the terms of the Settlement Agreement are confidential, please remove / redact / black out names of the parties and other identifying information. 

xxxthe following programs:

April 2, 2009: West Boylston (Worcester/Greater Boston Area), MA - Special Education Law and Advocacy Training sponsored by The Autism Resource Center of Central Massachusetts. Speaker: Pete Wright.

April 18, 2009: Bradenton, FL - Special Education Law and Advocacy Training sponsored by the Family Network on Disabilities of Manatee/Sarasota, Inc. Speaker: Wayne Steedman.

April 30, 2009: Bethlehem (Allentown Area), PA - Special Education Law and Advocacy Training sponsored by The Arc of Lehigh and Northampton Counties, Inc. Speaker: Pete Wright.

May 2, 2009: Chicago, IL - IDEA 2004 and NCLB: What You Don't Know CAN Hurt You! sponsored by DisabilityGoTo, Inc. Speaker: Wayne Steedman.

May 29-30, 2009: Maui, Hawai'i - Special Education Law and Advocacy Boot Camp sponsored by Autism Bridges Maui. Speakers: Pete and Pam Wright.

July 30, 2009: Dobbs Ferry (Southern Westchester County), NY - Special Education Law and Advocacy Training sponsored by The Children's Hearing Institute. Speaker: Pete Wright.

October 16-17, 2009: Virginia Beach, VA - Speaker Pete Wright.

October 29, 2009: Portland, OR - Special Education Law and Advocacy Training sponsored by the Autism Society of Oregon. Speaker: Pete Wright.

November 5, 2009: Northern VA - Special Education Law and Advocacy Training sponsored by the Autism Society of America Northern Virginia Chapter. Speaker: Pete Wright.

November 13-14, 2009: Long Island, NY - Special Education Law and Advocacy Boot Camp sponsored by The Elija Foundation. Speakers: Pete and Pam Wright.

December 3, 2009: Oklahoma City, OK - Special Education Law and Advocacy Training sponsored by the Oklahoma Disability Law Center. Speaker: Pete Wright.

The 2010 schedule includes the following program:

March 18, 2010: Bakersfield, CA - Special Education Law and Advocacy Training sponsored by H.E.A.R.T.S. Connection. Speaker: Pete Wright.

What People Are Saying . . .

"What a marvelous conference! I often leave sped presentations angry and/or guilty because of all the things that were done or not done. This time I left encouraged, inspired and armed!" - Melissa from MD

"Thank you for sharing so much incredible information, and for sharing yourselves. I enjoyed your complimentary styles of getting information to your audience. You truly seem to be a Ying and Yang combo." - Barb from CT

"Your boot camp was the most useful CLE I've ever attended. CLEs are notoriously boring and unpleasant. Your program was neither and I learned a lot, even as an experienced practitioner in the field." - Rob Mead, KU Wheat Law Library

"I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation. Your delivery was so engaging that I lost all track of time. You gave me a great boost. Thank you for an enlightening and stimulating presentation!" - Marie from FL

"THANK-YOU so much for the opportunity to learn such invaluable information this past weekend. It was the BEST!"

"As a high school counselor, I am often not 'in the loop' as I need to be so this information was particularly valuable to me. When I came back, I started to review records and translate data into percentiles -- which made things very, very clear to me. Thanks so much!"

"I recently attended your Bootcamp. Thank you a million times over for giving me information that I am now utilizing in child study meetings that I attend as an advocate."

More testimonials and comments

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A Note About IDEA Reauthorization

The federal regulations for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 went into effect in August, 2006. Wrightslaw programs explain key changes in IDEA 2004 and the regs.

In most of our training programs, we generally use Wrightslaw: Special Education Law, 2nd Edition, Wrightslaw: No Child Left Behind, and Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy, 2nd Edition.

Programs related to the law include the history of special education law, changes in the legal requirements for evaluations, reevaluations, IEPs, and IEP team meetings. Programs also include new procedural requirements in IDEA 2004 including the “Due Process Complaint Notice” and “Resolution (IEP) Session.” Participants will learn about No Child Left Behind and any recent Supreme Court decisions and status of any pending U.S. Supreme Court cases and how these decisions are likely to affect you.

Advocacy programs focus on advocacy skills, paper trails, the Letter to a Stranger, negotiation techniques, understanding test data, SMART IEPs, organization of the child's file, the Rule of Adverse Assumptions, the 5 W's+H+E and much more.