A CR 2A agreement in Washington is a settlement between parties in a Superior Court lawsuit that the court will recognize and enforce, but only if it satisfies one of three formal requirements laid out in Civil Rule 2A: the agreement was made in open court on the record, entered in the court’s minutes, or put in writing and signed by the attorneys or parties involved. Miss the formalities and the court treats the deal as though it never happened. Meet them and both sides are locked in, even if one party later regrets the terms.
The Three Ways to Make It Enforceable
The rule itself is short. It says no agreement between parties or their attorneys in a lawsuit will be recognized by the court unless one of these is true:
- It was made in open court, on the record.
- It was entered in the court’s minutes.
- It exists in writing and is signed by the relevant attorneys or parties.
There is no mandatory template, no special form, and no filing deadline built into the rule. The point is certainty. Verbal deals made in hallways or over the phone are difficult to prove, so CR 2A draws a bright line: if the agreement isn’t documented in one of those three ways, the court ignores it.
Who Has to Sign
Most CR 2A problems come down to signatures. The rule refers to agreements “subscribed by the attorneys,” but Washington courts read it more broadly. Under RCW 2.44.010, an attorney has authority to bind the client through a signed agreement, so the attorney’s signature alone can satisfy the rule. A party who signs directly also satisfies CR 2A, even without their lawyer’s signature. In Patterson v. Taylor, the Washington Court of Appeals held that when a party “undertakes a settlement directly with the other party, reduces it to writing, and signs it…the requirements of CR 2A are met just as if the attorney had participated.”
The opposite is equally strict. In Bryant v. Palmer Coking Coal Co., the court refused to enforce a settlement that was neither stated on the record in open court nor put in writing and signed by the party to be bound. An unsigned draft, an email thread showing apparent agreement, or a verbal handshake at mediation does not qualify.
Electronic Signatures
Digital signing platforms like DocuSign and Adobe Sign are fine. Under RCW 1.80.070, a signature cannot be denied legal effect solely because it is electronic, and a record cannot be denied enforceability solely because it was created electronically. The electronic signature counts as long as it is “attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign.”
When These Agreements Get Used
Most CR 2A agreements come out of mediation or private settlement negotiations in cases that are already filed. The signed agreement acts as a binding contract that the court can later fold into a formal order or judgment.
In family law, divorcing spouses use CR 2A agreements to lock in property division, spousal maintenance, child support, and parenting plans after a mediation session, holding both sides to the terms while they wait for the court to enter a final Decree of Dissolution or Final Parenting Plan. In In re Marriage of Block, a ten-page CR 2A agreement resolved maintenance, child support, employment benefits, and the family home, and was enforced when one spouse tried to back out.
In personal injury cases, a CR 2A agreement locks in the settlement amount and the scope of the release. In Kosrovani v. Roger Jobs Motors, parties in a mediated premises liability case signed a CR 2A memorandum committing the insurer to pay $15,000 in exchange for a full release. When the plaintiff refused to sign the release afterward, the court enforced the agreement anyway.
Contract disputes, property boundary conflicts, and business disagreements work the same way. A CR 2A agreement also does not have to resolve every issue. Parties can settle some claims and leave others for trial or binding arbitration. When that happens, the agreement should state clearly which issues are settled and which remain open. It’s common for mediated agreements to send unresolved drafting disputes back to the mediator for binding arbitration.
What the Agreement Should Contain
A CR 2A agreement needs to be specific enough that a judge unfamiliar with the case can read it and understand exactly what each side promised. Vague terms invite enforcement fights.
- The case caption: court name, county, all party names, and the case number, copied from a previously filed document.
- Settlement terms with precision. For money, state the exact amount, the payment deadline, and the payment method. For non-monetary obligations like property transfers, state what must happen, who must do it, and by when.
- Release language if the agreement is meant to fully resolve the case. In personal injury cases this typically includes indemnification for outstanding medical liens and insurance subrogation interests, and directs the plaintiff’s attorney to hold back enough proceeds to pay those obligations before disbursing anything.
- Signature blocks for every party and every attorney, with printed names, signatures, and dates. A self-represented party signs for themselves.
- A dispute resolution clause. Many CR 2A agreements send disagreements about interpretation or implementation to binding arbitration, often before the same mediator who helped reach the deal.
There is no mandatory state form. Enforceability depends on substance, not format.
How Enforcement Works
When one side refuses to follow through, the other files a motion to enforce the settlement. The court reviews the document and decides whether it meets CR 2A’s requirements and whether the terms are clear enough to enforce.
If the material terms are undisputed, the judge can decide the motion on written declarations alone. When there’s a genuine dispute about whether the agreement exists or what its material terms mean, the court must hold an evidentiary hearing where both sides can present testimony. A judge won’t pick between competing versions of a disputed agreement based on paperwork alone.
Once the judge finds the agreement valid, the court usually enters an order incorporating the settlement terms into a final judgment. That order carries the same weight as any other court judgment. From filing the motion to obtaining a signed order can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months depending on the court’s calendar.
Getting Out of a Signed Agreement
Regret is not a ground for undoing a CR 2A agreement. Washington courts treat these agreements like contracts, and the bar to set one aside is high. The recognized grounds are fraud, mistake, misunderstanding, or lack of jurisdiction. A court also has discretion to relieve a party from a stipulation when “relief is necessary to prevent injustice” and the other side hasn’t relied on the agreement in a way that would make undoing it unfair.
The most common argument is that there was no “meeting of the minds” on the material terms, meaning the written document doesn’t reflect what the parties actually agreed to or they never reached agreement on an essential term. Courts look at objective evidence of intent, not a party’s later claim about what they subjectively meant. A signed document is powerful evidence, and a party who signed without reading carefully will struggle to convince a judge to unwind the deal.
Duress and coercion can invalidate an agreement, but the standard is demanding. Feeling pressured during a long mediation session, by itself, rarely qualifies. The party challenging the agreement generally has to show they had no reasonable alternative but to sign.
Penalties for Violating a Court-Ordered CR 2A Agreement
Once a CR 2A agreement is incorporated into a court order, violating it is the same as violating any other court order. Under RCW 7.21.030, the court can hold the non-compliant party in contempt and impose remedial sanctions including forfeiture of up to $2,000 per day the violation continues, imprisonment that lasts as long as it serves a coercive purpose, or any other order designed to force compliance. The court can also make the violating party pay the other side’s losses caused by the contempt, plus reasonable attorney fees and costs from the enforcement proceeding.
Punitive contempt under RCW 7.21.040 goes further: a fine of up to $5,000 per violation, imprisonment for up to 364 days, or both. Attorney fees on top of that can run into thousands. In Marriage of Block, the court awarded $1,000 in attorney fees to the spouse who successfully moved to enforce the agreement, and that was a straightforward case.
Ignoring an enforced CR 2A agreement is almost always more expensive than complying with terms that feel unfavorable.
District and Municipal Court Cases
CR 2A applies to Superior Court cases. Washington’s courts of limited jurisdiction, including district and municipal courts, use CRLJ 2A, which imposes the same basic requirements. If your case is in one of those courts rather than Superior Court, the principle is the same: get the agreement in writing and signed, or state it on the record in open court.