Cowles v. Brownell

I concur in the majority’s decision to reverse, but I cannot agree with the majority’s case-specific analysis, which purportedly is premised on this record alone *388and resolves only the enforceability of the agreement at issue here. Like the majority, I conclude that the release is invalid and that the affirmed findings of "voluntariness” by the courts below are not dispositive. I would hold, however, that, as a general proposition, these agreements, in which criminal charges are dismissed in exchange for the defendant’s execution of a release from civil liability, offend public policy and will…