Perez

I. BACKGROUND

A. Plaintiffs’ Lawsuit and Graham’s Efforts to Set Aside Judgment Plaintiffs sued Graham for legal malpractice; in 2014, the trial court entered a $300,000 default judgment against him after he failed to respond to the complaint.1 Years later, Graham moved to set aside the default judgment, contending he did not have notice of the lawsuit. In January 2022, the trial court denied Graham’s motion, after which he moved for

1 Plaintiffs also named the Law Offices of Kenneth R. Graham as a

defendant. That entity is not a party to this appeal and any references in this opinion to “Graham” refer to him as an individual.

1 reconsideration. Graham also appealed the order denying his motion to set aside the default judgment. B. Settlement Agreement In March 2022—while the appeal and motion for reconsideration were pending—the parties settled their dispute. Plaintiffs accepted Graham’s offer to pay $12,000 in exchange for a satisfaction of judgment. Shortly thereafter, the parties entered a written settlement and release agreement (agreement) “with the intent to fully and finally resolve all issues that were raised, and those that could have been raised in the Underlying…