Settlement Conference

Standalone Legal Thriller
Settlement Conference by Derek Fermin book cover
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Settlement Conference

A claustrophobic legal thriller about a powerhouse attorney forced to defend herself inside a vigilante courtroom built by people the justice system failed.

They didn’t kidnap her for ransom. They kidnapped her for a verdict.

Standalone Novel
Legal Thriller
Vigilante Courtroom
Released June 23, 2026
Case Summary

The courtroom was built for her.

The abduction

Alexandra “Alex” Cortez wins cases for a living—high-stakes, high-dollar, and ruthless when she has to be. But when a late-night drive turns into a black-bag abduction, she wakes up in a place that looks like a courtroom… built by people who have been crushed by the real one.

A judge’s bench. A jury box. Evidence boards. Rules. And one nonnegotiable condition: Alex is the defense.

The plaintiffs are medical-malpractice victims who believe the system buried their truth. They’ve staged a “settlement conference” the way they wish the courts actually worked—raw testimony, sealed files, and a trial-by-fire designed to break the attorney they blame for protecting the machine.

The case fractures

The deeper Alex digs, the more the narrative fractures. Witness statements don’t align. The exhibits feel curated. Someone is directing the room.

The case they’re forcing her to argue isn’t about justice at all—it’s a pressure test for something bigger.

Now Alex has one chance to survive: out-argue her captors, expose the unseen architect pulling the strings, and turn their courtroom against them… before the final motion is heard and the sentence is carried out.

Inside the Room

Justice has been rewritten.

Exhibit 01

A Sealed Courtroom

No public gallery. No bailiff. No appeal. Every door is locked, and the people running the case have already decided who deserves to pay.

Exhibit 02

A Forced Defense

Alex must defend the very system her captors believe destroyed them, knowing every argument could determine whether she leaves the room alive.

Exhibit 03

A Curated Truth

The testimony is emotional. The evidence is devastating. But someone has shaped the record, buried contradictions, and written the outcome in advance.

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They didn’t kidnap her for ransom. They kidnapped her for a verdict.