The subject of this article is the definition of category criteria which determine the qualification of a settlement agreement as an official text. The text of the agreement is formalized and have a characteristic structure. The text of a settlement combines textual properties and instruments firmly set in the legal system. The article underlines the importance of relations between law and language and the necessity of cooperation between lawyers and linguists in the on-going research in the field of texts. The author approaches the subject of settlement agreement text from the perspective of pragma-linguistic text science, legal linguistics. The settlement agreement is a complete action language that represents the style of the official text.