PANAMA CITY — U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak had heard the word “settlement” before in a “Girls Gone Wild” lawsuit, and he wanted to make sure Wednesday it was a done deal.

“The defendant has already signed the documents?” Smoak asked plaintiff’s attorney Mark Casto. “I certainly don’t want to get to a déjà vu all over again.”

Brittany Pitts, of Georgia, sued “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis and his company Mantra Films Inc. last year. She claimed she was 16 when a “Girls Gone Wild” cameraman filmed her flashing her breasts in March 2002 on Panama City Beach. The image made it onto the cover of a video that sold 9,610 copies and brought $82,453 to the company, according to court records.

The case was scheduled for trial beginning Monday and Smoak had scheduled a pretrial conference for Wednesday to address last-minute issues. But the hearing ended before it began when Francis’ local attorney, Jean Marie Downing, announced the sides had reached a settlement.

Mantra’s corporate attorney, Michael Burke of California, said Pitts will receive no money in the settlement but will be freed from a proposed countersuit claiming she was abusing the legal process and maliciously prosecuting Francis.

Burke said Pitts agreed to the settlement after Smoak made several key rulings over the last two weeks. Casto had asked the judge to exclude the depositions of several out-of-state witnesses, but Smoak denied the motion. If those witnesses had refused to honor a summons to trial, their depositions would have been used as testimonial evidence. Excluding the depositions would have kept their evidence, which was beneficial to the defense, away from the jury. The witnesses included Pitts’ former boyfriend and two companions who had been on the trip with her in 2002.

Smoak also denied a motion to sanction Francis for what Casto called “evasive” behavior during his deposition.

Smoak jailed Francis last year when it appeared to the judge that Francis had made a phony settlement offer in a 2003 lawsuit, then reneged on the agreement. Francis said the offer was accepted unconditionally, but when conditions were added that the plaintiffs didn’t agree with, they complained to the judge.

Smoak jailed Francis for contempt of court, and he settled that lawsuit while in a Bay County Jail cell. Shortly after that, Pitts filed her suit.

Casto even made a similar claim against Francis as to the one that landed him in jail: that Francis wasn’t participating in “meaningful” court-ordered mediation. Casto asked Smoak last week to punish Francis by taking away his defenses at trial, but Smoak on Tuesday denied that motion.

Casto told Smoak on Wednesday that the settlement had been approved by both sides and all that was left to do was to go back to Georgia and have Pitts sign it.

The settlement was between the company and Pitts. As a part of the deal, Francis personally was dropped from the lawsuit, Downing said.