Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Missouri

Non-disclosure abuse

I and one other family member were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement to settle a suit we had against a company. There were many friends and family members (at least 20), plus numerous government and public agencies, who were involved with every detail of the suit who did not sign any such agreement.

Recently, someone (neither of us who signed the agreement) has posted details of the suit on a consumer advocate site on the Internet (I do not recognize the name the poster gave). Any one of the people mentioned above could have posted the information. The company has sent a letter threatening legal action (although they do not state what their intent is). The suit and agreement were handled in Missouri, the company is located in California. One of the signers of the agreement lives in Missouri, the other lives in California.

What steps can be taken to stop the threats from what appears to be a ''fishing expedition''? What recourse do we have and can we get this non-disclosure agreement nullified since the company is using it in a coercive and threatening manner? Thank you.


Asked on 4/21/08, 6:20 am

2 Answers from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Re: Non-disclosure abuse

I would need to see the settlement agreement before I could offer any concrete guidance.

The agreement probably forbids disclosure only of the terms of the settlement (and perhaps the information the company revealed during discovery) and not of the history of the lawsuit. After all, the documents that were filed with the court are matters of public record.

You say that various friends, relatives, etc. "were involved with every detail of the suit", but they probably were not involved in the settlement. If you told them about the terms of the settlement after agreeing not to, then you breached the agreement. The fact that the web postings came from someone you spoke with rather than from you would be beside the point if your breach was how he or she got the information.

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Answered on 4/21/08, 1:51 pm
Scott Linden Scott H. Linden, Esq.

Re: Non-disclosure abuse

Sounds like you need to let them know that you have nothing to do with the posting and that they need to contact the owner of that website and inform them that they have information posted that is protected. Let them go threaten the owner of the site and not you.

Good Luck,

Scott

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Answered on 4/21/08, 7:14 pm


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