Virtually every settlement agreement in an employment case includes a strict confidentiality clause warning the plaintiff of the requirement to keep the settlement amount secret. In a recent case which made national news, a daughter cost her father an $80,000 settlement by posting “mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver … Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT!” An article with more details on the story can be found here.
This case is a good reminder of the importance of drafting airtight confidentiality clauses in the era of social media and instant publication to the world. It is also important to note that the employer lost the first round of litigation on whether the daughter’s conduct violated the father’s settlement agreement, and this recent story relates to the appellate court’s decision to overturn the lower decision and void the settlement. Obviously, the employer spent a lot of money in legal fees to prove a point.
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