Disclosure Debacles - Letting the Cat Out of the Bag Edition
For some reason I don't relish highlighting the mistakes of litigants (or their lawyers) when I blog. It's not really out of professional courtesy or anything - it's more of a Karmic thing.
But I recently saw two examples that I couldn't let pass by without flagging:
[image courtesy of lmmortel / Flickr Creative Commons license]
But I recently saw two examples that I couldn't let pass by without flagging:
D'oh!1. The name dropper: Evan Brown points to a situation where someone objected to a subpoena seeking the person's identity, but included his name in the filing: "Anonymous accused Bittorrent user moves to quash subpoena using real name."
2. Posting the top secret agreement online: Ben Sheffner points to a second example, also from the bittorrent litigation, where lawyers suing bittorrent users publicly posted a copy of a proposed settlement agreement which settling bittorrent users would enter into: "Adventures in settlement confidentiality." (Here's the Boll AG Settlement page , which contains a link to the agreement.) The problem? The unredacted form settlement agreement contains a clause requiring the parties to keep the terms of the settlement agreement "strictly" confidential. The confidentiality provision also has a liquidated damages clause associated with it: $15,000 in the event of a breach of confidentiality. Good luck enforcing that provision, or trying to keep these settlements sealed in the future. [I forgot to mention that Eriq Gardner at THR, Esq. first noted the online version of the agreement.]
[image courtesy of lmmortel / Flickr Creative Commons license]
1. The name dropper: Evan Brown points to a situation where someone objected to a subpoena seeking the person's identity, but included his name in the filing: "Anonymous accused Bittorrent user moves to quash subpoena using real name."

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