Human rights barrister Jennifer Robinson discusses the use of non-disclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases. For support, contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732). Video via AAP.
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00:00Well, just think about the high-profile cases that you will have all heard about, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Crosby, even the divorce agreement between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp had an NDA attached to it.
00:09So, it's very common in a family context proceedings and family settlement for there to be non-disclosure agreements, very common in the workplace.
00:18So, if you leave your job because of, or decide to leave because of sexual harassment, there's often a non-disclosure agreement that's signed on the way out as part of your settlement.
00:25What is difficult, as you understand as a journalist and I know as a lawyer, once those agreements are signed, they're really hard to get out of.
00:34And so, the problem is that over many years, if we look at the Harvey Weinstein non-disclosure agreements, for example, basically these, frankly, reading them myself, I came to this late in the sense that Zelda Perkins, the whistleblower who spoke out about Harvey Weinstein, came to see me before she wanted to speak out.
00:52And when I looked at her agreement, I was like, well, this is not enforceable, they can't stop you from going to the police, that's an unenforceable contract because it's counted public policy.
01:01And yet, all these women were signing agreements drafted by lawyers who have ethical obligations, which they believe stop them from going to the police.
01:11Now, that's just wrong, but women persisted in this belief and this false assumption because they didn't have proper legal advice.