{"id":5582,"date":"2024-05-09T11:12:31","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T15:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/?p=5582"},"modified":"2024-05-13T11:27:14","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T15:27:14","slug":"nj-supreme-court-limits-use-of-non-disparagement-provisions-in-employment-settlement-agreements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nj-supreme-court-limits-use-of-non-disparagement-provisions-in-employment-settlement-agreements.html","title":{"rendered":"NJ Supreme Court Limits Use of Non-Disparagement Provisions in Employment Settlement Agreements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a unanimous opinion, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently held that a non-disparagement provision in a settlement agreement that prevented a former employee from revealing details about allegations of\u00a0sexual harassment, sex discrimination and retaliation was against public policy and cannot be enforced.<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiff, a former police sergeant, appealed a trial court order enforcing a non-disparagement provision in a 2020 settlement agreement reached in her employment discrimination case. Under the non-disparagement clause, the plaintiff was barred from making any statements \u201cregarding the past behavior of the parties\u201d that would \u201ctend to disparage or impugn the reputation of any party.\u201d\u00a0 The agreement clearly stated that the provision extended to statements to the media, government offices and the general public.\u00a0 After the settlement was reached, the plaintiff was interviewed by a reporter for NBC\u2019s Channel 4 News, where she stated that the police department had not changed because \u201cit\u2019s the good ol\u2019 boy system,\u201d among other things.\u00a0 The department and various officers then filed a motion to enforce the non-disparagement provisions of the agreement.<\/p>\n<p>The trial court granted the defendants&#8217; motion, ordering the plaintiff not to give further interviews or to make disparaging statements.\u00a0 The judge declined to award the roughly $23,000 in damages sought by the defendants but awarded counsel fees of $4,917.50 for the plaintiff&#8217;s breach of the clause.\u00a0 The Appellate Division affirmed in part and reversed in part, holding that while the terms of the non-disparagement provision were enforceable, the plaintiff did not break them during the television interview.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nj-supreme-court-limits-use-of-non-disparagement-provisions-in-employment-settlement-agreements.html\"  title=\"Continue Reading NJ Supreme Court Limits Use of Non-Disparagement Provisions in Employment Settlement Agreements\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a unanimous opinion, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently held that a non-disparagement provision in a settlement agreement that prevented a former employee from revealing details about allegations of\u00a0sexual harassment, sex discrimination and retaliation was against public policy and cannot be enforced. The plaintiff, a former police sergeant, appealed a trial court order enforcing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,442,247],"tags":[],"coauthors":[441],"class_list":["post-5582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","category-weiner","category-labor-employment-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>NJ Supreme Court Limits Use of Non-Disparagement Provisions in Employment Settlement Agreements &#8212; May 9, 2024 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a unanimous opinion, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently held that a non-disparagement provision in a settlement agreement that prevented a former\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/nj-supreme-court-limits-use-of-non-disparagement-provisions-in-employment-settlement-agreements.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NJ Supreme Court Limits Use of Non-Disparagement Provisions in Employment Settlement Agreements &#8212; May 9, 2024 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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Weiner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"NJ Supreme Court Limits Use of Non-Disparagement Provisions in Employment Settlement Agreements &#8212; May 9, 2024 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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