Yes. It has been reported that a Florida Appellate Court recently ruled that a former school employee could not enforce a $80,000 settlement agreement regarding an age discrimination case because he breached the settlement agreement’s confidentiality clause. Apparently, the former school worker told his daughter that the case had settled, and that he was happy with the results. Subsequently, the daughter wrote on Facebook-for her hundreds of friends to see- that her dad had won the case against the school, and that the school was “now officially paying for [her] vacation to Europe”. Accordingly, the appellate court held that the school did not have to pay the $80,000 to the former employee because he had breached the confidentiality provision.

Perhaps this means that the daughter will not end up going to Europe after all? We don’t know. At any rate, there is an important lesson here. If you settle an employment case (or any other case for that matter) that contains confidentiality clause, you should keep quiet about the settlement or else you it may cost you money.

Feel free to contact our office with any questions!