Should NC limit secret court settlements?
Steve Daniels
... "The plaintiff's right to speak, their First Amendment right, is something that they can give up," explained Duke law professor Don Beskind. "In effect, they're getting paid to give up that right."
"If you take a defective product, somebody who's been injured by a product, if all those cases are settled with confidentiality agreements, the public won't be aware that a particular product is dangerous," Beskind continued.
Legal experts point to the Firestone tire case more than a decade ago as an example. Years before Firestone decided to recall its tires, the company used confidentiality agreements when it settled lawsuits that claimed injuries and deaths caused by failing tires on ford SUVs.
Those secret settlements prevented people who claimed they were impacted by the tires from disclosing the dangers to other consumers - dangers a federal investigation linked to more than 270 deaths ...
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/abc11_investigates&id=9001726
