How NDAs became perverted by the rich and powerful. | The News Agents

You know, they spent three years to try and dismantle a legal process or a legal institution, i.e. the injunction, which was being used to protect the privacy versus the right, the right of privacy versus the right of these women to tell their stories without legal opposition. I mean, this is what I'm going to call an overarching sense of the patriarchy. Now, the laws that David Walliams relied on and their non-disclosure agreements laws were written. To protect the vulnerable. They were literally written. And it's funny that if I think of a woman who I met recently whose son was murdered abroad and it got caught up in a whole true crime thing and now she's got no privacy and there's this whole nonsense, it's for her, it's for people like her that she should be, of course she's a working class woman from up north, she ain't got no lawyers taking out injunctions for her. That is what that privacy law is for. And our non-disclosure agreements is so that... Workers can get proper settlements and move on without their name being discredited. And somehow, the sort of power and money and wealth that exists in the system has perverted the use of really good and legitimate laws. It's bent them to its will. It's classic wealth and patriarchal. Absolutely, those three things, which, let's face it, you know, I work in Parliament. That's the big three. I saw a tweet, I think from one of the journalists involved in one of the cases this week. And it was just an email from a very, very well-known law firm, one of the biggest in London, that was sent to an 18-year-old girl who was involved in one of the accusations. Basically saying, if you break this agreement, you'll face 10 years in prison and our client will move against you. And you're thinking there, how the hell? Like, some 18-year-old girl How are we going to respond to that? You must have had these letters. Yeah, completely. And I'm a woman of power. I also have legal insurance through my job. It is terrifying. I remember the first time I got one, I literally was like totally freaked out. And also that culture is properly trickling down. So if a woman goes on Facebook and says, I'm a victim of domestic abuse, she doesn't need to say the name of the person, but by association to her, She started to get like legal letters saying, you can't talk about your own experience. We have got to very, very quickly look at how our laws are being used. But frankly, the ethics of a lawyer who would do that. And I get that you have to represent your client. But, you know, is that what you went to law school for? You went to law school to send an 18 year old to shut your mouth. Also, she won't go to prison for 10 years. I now do this thing where I'm like, when I'm starting to act in the grey. I'm like, am I willing to represent this in court? Yes, I am.