Can I Get a Confidentiality Agreement During My Divorce?
No one wants details of their private life shared with the public without their consent. Everything that is filed with the public court is available to the public unless the filing is confidential, automatically by law or requested and granted by the court. Additionally, court hearing in family court are public.
If you own a business, are a public persona, or otherwise rely on your reputation, private details from your divorce being made known could harm your reputation. This, in turn, can affect your career and relationships. If you are concerned about certain filings, documents, and hearings being made available to the public, private judgment and implementing a confidentiality agreement are options to consider.
What Does a Confidentiality Agreement Involve?
If you think you may have a problem with your estranged spouse spreading information about your divorce or the public obtaining information about your divorce, you can petition the court to allow you to implement a confidentiality agreement. These agreements are used to contain the spread of information, and generally state that neither party will disclose any information from the divorce. These agreements can further detail who can have access to certain documents, and dictate how documents are to be classified and treated – for instance, mandating that certain documents are marked as confidential and shredded after review.
While in some instances a confidentiality agreement may or may not be ordered, there are some circumstances where a confidentiality agreement will be required. For example, if one spouse is a partner in a business and you are required, as a partner, to protect the business by protecting proprietary business information from disclosure in the course of your divorce.
Another option to consider is private judging, especially if you are concerned about the public obtaining information during hearings or trials in family court. Both parties must stipulate to private judging and the hearings and trials will take place away from the public courts in a private location. Any orders made by a private judge, however, will be filed with the public court, but a spouse may ask that records be confidential which a private judge may rule on such issue.
Timing
Ideally, a confidentiality agreement will be put in place before any important information is exchanged or testimony given in the course of the divorce.
It’s not always a given that a judge will approve a request for a confidentiality agreement. You should anticipate that you will need to provide evidence and prove a compelling reason as to why a confidentiality agreement should be put in place.
Again, confidentiality agreements are not always automatically granted in the case of divorce. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that it makes more work for court staff, both legal teams, and others who will need to be pulled into the process.
An experienced legal team can help you build a solid case as to why implementing a confidentiality agreement is necessary.
Contact Cardwell Steigerwald Young, LLP
Implementing a confidentiality agreement into your divorce proceedings is one way that you can begin to take that control back. Contact the San Francisco divorce attorneys at Cardwell Steigerwald Young, LLP today to begin discussing the possibility of implementing a confidentiality agreement into your own divorce proceedings. Our experienced teams can give sound legal counsel on next steps in building a strong case moving forward.
