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[Music] we love when Tim Mahoney stops by tonight we're talking about the legal elements of a hit TV show it's on Hulu you've probably heard it maybe you've watched it all it's called the Dropout Amanda Seyfried continues to win awards for this we're playing Elizabeth Holmes there's there's a backstory in the legal World kind of having to do with this so ndas yeah non-disclosure agreement that's what an NDA stands for so essentially it's a contract that you're not going to disclose in confidential information that you acquired in a certain form and obviously it's going to be for somebody that isn't Bound by certain confidentiality agreements so like with your attorney or your physician sure there's they're supposed to be bound by confidentiality without you having to do anything so a lot of times this is an employer employee relationship or um like let's say you know my my daughter is an actress out in Hollywood when you go see a movie if they'll preview a movie to people you have to sign an NDA that you're not going to tell anybody what it's about that you're not going to tell anybody what's like if you go audition for certain things you have to sign NBA saying that you won't disclose what's going to happen if you're on a hit show you have to sign an NDA that you're not going to disclose what's coming up I worked for American Idol for five seconds ten years ago I had to sign an NDA right see so the thing about ndas is the question is how enforceable are they when you're drug into a court of law sure we know that outside of a court of law then you absolutely cannot disclose any of the information if you do usually there's a liquidated damages clause which essentially says if they show you disclose the information you owe this much money to them period so if you but if you get subpoenaed into court can the NDA stop you from testifying well generally the answer is no but there are a few cases in which the courts have actually upheld ndas in situations where people were being compelled to testify one of the big cases involved General Motors and somebody being asked to disclose information regarding exploding gas tanks back when that was an issue and the other one involved a tobacco company and people that had inside information with regards to their research that they were lying about now both of those cases the one involving General Motors was in Michigan and the one involving big tobacco was in Kentucky so the state courts in those States upheld those NDA Clauses which protected those particular companies well State Corps judges are elected and so you could kind of tell why that happened okay but generally that's not the case and in fact one of those cases went up to the Supreme Court the U.S Supreme Court and the U.S Supreme Court had to decide do we have to give full faith and credit to that decision in another jurisdiction based on the exact same topic the full faith and credit laws says that each state has to give full faith and credit to the laws and the decisions of the other states that's how your driver's license in Illinois is good in Wisconsin which is nice all right we don't need them 50 of them right and the U.S Supreme Court said no they didn't have to give full faith and credit to those particular decisions in other courtrooms so generally speaking an NDA if you get brought into court you are gonna you are going to be compelled to testify and disclose the information in Criminal Courts almost exclusively yes you're going to be compelled to testify and then another exception has been has been borne out for whistleblowers so a whistleblower is if you find uh you're working for a corporation and they're doing something illegal if you present that to the federal government or to the state government whatever fine or penalty um they get they get fined you get a percentage that you get 10 of that money so like for one whistleblower uh during the Obama Administration there was a 100 million dollar fine levied against I think it was an oil company down in New Orleans and so that person made uh 10 million dollars and there was another one where there was a billion and so the person made a hundred million NDA Clauses cannot stop you from being a whistleblower so if you find out something criminally going on in your organization even if you've signed an NDA you can still come in and testify that's a good thing right that is a good thing you know so they they can buy your silence to a degree but but you know when it comes time to go into court in a criminal situation or if you're compelled under a subpoena generally speaking you're going to be required to testify and that's pretty much kind of why we were talking about that because in the show of course she well in real life she was sentenced to jail just recently for 11.25 years yeah just very specific um so yeah like the people who worked for her whether they signed an ND or not you're saying they could have come out and said whatever they needed today correct it I you know in that particular situation it was one of the exceptions to the rule but the general rule is ndas are are upheld to the point where you're subpoenaed into court and certainly if it involves a criminal aspect then the NDA is not going to be enforced and you're going to be compelled to testify awesome if you have any questions for Tim Mahoney about pop culture or anything you know maybe law let us know let him know you can see on that flow code on your screen too and uh we'll see what we're talking about next month I don't know yet we'll find out coming up next we're learning about your cancerstory.com and then it's game day with jam and jerk Grill we'll be right back