As Weinstein`s alleged victims have come forward, Lenora Lapidus, director of the ACLU`s Women`s Rights Project, acknowledged that other vulnerable women who enter into similar deals may not feel as safe. Sexual assault is a serious crime in all legal systems. However, sexual harassment can be considered criminal based on the type of behaviour. In some cases, it may be considered undesirable behaviour, but not an offence in the legal sense. Therefore, the legality of public public advertising after signing an NDA to make sexual harassment in the workplace public may be uncertain. The criminal justice system is divided into two parts: civil and criminal. In a civil proceeding, one party is suing another for misconduct, which is not criminal. Some of the most common examples of civil misconduct (“wrongs”) are car accidents and offences. In civil proceedings, the court is not asked to decide whether someone should go to jail.

On the contrary, the party who is determined to have committed wrongdoing must make the other person an entire person by paying damages to that person. Parliament`s Women and Equal Rights Party Committee has launched an investigation into the use of the NDA and Justice Minister Lucy Frazer has promised to reduce gagging clauses that threaten to silence women who are potentially victims of criminal sexual harassment. The sums spent to effectively buy silence can be upsetting. Bill O`Reilly, the Fox News anchor and US star, has spent nearly $10 million ($13 million) in confidentiality deals with five women who have accused him of sexual harassment and verbal assault. The receivables were settled between 2002 and 2016. Several Weinstein employees have come forward in recent months to discuss their NDAs. According to The New Yorker, some of the agreements contained clauses preventing employees from discussing details of Weinstein`s “personal, social or commercial activities.” Dozens of sexual assault accusations against famed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and other powerful men have raised many questions about how society deals with sexual assault and workplace harassment. One of the most common questions is whether a Confidentiality Agreement (NDA) prohibits alleged victims of sexual assault from speaking publicly or talking to the police about the assault.