I am not a lawyer but I went to law school and know a few things. Talk to a lawyer and take my comments with a grain of salt. Also this only applied within the United States.
The legal definition of disparagement is closely related to a freedom of speech. In order to disparage, legally, you must make a statement that is false, injurious, and derogatory. That’s actually illegal in perpetuity with or without signing that statement. You can’t make a false, injurious, derogatory statement about an organization.
On the other hand some companies have attempted to change the definition of disparagement to mean something else. For example “you can’t say anything bad about your experience at the company.” Nope, sorry, that doesn’t fit the legal definition of disparagement. If you say something bad about your time at the company, which is true, it’s not disparagement. It’s a right according to your freedom of speech. And you can’t sign away that right. However, even this gets misunderstood.
A corporation does not have to allow you to say anything you want without repercussions. They just can only hand down repercussions that they have access too. For example, if you were to say bad things about the company you work for that are true, they do not have to continue to employ you. Or ever employ you again. That is their right. But they can’t say that you can’t say those things. They also have the right to attempt a civil action against you for disparagement. They may win or lose.
So anyway, are you over reacting? Maybe. I doubt that any paper about disparagement would actually change any of your rights in any way at all.
I think you are confusing disparagement with defamation: disparagement is basically saying anything negative about the company whether or not it meets the standard for defamation.
This was an absolutely fabulous read! I was looking for a case like this to try to counter my argument. The issue I have seen with quite a few cases was that they were individuals versus individuals or individual being disparaged by a larger corporate entity. This one spins it on its head. Very nice!
Legal dictionaries are useful for looking up legal terms of art, but they are not binding on courts. After all, anyone can publish one.
In the US at least, courts prefer to use the common meaning of words whenever it's reasonable to do so. If the common meaning doesn't make sense in context, they won't simply fall back on a legal definition, but will look for evidence of what the parties actually intended the words to mean.
In the case of disparagement, several courts have held that the common meaning of "disparage" is what applies to non-disparagement clauses.
The legal definition of disparagement is closely related to a freedom of speech. In order to disparage, legally, you must make a statement that is false, injurious, and derogatory. That’s actually illegal in perpetuity with or without signing that statement. You can’t make a false, injurious, derogatory statement about an organization.
On the other hand some companies have attempted to change the definition of disparagement to mean something else. For example “you can’t say anything bad about your experience at the company.” Nope, sorry, that doesn’t fit the legal definition of disparagement. If you say something bad about your time at the company, which is true, it’s not disparagement. It’s a right according to your freedom of speech. And you can’t sign away that right. However, even this gets misunderstood.
A corporation does not have to allow you to say anything you want without repercussions. They just can only hand down repercussions that they have access too. For example, if you were to say bad things about the company you work for that are true, they do not have to continue to employ you. Or ever employ you again. That is their right. But they can’t say that you can’t say those things. They also have the right to attempt a civil action against you for disparagement. They may win or lose.
So anyway, are you over reacting? Maybe. I doubt that any paper about disparagement would actually change any of your rights in any way at all.