Court rejects NAMB bid to hide NDAs

(Capstone Report) A federal court handed Will McRaney’s legal team yet another victory in McRaney’s lawsuit against the North American Mission Board (NAMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). NAMB will be forced to produce copies of at least four nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreements to McRaney, according to a federal court ruling handed down Thursday, December 22, 2022.

NAMB did not want to produce separation agreements (what many call Nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreements) and related documents signed by potential witnesses in the case of McRaney v. NAMB. According to NAMB’s claim there are documents that apply to at least four employees who would be or could be witnesses in the case. NAMB claimed the agreements were privileged legal work.

The court rejected NAMB’s efforts to shield the documents from discovery. According to the ruling, “To the extent NAMB believes the identities of the current and former employees who signed these agreements constitute work-product, the court disagrees.”

Here is what NAMB tried to avoid providing: “Any agreement(s) You have entered into with any individual or organization that you believe limits or constrains, in any way, the ability or authority of any such individual or organization to speak, write or comment about Plaintiff, about NAMB, or about this case (including but not limited to any severance agreements, non-disclosure agreements, nondisparagement agreements, or “cooperation agreements”).”

NDAs. For those who pay attention to the Southern Baptist Convention, NDAs are a serious problem used… to continue reading, click here.

Editor’s Note. This article was written and published at the Capstone Report