Sealed Court Documents in Wrongful Termination Suit

[reeph]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

One of my friends who I used to work with was fired by my company for theft among other things. He ended up suing the company and ended up winning the case however the results of the trial and various penalties that ended up getting placed on people at my employer were sealed in court documents to not be released.

My question is this, my friend went and bragged about his victory and detailed what happened to people at the company, which were part of the records which were sealed. He did this on various websites including Facebook publicly posting those details. I'm just a little concerned that he did that since that information was sealed he probably should not have done that. Is there any legal trouble he could face as a result of it? I'm certain the details of the people including their names and what happened to them will get back to those people and when it does he could be in legal trouble. At the very least I would think he might be in contempt of court. Are there legal problems he could face for this? Just curious.

 

[eerelations]

I don't know about contempt of court - one of my esteemed colleagues will have to answer that part.

However, I do know that your friend's former employer may now, at its discretion, sue your friend for reneging on his part of the deal. If his former employer wins the lawsuit (and this is likely) your friend will be required to return some or all of the settlement + pay court costs and legal fees. If your friend's former employer loses the lawsuit, your friend will still have to pay legal fees and court costs to fight his case.

And yes, it's possible that your friend can be charged with contempt of court on top of all this.

Seems to me like your friend's made a big mistake here.