When the defense lawyer first contacted me, he asked me what it would take to settle this case. I threw out a number that was roughly equivalent to about 2.4 months of pay, nothing that would break anyone’s bank. I was interested mostly in being compensated for my injury. This lawyer sent me a settlement agreement for me to sign. Several paragraphs made me feel uneasy. After a closer inspection I realized that I could never sign this contract. I was supposed to agree not to talk about the lawsuit (like I am doing here). And if I should slip up, I would be required to pay restitution to the opposing law firm at whatever amount they wished to charge.
I asked the question, “What is the point of having a First Amendment if rich people can buy it away from poor people with a contract?”
But the abuse did not stop there. The nondisclosure agreement extended to my heirs. I imagined my child standing up at my funeral and saying, “And my dad sued SWC and won a settlement!” Based on what I read in this contract, the opposing law firm would be free to sue my child for breach of contract.
This was an outright abuse of my act of good will. One slip and the opposing lawyer could regain the money they paid me and more.
The settlement contract also stated that my former company was not admitting to any kind of fault. This was the reason why I sued… to stop the abuse of Christians or anyone with the common sense not to be PCR tested. The contract told me that it would be business as usual. No change in their policy. The money they offered was basically sweeping me under the rug money.
The opposing lawyer also made it clear, very clear, that I was never to apply at SWC again. It was not my intention to burn bridges behind me, but then again it was silly for me to think otherwise. Even if I were to work for them again, I am sure that they would go out of their way to make my life hard.
This attempt at bankrupting me & my family is sheer abuse. I do not believe that this is something that I should just forgive and forget. This is why I believe that punitive (punishment) damages are appropriate. I will be asking for more.
The icing on this cake is that the lawsuit moves forward. The next milestone is surviving the opposing lawyer’s motion to dismiss. Surviving legal scrutiny will tell me that the judge believes that my lawsuit has merit in the court of law. Of course, I believe I hit it out of the ballpark, but this is just my opinion. I will know more by mid February.
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