Louisiana Just Banned Child Abuse NDAs in Civil Cases

(New Orleans, LA) - With his signature, Governor Jeff Landry signed Act 251 into law, which basically makes non-disclosure agreements in civil suits where child sex abuse has occurred, unenforceable.

The creation of this bill and its ultimate passage had everything to do with Trey's Law, which was passed in Missouri and, most recently, Texas. Trey's Law references Trey Carlock of Dallas, Texas, who was groomed and then abused for years by someone at Kanakuk Camp in Missouri.

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Carlock, dealing with the abuse of the pass, ended up taking his own life when he was 28-years-old. His sister, Elizabeth Phillips, worked to pass Trey's Law and testified before the Louisiana Legislature about the act's immense importance.

He did file a civil suit against the camp's leadership. Phillips explains,

While that perpetrator was sentenced to three life terms in 2010, my brother sought to hold the camp leadership and others involved responsible in civil courts, but that ended with a settlement that included an unnecessarily restrictive NDA.

Phillips asks the most important question about this issue,

If you can't talk about it, how are you going to heal.

Another fascinating aspect of this law is that it is retroactive: all NDAs entered into before its passage are no longer enforceable under Louisiana law. What information will be learned by residents of Louisiana as they look into civil suits filed in the state that dealt with child sexual abuse?

In another part of Phillips' testimony to the Louisiana Legislature, she said the following:

Just before he died, he told the therapist they will always control me and I will never be free. So, it’s no exaggeration for me to claim this is a matter of life and death.

The following is the text of the law:

To enact Chapter 1-D of Code Title IV of Title 9 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, 3 to be comprised of R.S. 9:2720.21 through 2720.23, relative to requisites for a valid 4 agreement; to prohibit nondisclosure agreements involving victims of child sexual 5 abuse; to provide for terms and definitions; to provide relative to enforcement of 6 nondisclosure agreements in certain circumstances; to provide for retroactive 7 application; to provide for an effective date; and to provide for related matters.