Settlement Agreements

Two newspapers can now argue for the unsealing of settlement documents in a secretive fracking lawsuit, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled Friday.

The city of Pittsburgh settled a federal lawsuit with a journalist who claimed he was arrested and wrongfully detained under harsh conditions for 12 hours after covering protests of the Group of 20 economic summit three years ago.

The University of California Berkeley Police Department has settled with an independent photographer who sued the department after he was arrested and had his photographs confiscated while covering a protest in 2009. As part of the $162,500 settlement, the department has also agreed to change its policies towards the media and train officers about journalists' legal protections.

A Delaware court that oversees arbitration between private companies has begun making its judgments public, after a court order in a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the court’s secrecy.

A Pennsylvania judge denied a request by two Pittsburgh-area newspapers to make public documents relating to a settlement between several gas drilling corporations and a local family, stating that the newspapers failed to petition before the documents were sealed.

A settlement was announced today in the case of three journalists arrested during the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota who later filed a federal suit against the U.S. Secret Service and the police departments of Minneapolis and St. Paul for what they call unlawful arrests while they were trying to cover a protest.

A federal trial court judge ruled last month that a settlement agreement between the restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday and several employees who accused it of violating federal employment law cannot remain sealed, even though both parties wanted the agreement to remain private.

In Miles v. Ruby Tuesday, Judge T.S. Ellis III of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., said it was crucial that the settlement agreement, which required judicial approval, be available for the public to review.

Nebraska has enacted a law that will require government bodies to keep public records of legal settlements, The Associated Press reported.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman signed the bill, LB 742, this week. It will make it more difficult for government entities to keep costly legal settlements secret and will prevent them from arguing that confidentiality agreements prohibit public access to settlements.