Completing the Confidentiality Agreement The "Receiving Party" is the person or company who receives the confidential information and is obligated to keep it secret. You'll need to fill in information specific to your circumstances in the spaces provided, such as the parties' names and addresses.
NDAs should have a clear description of the purpose, parties, and duration they cover. Specifying time limits or periods that your employees are subject to confidentiality is particularly important to ensure your NDA is enforceable in California. The typical time period is one to five years.
NDAs are enforceable once signed, provided they have been drafted and executed properly. Unilateral NDAs need only the signature of the receiving party, whereas mutual non-disclosure agreements need the signatures of both parties.
Various whistleblower laws protect employees who have signed non-disclosure agreements and find whistleblowing necessary to right the wrongs of their employers. For instance, California law deems unenforceable NDAs that require employees to keep quiet about harassment, discrimination, or unlawful workplace activity.
An NDA that prevents an employee from working in their profession or field of trade may be considered a non-compete agreement. In California, non-compete agreements are more rarely enforceable. NDAs can also not be used to prevent the reporting of illegal activity or to silence whistleblowers.
Starting January 1, 2025, businesses settling disputes with consumers cannot condition any refund or other consideration on a consumer agreeing not to make statements about the business, regardless of the sentiment or accuracy of those statements. The text of the new Cal. Civ. Code § 1748.50 can be found here.
You do not need a lawyer to create and sign a non-disclosure agreement. However, if the information you are trying to protect is important enough to warrant an NDA, you may want to have the document reviewed by someone with legal expertise.
In California, a nondisclosure agreement may be enforceable, provided it meets basic criteria. The restrictive covenant must be properly drafted. This entails clear writing, detailed information about the confidential components of the contract, and a clearly stated extent of the confidentiality obligation.
If you need an NDA, looking at templates online isn't a bad place to start, but ideally you should work with a lawyer who can write a simple NDA for you or tweak the one you have. You may be able to find someone in your community who can do it for a few hundred bucks.
Typically, a legal professional writing the NDA will complete these steps: Step 1 - Describe the scope. Which information is considered confidential? ... Step 2 - Detail party obligations. Step 3 - Note potential exclusions. Step 4 - Set the term. Step 5 - Spell out consequences.