When you sign a confidentiality agreement the thought you must be having is whether or not his document will work in court. After all, how you can get off without revealing critical information in possibly a criminal case on the strength of one document. To analyze how these documents work, it is always a good idea to look at things from the perspective of the guy who is trying to fight against you in court. For now, lets assume that he or she is the prosecutor.

Now lets assume that you have already gone to court and told the prosecutor that you will not give him information on a certain Panamanian corporation or foundation because of the aforementioned contract. He stews and huffs and puffs but cannot get you to break. So now court is in recess. Most prosecutors will begin to come to the same conclusion as follows:

• The first thing the lawyer has to do is talk to his client who is probably trying to get money out of you. If he knows what the agreement is, he will explain it. If not, he will claim a lack of knowledge is hurting his ability to defend him or her in court.
• The prosecutor will then think that he has no idea what will happen if he demands to the judge that this confidentiality agreement be thrown out. If the judge upholds the agreement, his case is shot. If the judge goes the other way, his case has just been made. Either way, unless he has encountered the same judge in the same case before, he has no real way of knowing.
• Once the lawyer really begins to consider the entire mess he and his client could potentially be in if his opposition decides to counter sue them, he may begin to sing a different tune.
• The lawyer also will try to get his way out of asking for this unusual demand by asking for more money to do so. Think big numbers that most people would be reluctant to even think about.
• If all else fails, remember it is still in the judges hands whether or not you are forced to reveal your confidentiality agreement.

In most cases, lawyers will get scared away by all the risks or if they do not their clients will. And even the couple sneaky ones who get through still have to face the music of the judge. If the judge is on your side, you won’t have any problems. So in most cases, having a confidentiality agreement will get you out of sticky messes.