I have a friend who took a former employer to tribunal, employer preferred to pay him early settlement compensation, signed mutual NDA not allowing any party (including employees) to disclose the existence of that legal dispute and later (unsurprisingly) went out of business.
Now my friend has been told by an interviewer in the company he applied to that they contacted his former colleague and he disclosed the existence of dispute. While my friend had a very good reason to take his former employer to court this is not what his prospective employer would be glad to learn.
Is there any legal way to stop former colleagues who were aware of the dispute from spreading this information (not necessarily libellous but still unwanted) to any new prospective employers, especially informally?
If there is no legal remedy then it appears that the golden rule is no matter how wrong your employer is, never take them to court if you want another job..