> I think the clamant would be crazy to take them up on it

Why? They may very well be offering him more money, just to get his signature on the NDA. I don't think AT&T is worried about <1K ... they'd much rather he shut up.

Would this mean that if anyone wants to get out of their AT&T contract instead of paying ridiculous fees, they simply need to tether their phone?

The TOS is not that clear to me, but there may be a possibility that you would have to pay the ETF even if AT&T terminates your contract.

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/legal/index.j...

You think they are paying a fancy Newport Beach attorney in an attempt to get out of an $850 judgement? Seriously?

The fancy Newport Beach attorney gets paid the same regardless if he's chasing down this one guy or doing something else.

uh, no, lawyers bill their clients by the hour, they are not salaried.

Corporate lawyers are generally on retainer

A retainer is just a pre-payment for hourly pay. They draw against it. Any unused portion is returned to the client or saved for future hourly work.

What I meant was that this lawyer would be doing other work, for the same pay. If you want to go down the opportunity cost route, you could make the argument that this is some misguided (and frankly, hilarious) attempt to prevent news of being able to sue for this kind of thing out of the public eye. Hence the NDA.

Well, it could be an in-house attorney.

Opportunity cost of his time.