During yesterday’s video from Katie Joy of Without a Crystal Ball she shared information from Derick Dillard involving the handling of the never seen but often cited all mighty contract. That same contract between TLC network and Jim Bob Duggar he uses as a cudgel on the family. Blessings and cursings, all courtesy of this unseen document.

According to Derick he had a job interview, for a good position. He had to buy a plane ticket, fly out, interview and all the associated expenses. He says he had a decent chance. Then he was told he could not be hired. Turns out that once Jim Bob got wind of Derick’s attempts at a job he approached the company, contract in hand, and scotched it for Derick.

You see it wasn’t a Jim Bob approved position. Derick says he has done this to a number of job attempts, dreams, and plans of the other Duggar kids, waving that never before seen contract around, and threatening to pull any support of those kids. Threatening law suits in the half million dollar range at least once I know of.

Derick also claims that he and Jill are not the only Duggar kids who want to break free of Jim Bob. I bet. Jim Bob’s control of the family sounds more like Joseph Stalin than Jesus. He literally uses this contract to keep the kids cash poor, enslaved to the show as unpaid labor, threatening to cast off anyone that disagrees with him.

Which led me to start thinking last night about that contract between Jim Bob and TLC. We all know that reality television contracts are notoriously controlling and only quasi-legal at best. The ones I’ve seen were more involved with the corporation owning your image to do with it what they liked, and came with hefty Non Disclosure Agreements not to disclose the inner workings of the show.

Watching the consequences of violating that NDA in the members of one of the reality shows I’ve seen more than a few episodes of, “Love After Lockup” Reportedly they stopped all payments to Clint Brady for running his mouth and violating the NDA.

While there is no telling what type of NDA agreement and image control TLC exert over Jim Bob it might be steep enough to keep him threatening anyone that balks at his control.

But the curious part of all this is the fact that no one else has seen the contract, or even signed it. Not even the legally adult Duggars. How can you possibly be held to the terms of a contract you did not sign? Very difficult at best, likely not even legal at all for Jim Bob to try and do so.

It’s pretty obvious why Jim Bob would have initially set up the contract with only him signing and the children being voluntary labor. Because even Arkansas has child labor laws, including child labor laws about entertainment. By doing the contract this way neither Jim Bob or TLC had to meet that pesky requirement not to employ anyone under the age of fourteen years old. Jim Bob keeps all the money, and no one is the wiser that he and TLC openly flouted the child labor laws of the state to the detriment of the emotional, mental and physical well being of the children.

And about child welfare, many states have some form of the “Jackie Coogan” law. The law states that parents much establish an investment account, or a trust to legally protect the majority of a child performer’s earnings until they reach legal age. Too many times in the distant past a child entertainer would see everything they earned squandered by their parents.

Arkansas does not have a Coogan Law, but don’t let that fool you. TLC is very familiar with the concept from their television show “Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo.” TLC was involved with getting the funds from the show put into legally mandated trust funds for all the children on the show instead of paying June Shannon. I cannot find any information on if Georgia is a state with the Coogan law, but they do have stricter laws on child entertainers than Arkansas. Including strict logging of every minute the child works to make sure they have time enough for education and rest.

No one looked out for the best interests, the safety, the education, the needed rest hours, or anything else for poor Jill Duggar Dillard and her brothers and sisters. The exploitation is still ongoing.

It’s looking more and more likely that TLC and Jim Bob Duggar exploited his children for the almighty dollar. Good fathers do not do this! This is child abuse.

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