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I've been sued twice over non compete language. The good news is they are reasonably hard to enforce because most judges will ultimately agree that people have
by goatherders 9y ago
I've been sued twice over non compete language. The good news is they are reasonably hard to enforce because most judges will ultimately agree that people have a right to change employers. The bad news is it can cost a lot of money to get to the point where the judge says that.
- djeikyb 9y agoif you don't mind, what state / country?
- goatherders 9y agoTwice in Texas for me. In both cases I made paying my legal fees part of my comp with the new employer. The first time I thought a suit might happen. The second time I was sure it would.
- rhapsodic 9y ago> The good news is they are reasonably hard to enforce because most judges will ultimately agree that people have a right to change employers. The bad news is it can cost a lot of money to get to the point where the judge says that. Yes, and that's the rub. I've had several recruiters respond with, "oh don't worry, that's not enforceable" when I objected to an onerous NCC in a contract they presented me with. My response was "perhaps, but you could use it to drag me through the courts and make my life hell, so remove it altogether, or we're done here." In each case, it was after I had verbally accepted a verbal offer. And in each case, they removed the NCC.
- krisoft 9y agoSo you signed a second non-compete after being burned once?
- goatherders 9y agoI didn't get burned either time. See: I had an agreement for someone else to pay my legal bills.
- siegel 9y agoYes, it costs a lot of money to fight a lawsuit your former employee may bring against you. But you might not ever get there. In my experience, nasty employers will directly contact and threaten the employee's new employer, which can result in the employee being fired (or maybe never hired in the first place).