Ever Been Sued?

[veritus]

This isn't related to photography, but I just received notice that I've been sued over an employment agreement with my previous employer. Long story short I have gone to work full-time for a company that was a former client of my previous employer. My contract stated that I could not go to work and directly compete with said employer. It said nothing about working full time for a previous client. I had two attorneys look the contract over prior to me taking the new position and they gave me the go. Before anyone suggests it, I've already turned this over to a group of attorneys that I have retained. Just curious if anyone had ever faced a suit that related to a non compete. I'm not really sure what to expect or what kind of ride I'm in for. On top of this, I'm in the middle of a nasty divorce that has been dragging on for almost two years. Oh well, at least I have my health.

[L Stegall]

Good that you are already working with attorneys you trust on this. I've been sued before by a lawyer who got fired from a case and I got hired to replace him. A totally bogus suit, but it dragged on for a long time and cost a lot of $ before I got a judgment for over $100,000 as a sanction for his frivilous claim (only to be taken away on a technicality by the court of appeals). Bottom line, it sucks to be the defendant, but hopefully, you will have a good judge and may be able to get out of it early on via motion. A sense of humor about it all helps a lot.

[Dsheree]

My husband and his attorney reserched this a couple of years ago before he opened his own pest control company after working for a bigger company that made him sign one of those. My understanding (and I'm sure your attorney has already told you this)....in Texas you cannot keep someone from working and making a living regardless of what you sign.

They told him to open his company but not go after the other companies customers for a year just to play nice....the year is up now and the customers are far game.

Good luck with it all....getting sued sucks.

[adirty1]

It's no fun. But it sounds like you should be in pretty good shape. Really depends on your judge. I have had two friends go through this and both won but, it took about a year to settle. Each case was on the edge of breaking the contract and truthfully broke down to how the judge viewed the contract. Both friends gave me the same advice when signing a non compete contract. Get a lawyer to read it and make changes to it to be as fair as possible.

good luck and keep us posted.

[STP Images]

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[veritus]

Originally Posted by Paraquat

First, I am not a lawyer and I recommend that you follow your counsel's advice to the "T".

I hope that my former employer is not vindictive, but I wouldn't put it past them.

My Example: I worked for employer servicing widgets for client A, client B, client C, etc. Client B is happy with my service, but does not care for employer so they send written notice to employer to cancel services. Services cancel and then client B makes me a direct job offer to become an employee of client B.

I accept the offer after I have ALREADY left employer and two months later I get sued. The nice thing my new employer is a city, so I have resources such as city attorneys at my disposal. I always try to do the right thing, so I hope for once someone else does the same.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement everyone!

[Duffy Pratt]

Of course, it will first of all depend on the non-compete you signed. But the good news is that Courts are skeptical about non-compete agreements, and will narrow the terms of a non-compete where the employer has over-reached.