Your old noncompete form agreement may miss the mark
RBE Attorney Donald Smit wrote an article for the Indiana Lawyer title “Smith: Your old noncompete form agreement may miss the mark.”
It seems that little in employment law stays the same. For instance, cases over the past two decades have eroded the enforceability of certain noncompete agreement terms (aka restrictive covenants). Thus, a standard form noncompete agreement drafted in the 1990s may not withstand a court challenge if used today. This article will focus on “freshening up” noncompete agreements to increase the likelihood of enforcement success in the current legal environment.
Noncompete agreements are typically found in two situations. The first is when a business is being sold and the purchaser wants to keep the seller from opening a competing business. In such a setting, courts have generally found that the parties are on relatively equal footing when it comes to negotiating the agreement, and courts will allow more restrictive language to be included. See E.T. Prods., LLC v. D.E. Miller Holdings, Inc., 872 F.3d 464 (7th Cir. 2017). The other setting, the employment context, will be further analyzed here…
Author Donald S. Smith
Don Smith limits his practice to representing employers and executives in labor and employment matters. He defends employers in cases pending before state and federal courts, the National Labor Relations Board, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Indiana Civil Rights Commission, U. S. Dept. of Labor, OSHA, IOSHA, Indiana Dept. of Workforce Development, and Indiana Worker’s Compensation Board. Don advises employers concerning various employment issues such as employee handbooks, employment agreements, severance agreements, covenants not to compete, restrictive covenants, wrongful termination, collective bargaining, labor arbitration, unions, discrimination, harassment, wage and hour matters, unemployment compensation and worker’s compensation.
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Posted on August 19, 2020 by Donald S. Smith