Well guys and gals,
There has been lots of talk on here about whether-or-not a non-compete agreement will hold up in the court of law. We may find out very shorty. I received a letter from my previous AAhole employers attorney saying that I’m in violation of my agreement. I’ve been given 2 weeks to cease operations or they will “have no choice to seek legal action” against me.
I would love to tell you all how ridiculously restricting this agreement is but I would be in violation of “Disparaging & Damaging the corporation reputation”.
Yes ,I know that I had signed one. Did I fully understand what I was signing at the time, no. Any of you guy working for somebody [U]please[/U] fully comprehend you non-compete agreement if you signed.
I know there are a lot of company owners on here that agree with non-compete agreements so I ask no empathy from no one. If I had employees, I’d probably do the same thing. But my ex-employer rubbed this ol’ cats fur the wrong way. I don’t give up easily.
I keep you guys posted.
Yee Ha!
Have you contacted an attorney and discussed your situation yet?
First of all, don’t look for advice anywhere else but your attorney’s office, we are willing to help but there a lot involved and I believe that every case is unique.
From what I’ve heard if you can prove that what you’re doing is the only way to support your family you have nothing to fear, is a little more complex than that and everything depends on the judge, but if you consider the times that we all are going through right now you might have an edge.
Best of luck and keep us posted.
Not looking for advice and yes Im talking with an attorney.
did you know how to clean windows professionally before working for him?
The reason I ask is because window cleaning is a skilled trade. If you learned from him then he has taught you a trade.
Where I live this is a fact: If I teach you a trade, you sign a non-compete and you go off and use those skills to start another business in the area you can get in trouble. IF you knew the basic skills before working for him then you can just say you were already in the practicing trade before you worked for him…
Ask an attorney where you live. Evey state is different.
Sorry to hear about the frustration you’re gonna experience, and are experiencing…
Hope you come out of it okay
I’ve read that. No trade secrets were ever taken. I’ve been in this business 13 years prior to working for that company and established my own client list. Nothing was stolen that was never his to begin with you know. I feel fairly confident this would get thrown out if it went to court. It just sucks to have to throw out the cash to defend myself. I’m hoping for a some sort of compromise of some sort.
I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You had a business with clientele already…
I thought no-competes only meant that you could not solicit their clientele or use their private information to your advantage.
It doesn’t seem reasonable to me to completely bar someone from starting their own business. I can understand specifying certain areas of town as off limits, but to completely ban someone is ridiculous in my opinion.
I would bet anything nothing happens with this. Itll never make it to court. People send out legal letters all the time… Its just a business technique.
Sure every case is different, but really, a no compete claus is as worthless as the paper its written on. Even if you outright stole his customers it dont matter. I know its wrong, and personally I have never done it and will never do it because its just not right. Here in California, this is a “right to work” state…you ever see the movie Jerry Maguire? What did he do? When he was gonna get screwed he tried to get all his boss’s customers…yeah its only a movie but if it was me all he would get is a hearty laugh and a middle finger.
What is a judge gonna do really? Sue you? For how much exactly?
The judges here in California would laugh them outta court…frivolous lawsuits.
But then, I’ve spent many years in prison so really I could not care less about lawsuits or a judge or some punk who crys about some paper I signed. What are you gonna do…put me in jail? OOOOOOOOOOh no. Please.
Just do right by everyone, and you got nothing to worry about. Sounds like he’s upset because you went out on your own. Try to establish communication with him…try and make peace. Cant be that hard. Pay a visit him face to face and squash it.
Just about every window cleaner you’ll meet had to learn from somebody. And most of us learned from another window cleaner that was not a family member. I did.
Having said that I would think most “non-compete” arrangements are fairly simple. For instance, a friend of mine (back in the early 90’s) was working for a large telemarketing firm. He rose up to be the top dog in our region while working for the man. He decided that with some financial backing that he could start his own company but had signed a similar “no compete” agreement. His agreement essentially stated that if he left the company he could not work for a competing company or start his own company that did similar or the same type of services for a period of 6 months.
So he had his wife start the company (of course with him working behind the scenes) and they almost immediately blew up. My friend was 99% confident he had a winner and he did. He ended up selling about 10 years later for a huge sum and lives lavishly these days as a result.
Point is; there is a loophole for just about everything. But you have to smart about it. I dunno the language that was in your agreement and frankly don’t want to know. But if you in fact did sign and it stated an amount of time specified that you could not work in the field. You might lose.
That is what lawyers are for, to dissect every detail and hopefully find a way to challenge the premise. I wish you luck.
First off, Thank you for all the support. You don’t realize how much that means to me.
I talked with my attorney today. I received very professional and comforting advice from him. Although, I cant say much about it right now [ I’ll never know who’s on this forum who could relay info back to my former employer] I feel much more at ease about the situation. When this is all over I’ll spill the beans about my experiences. So for now, I’m going to continue pumping out the work the way my business performs.
Thanks again, and if someone has constructive critisizm about it. I’m open to it as well. I think we all can learn something from this.
I Hope it all goes well. Keep us posted. This is something we all could learn from. I too signed an agreement but they were so understnading of me doing this on my own.
Good luck Josh - send him a window cleaning quote for his offices 
This is the way my non-comp is set up. I don’t mind if you start your own biz as long as you don’t try and steal from me in the process.
I have had to get into it a few times with the law and some I let slide. It all depends on how they go about things. This topic here is one I would let slide by. I don’t know all the deatails or both sides but from the looks of it and my expierience in front of judge on these matters you will most likely be okay. Good luck to you.
Not necessarily. If the judge finds the request of “not working in the field” to be unlawful, it doesn’t matter if you sign it or not. Case in point: I once got hired by a company that told me that the job could be up to 55 hrs per week but they don’t pay overtime pay. Anything after 44 hrs is supposed to be overtime but they just paid straight time. Gave me a song and dance how this was standard in their industry. I agreed to it and got hired. 3 years later they had to pay me a couple of thousand in back pay because they asked me to agree to something unlawful. Doesn’t matter that I agreed to it. It violated labour laws.
I agree that this type of matter can get complicated real quick. However, I’ll stand by what I typed on this one, “You might lose” is realistic. It’s not definitive and leaves the door open either way.
So in Canada over time starts after 44 hours weekly?
That’s what is was in Ontario at the time, not sure what it is now. Whats the deal in your neck of the woods regarding overtime?
Anything over 40 working hours has to be paid at least 1.5 times your normal hourly rate. Holiday, vac, and other types of pay does not count towards hours worked, since you didnt work those hours.
