How enforceable are “non-compete” clauses in contracts?
I have seen the clause enforced more than once. I think it has a lot to do with the industry you are in, and also with how the courts in your area look at stuff like that. The courts in my area are very conservative, and extremely pro-industry and pro-employer, and I think that has a lot to do with it. One of the guys I went to high school with was actually taken to court, and the court ruled that he had violated the clause. It ended up not mattering much, as the company which sued him simply wanted him to either stop working for the competition, or pay a hefty fine if he kept the job. By the time the court ruled on it, he had already been offered a different job with a state agency. The company which had sued him didn’t care one fig at that point, because 90% of the contracts they do are bids for the very agency he went to work for. The company was an engineering firm, and he is not an engineer, but rather a planner, and the company does most of their business with our state Departmen
