Legal Question in Employment Law in Colorado

Re: Quit job to work from home

Answering this question is a bit difficult without knowing what exactly the document you signed said, but generally noncompetition agreements are not favored in Colorado. Colorado statute 8-2-113 governs such agreements: any covenant not to compete is void unless it involves: 1) a contract for the purchase and sale of a business or assets of a business; 2) any contract for the protection of trade secrets; 3) any contractual provision providing for the recovery of the expenses of educating and training an employee who has served the employer for less than 2 years; and 4) executive & management personnel and officers and employees who constitute professional staff to executive & management personnel (eg. key employees & executives).

Stealing customers potentially falls into the 2nd category - trade secrets. The agreement you signed would have had to have been drafted to address that issue. Determining whether a customer list is in fact a trade secret can be a tricky task. Just calling it a trade secret is not enough; the employer must have taken certain steps to keep that information confidential (protect it). If the information can be collected from sources that are public, using what you know in your head, it would be hard to argue that it is a secret. The safest approach (to avoid being sued - you can get sued and be forced to incur substantial costs/fees even if the suit ultimately fails) might be to verbally tell clients your intentions (no paper trail) and use a newspaper announcement to make a public announcement rather than direct mail. Trade secret litigation is difficult and it may not succeed against you, but you also probably don't want to be dragged into a lawsuit while you're trying to start a new business.