Legal Question in Employment Law in Florida

Re: Non compete agreement

If there truly was duress as defined by law, then the contract may not be valid. I would guess, though, that the duress you speak of does not rise to that level, so if you signed the contract, you are likely stuck with it. It is possible that if you resign right away, you might not have to honor the contract because the employer would have no basis upon which to enforce it, given that you would not yet have learned their business and customers so could not harm them if you went to work for a competitor. But that would mean negotiating with the employer to end the contract if you leave right away. Otherwise, you would not know until you were sued.

In any case, negotiation is your best bet, and you would likely do better with an attorney. Your argument would be that you were under duress to sign in order to keep the job, did not understand it completely and did not have it reviewed by counsel. You now want to do that, and are willing to give a reasonable agreement to the employer, but not one that is unfair to you.

If you can afford to spend some money on an attorney and want to see whether it is worth your time to pursue this, feel free to email directly to me.

Good luck.

Jeff Sheldon

Jeffrey L. Sheldon

The Sheldon Law Firm

CAVEAT: This is only general advice based on limited facts and knowledge of the situation. It thus can not be relied upon as legal advice nor it the author responsible or liable for any actions by the parites involved in the matter.