Legal Question in Employment Law in Florida
I have my recently former employee asking me to remove all reference to employment with his company from , linkedin.com and my own site. (he approved these "articles" while I was employed there and even had make specific edits to them). He does not want to pay me to make these edits.
In addition he has a non disclose agreement that he says prevents me from disclosing any of the web sites I created for him in the last year.
In addition he says that the non compete agreement prevents me from doing web design or internet marketing for 5 years because it was a "major business activity". He sells lumber, I'm a web designer.
In addition these agreements that I did sign at time of hire start with the phrase "In good consideration for" I was expecting a severance package for my cooperation. There was non, in fact he wants me to do a little work for free and never mention what I've been working on for the last year. I can't get a job that way, and find that since I left due to his actions, I do not wish to do any we design for him for free.
2 Answers from Attorneys
You have a bit of a problem here because you signed these contracts when you were hired. People generally are free to contract for whatever they want (exceptions apply, of course). In Florida, non-compete agreements must be "reasonable" in time, geographic area and scope, and the Florida Statutes provide guidelines for what what is presumed "reasonable" and "unreasonable." Even if one provision of a non-compete is presumed unreasonable and thus unenforceable, the entire contract may not be invalid, and the court may essentially re-write the contract to make it reasonable.
In any event, no one will be able to comment on your specific situation without reading your contracts first. I strongly suggest you retain an attorney to review the contracts and advise you how to proceed. I offer a free half-hour consultation at my office in St. Pete and reasonable rates for contract review and advice.
You need to have a lawyer review the non compete and non disclosure agreements. Were they entered into at the time you were hired or when you left since you reference a severance situation. Feel free to call my office if you wish to discuss this matter further.
Scott Behren
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