Legal Question in Business Law in Illinois

Re: No compete clause signed by an employee.

Non Compete clauses are bound by the "reasonableness" doctrine, i.e. they cannot be so restrictive as to be unreasonable. Typically there are geographic and time limits involved.

I will be happy to review the details for you, please contact my office at your convenience.

Re: No compete clause signed by an employee.

Illinois is a "right to work" state, and strictly construes non-competes. You have unusual facts, in that someone from the company, the HR guy, apparently waived the non-compete. The issue is whether he had actual or apparent authority to do so. I can review the documents and the circumstances under which they were signed, and then tell you whether they are enforceable, and whether the HR guy's waiver affects the answer.

The more important issue is whether you, as the new employer, want to be embroiled in litigation, if it can be avoided by restricting your new employee from some activities. It may be worth a letter in response to the company attorneys, before determining your further course of action.

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As you are aware, in Illinois there are various deadlines for filing a complaint, filing an answer to a complaint, or taking other action in order to preserve your legal rights, and avoid a complete loss of those rights. You should retain counsel immediately in order to be fully advised of your rights, and to be fully informed of the applicable time period within which those rights must be asserted. If you were to delay in doing so, it might result in your potential cause of action being forever barred.

Re: No compete clause signed by an employee.

If I were representing you in this matter, my first question would be whether or not there is any evidence that the former employer waived its rights under the non-compete. Did your employee receive a copy of this writing?

I would also want to know if the waiver was supported by any form of consideration, for instance a release signed by the employee?

Finally, I would have to review the non-compete agreement itself. Such agreements are frowned upon generally, since they restrict a person's right to work. I would assess whether or not the agreement was enforceable.

You should have an attorney look at these and other related questions, then contact the former employer's attorney. There may be a way to resolve this problem with a minimum of fuss.