Legal Question in Business Law in Pennsylvania

Re: ex-boss wants to sue me

You asked about getting sued for letting your clients know about your new employer.

In many fields this is an area of contention. Even in law there are specific rules about when and how an employee-attorney may approach his former clients about his/her new employment arrangement.

In the case of hairstylists the matter is clear that barring a non-compete agreement a stylist can seek to bring his/her clients with them when they leave. It doesn't matter whether the new salon is across the street or across the county. What you couldn't have done is solicit customers of the salon that were not your customers.

Your old boss is also incorrect to suggest that there was any impropriety especially where you used information you developed to solicit your own clients. (You didn't use the information he developed did you?)

It is not uncommon for stylists to even place ads in the local paper informing customers that they have switched salons. In the end the customer has the right to choose the stylist he/she wants.

A good investigative tool would be to see if the old salon will schedule an appointment for a new client that requests you. This would make a great counter-claim demonstrating that he is using blatantly illegal and unethical tactics to compete. Moreover, a 40 minute difference is likely enough to avoid any potential conflicts even if there were a non-compete. How many of your clients are going to travel that far? At least one must have refused to make the switch so that he got the information.

You can't prevent the suit, but on the facts you provided it is likely that the suit would be unsuccessful.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Roger