Employment Contracts

Craft noncompete agreements to protect your business interests

09/11/2015

Employers often require key employees to sign noncompete agreements ensuring that the employee will not use information or customer contacts gained during the course of employment to benefit a competitor. In return, the employer offers the employee “consideration”—maybe extra pay or, more commonly, access to the protected information, which enables the employee to succeed on the job. Each state has a unique set of laws governing noncompete agreements.

Texas court issues injunction preventing customer poaching

09/09/2015

A federal court in Texas has issued an injunction preventing a former salesperson for a plastics company from soliciting customers on behalf of his new employer. The competitor had hired the employee despite a nondisclosure and nonsolicitation agreement he had signed.

Federal court edits noncompete pact

08/19/2015

A federal court in Minnesota has invoked Texas law to rewrite a noncompete agreement that it decided was too broad.

Failure to renew contract can be basis for lawsuit

08/13/2015

Some employers mistakenly believe that if they offer annual contracts, they can’t be sued for not renewing a contract. That’s just not true if the former employee can prove she wasn’t rehired for a discriminatory reason.

Unspecified commission? Jury decides who to believe

07/29/2015

For jobs based on written employment contracts, what the agreement says typically governs all the terms and conditions of employment. If something is unclear or unstated, what the parties do later likely will influence eventual judicial interpretation.

Court: Employee who agrees to arbitration must stick to it

07/17/2015

The Court of Appeal of California has reversed a lower court order denying arbitration and ordered the case into arbitration instead.

Broad arb clause can cover bias, retaliation, too

07/17/2015

A federal court considering whether a broad arbitration clause included in an employment contract bars discrimination and retaliation claims has concluded it does. That’s good news if you use employment contracts and want to push any subsequent employment-related claims into arbitration.

How should we handle news that employee previously signed a noncompete agreement?

07/09/2015

Q. We received a letter from a competitor informing us that our new employee used to work for them and is now in violation of noncompetition agreement with the competitor. What should we do?

Suit filed? Arbitration pact may still work

07/09/2015

Employers use arbitration agreements to keep employment-related litigation out of the courts. But what if you don’t have an arbitration agreement in place when former employees file a wage-and-hour class action lawsuit against your company? Can you suddenly spring an arbitration agreement on current employees and expect it to work? Surprisingly, yes, according to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

These rules make arbitration agreements stick

05/22/2015

There’s no point in using arbitration agreements if they’re not enforceable. Make sure yours will hold up in court by following these rules.