Company Sues Former Employee Over Non-Competition Agreement

A security company sued a former employee claiming that he stole multiple clients from the company, reports the Southeast Texas Record.

The aggrieved company, Patriot Security, believes that another company, S&S Investigations and Security, lured one of Patriot's employees, George Adams into revealing confidential information.

George Adams had signed an agreement with Patriot which said that he would keep all the company's information secret until at least five years after his resignation or termination. However, after he lost his job at Patriot Security last year, he allegedly shared the information with S&S.

Adams' divulging information was not something that caught Patriot off guard. After he was terminated, they filed a lawsuit against him to ensure that he obeyed the original non-compete clause. And the court issued a temporary injunction against Adams. But it is aleged Adams actually ignored the order.

Non-competition agreements are generally not looked favorably upon by the courts. So to pass a court's evaluation, such an agreement has to be carefully written.

In order to be considered valid, a non-competition agreement must be supported by consideration at the time it is signed; protect a legitimate business interest of the employer; and be reasonable in scope, geography, and time.

Non-competition agreements must generally be supported by valid consideration -- the employee must receive something of value in exchange for the promise to refrain from competition. If an employee signs a non-competition agreement prior to beginning employment, the employment itself will be sufficient consideration for the promise not to compete.

If you are a small business with clients and seeking to assure that your former employees do not take your clients after leaving, you should speak to an attorney and discuss non-competition agreements.

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