How puckered should my butt be - regarding non compete

I got a call from my new company's legal department that my past employer sent a letter requesting information regarding my current geography, and included a map of my old one to confirm there is no overlap.

Well there is some overlap regarding geography. My scope of work is slightly different than before. I used to be a subcontractor who made the material my crews installed and worked at end user facilities, but now I just work for a manufacturer who sells to contractors who then line up their own business. (Same "type" of products). I no longer hold contractors or collect PO's from the end user.

There can be instances where I go into a facility with a contractor, but it would be something they line up, not me.

I've been gone 6 months now, so either this is procedural or someone narc'd.

Should I be lubing up for an impending legal ass ramming?

If you signed a no compete and you competed, well....

Eh, I would tell them to go **** themselves.

However, non compete agreements can legally only have a very narrow scope now, and frankly if you signed one longer than about 90 days, you're an idiot.

They forced my hand to sign one in the past. But I did give it to my new job before I started so they knew...

So you were independent or 1099 and now are W2?  If so, most of the non-competes that I have had don't cover that.  Not that it can't happen.

Not an attorney but I believe a lot of non-competes end up getting shot down in court...some because they were signed under duress.

W2 on both.

Just not sure why they would send the letter 6 months later.

Scare tactic or start of a suit?

At worst you catch a case and do a nickel in Chino.

Six months is strange unless some new manager read your agreement and thinks you violated your agreement. In MI it used to be 90 days but laws or legal opinions can change.

Talk to your current employer's legal dept. to see if you're in deep. Hopefully you showed them a copy of your agreement before you started seeing old customers.

Tell your new employer to tell your ex-employer to go **** themselves. Do you seriously think they are going to sue you? You are really that important that they will spend $100K in legal fees because you are selling dog food in their area?

In my business, it can be 1-2 years. Depends on the situation. And if they asked you for it, prepare to bend over.

The Matador wrote:Should I be lubing up for an impending legal ass ramming?

Lube up.

      

You pissed in someones Cheerios if they care enough to pursue this.

tTito wrote:Tell your new employer to tell your ex-employer to go **** themselves. Do you seriously think they are going to sue you? You are really that important that they will spend $100K in legal fees because you are selling dog food in their area?

I've gone over this in my head a few times.

They do have a full time legal department, but I'm sure they have better things to do than to go after me.

I was profiting the company 400-500k/yr, so who knows if it's "worth" it to them.

If its a big outfit you need to take it seriously, right up to the idea that your current employer could take the worst case and cut you loose while the old employer goes after you personally for damages.

I've known radio people who got screwed when they were terminated, paid a severance smaller than their salary and had to stay out of the medium for 12 months because in that world of conglomerates their former employer always seemed to have a presence in a decent size market.

Know a medical device guy who left the sales force for management with a major multi-national company and transferred to the West Coast.  Was out there for 15 months as a West Coast regional mgr. Then got recruited to be a manager covering everything east of the Mississippi for a start up that included his old territory as a sales rep.

The multi-national's division VP decided to go after him.  New employer backed him with legal help but it went to arbitration with a small award to the multi-nation.  So small the divisionVP who went after him was let go 6 weeks after the award.