Dan and I give our opinions on the validity of non-compete agreements everyday.
Clients will ask us to review, analyze and evaluate their agreements under Virginia law. Occasionally, a client will ask us to guarantee that their agreement is or is not valid.
Because there is no statute on non-compete agreements, and each case will be evaluated by a Virginia judge on a case by case basis, we cannot guarantee that a Court will agree with our opinion.
We can guarantee the following:
1. Non-compete litigation is costly, financially and emotionally.
2. Many employers will spend more money than they have, to pursue and shut down a competing employee.
3. If you leave on bad terms, the chances of litigation increase dramatically.
4. If you breach your agreement, or it looks like you breach your agreement, the attorneys for the employer will look for other wrongs, such as conversion, trade secret act, breach of fiduciary duty, etc.
No, I cannot guarantee that a judge will agree with my assessment, but I can guarantee there are better ways to spend your time than defending yourself in Court.