Non-Competitive Activity at New Employer: One of the most straightforward ways to overcome a noncompete is by ensuring that your new role with a different employer is in a non-competitive capacity. If you're not engaging in activities that directly compete with your former employer's business, you may be in the clear.
North Carolina This state adheres to the strict blue pencil doctrine, such that courts may not rewrite the covenant, but sever overbroad provisions and enforce the remainder. Ohio This state follows the “reasonable alteration” approach, in which courts have discretion to modify an overbroad covenant.
Fighting a Non-Compete in Ohio In the cases where a non-compete in Ohio is disputed, Ohio courts will evaluate the reasonability of the contract itself. The criteria used in this evaluation include: The duration prohibiting you from competing. The geographic area where you are prohibited from working.
In Georgia, a non-compete agreement may be declared unenforceable or invalid for a number of reasons, including: An unreasonable time period (under the newest version of Georgia's non-compete law, restraints lasting more than 2 years are presumed unreasonable) An unreasonable restriction on geographic territory.
Under Ohio law, noncompetition contracts are generally enforceable if they are reasonable. The question of what's reasonable is a very fact-specific one though. It depends on the particular circumstances of a given situation, and the Ohio Supreme Court has set out a legal test for courts to apply.
Non-Competitive Activity at New Employer: One of the most straightforward ways to overcome a noncompete is by ensuring that your new role with a different employer is in a non-competitive capacity. If you're not engaging in activities that directly compete with your former employer's business, you may be in the clear.
Take a non-competitive job or role outside your current employer's specialty. Prove your employer breached the contract to invalidate the non-compete clause. Argue that the non-compete is overly restrictive or not enforceable. Negotiate or prove no legitimate business interests exist to uphold the agreement.
To enforce your non-compete agreement against you in Court, your employer must be able to prove that the restrictions in the agreement: (1) are no greater than necessary to protect its legitimate business interests, (2) do not impose an undue hardship on you as the employee, and (3) are not injurious to the public.
Mutual Assent: The contracting parties must have a “meeting of the minds” and have the intent to be bound by the contract and its essential terms. Lawful purpose: The purpose of the contract may not be illegal. For example, a contract to hire a hit-man is not an enforceable contract.
Under Ohio law, noncompetition contracts are generally enforceable if they are reasonable. The question of what's reasonable is a very fact-specific one though. It depends on the particular circumstances of a given situation, and the Ohio Supreme Court has set out a legal test for courts to apply.