251-217-9733
Non-Compete & Non-Solicitation Disputes
A key employee left for a competitor. What happens now is decided in the next two weeks.
What These Agreements Actually Do
A non-compete restricts where and for whom someone may work after leaving. A non-solicitation restricts who they may approach (customers, employees, or both). They are frequently in the same document and they are enforced very differently.
Alabama restricts these agreements. Courts examine the scope, the duration, the geography, and whether there is a legitimate business interest genuinely being protected rather than simply competition being suppressed. An agreement copied from another state's template routinely fails, and an overbroad one can be harder to enforce than a modest one, which surprises employers who assumed a stronger clause meant stronger protection.
What We Handle
Injunction proceedings
Seeking or defending temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions, usually on a compressed timeline.
Enforcement actions
Pursuing a former employee, and frequently their new employer, for breach.
Defense
Representing employees and the businesses that hired them against overbroad or unenforceable restrictions.
Customer solicitation claims
Where the argument is about who contacted whom, and when.
Employee raiding
Where a departing employee takes a team with them.
Enforceability assessments
Before litigation, telling you honestly whether the clause you are holding will hold up.
Sound familiar?
Why the First Two Weeks Decide It
Most restrictive covenant disputes are resolved long before a trial date exists. Where an employer seeks an injunction, a court is asked to decide early (on limited evidence) whether to stop the employee working while the case proceeds. That ruling usually ends the dispute in practical terms, whichever way it goes.
Get the agreement reviewed
Enforceability is assessed before strategy. There is no point moving fast on a clause that will not hold.
Preserve the evidence
Emails, downloads, device activity, and customer contact records. This evidence is created in the days around a departure and disappears quickly.
Act, or decide not to
Delay is itself an argument against you. Choosing not to enforce is a legitimate decision; drifting into it is not.
Do not contact the customers to complain
Ill-judged communications to shared customers frequently generate a separate claim for interference or defamation.
Who does this work
William R. Lancaster
Four decades of employment litigation, including restrictive covenant enforcement and defense.
Jordan W Gerheim
Non-compete and restrictive-covenant disputes as part of a commercial litigation practice, alongside the drafting work that makes them enforceable.
Cost and related pages
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Frequently Asked Questions
Are non-competes enforceable in Alabama?
Sometimes, and the drafting matters enormously. Alabama restricts restrictive covenants and courts examine scope, duration, geography, and whether a legitimate business interest is genuinely being protected. Reasonable, specific agreements protecting real interests fare considerably better than sweeping ones. An overbroad clause is frequently weaker than a modest one.
We are hiring someone who has a non-compete. What is our exposure?
Potentially real, because the former employer may sue the new employer as well as the employee for interference. Have the agreement reviewed before the start date, not after the demand letter. There is often a way to structure the role that reduces the risk substantially, and it is far easier to do that in advance.
My non-compete says I cannot work anywhere in the Southeast for three years. Is that valid?
Very possibly not. Restrictions that sweep well beyond what an employer legitimately needs to protect are precisely what courts scrutinize. That said, do not assume unenforceability and act on the assumption (get it assessed, because being wrong is expensive and being right is not much comfort once you are enjoined).
What if there is no non-compete but they took our customers?
You may still have claims. Solicitation of customers using confidential information, breach of duty of loyalty during employment, and trade secret misappropriation do not all depend on a signed restrictive covenant. Trade Secret Litigation covers the information side.
Related Insights
This Is a Same-Week Problem
Call 251-217-9733 or book a Risk-Free Strategy Session today. Send the agreement ahead and we will read it before we speak.