What a great first impression I’m making. I’ve already confessed that my living situation sucks, and now I’m confessing that my work situation really sucked.
I’ll start by saying that I thought I left my previous employer on good terms, but she was an awful, awful employer. She owned the company and hired me as a business development coordinator. I started getting weird vibes that she was psychopath and abandoned ship when things got really bad. The company was hemorrhaging money and I know this because of my conversations with the accountant. Despite that, I tried to help.
The job was holding me back, so I quit after others were saying that they would quit if they could. I emailed these people who I thought were friends, but somehow the boss lady found out that I emailed them saying that I think they are talented and if they want to quit I would try and help them find a job elsewhere.
My ex employer went nuts and had her lawyer send me a cease and desist letter threatening me with a potential lawsuit saying the company is figuring out what they can legally do to me. What the?
I’m grateful that I have a great support network because this shook me up pretty badly today. I’m still shook up or else I wouldn’t be posting.
So, what’s going to happen? Am I going to be sued? My support network is telling me not to worry because what I said in email was so ambigouous. All I said was: I recognize your talents. If you’re looking for a change, let me know and I’ll help you out.
I am not your lawyer or even any type of lawyer at all. That said, non-compete agreements are generally unenforceable in most U.S. states and the U.S in general barring exceptional circumstances such as proprietary knowledge. That is unlikely to be the case in your circumstances. They are added to employee contracts as scare tactics that hardly ever work in court.
Most states are all about at-will employment and non-compete clauses can be added freely to any employment agreement but they worth about as much as the paper going down the toilet in the men’s room. Courts aren’t going to stop you from getting gainful employment just because someone made you sign something to get a former job.
The standard advice here is to consult with an employment lawyer if you can. Just a consultation should be fine and it should cost little to nothing. Your options are to ignore the letter because it is just a threat and not a real enforcement or to threaten to counter sue on your own. I have seen this situation a number a times and never known anyone that either didn’t win because the other side just gave up or the courts ruled in their favor after a brief hearing. In one case, the threatening former employer had to pay two years wages to the person they tried to retaliate against.
Again, I am not a lawyer but you have plenty of options and you should win if you choose to pursue it at all based on my experiences. Personally, I would just pay another lawyer $100 or so to send a letter threatening to counter-sue with escalation if they send you even one more correspondence with stiff damages attached. The lawyer already knows they won’t win so that should work.
How would I go about a counter sue? She’s definitely harassing me. When I quit, she emailed me saying how disorganized I was and that I left everything a mess - lies. Then, her lawyer sends me email saying that my ex employer is threatening to sue me.
Also, I’m in Maryland and would love some help finding a lawyer.
A question for any REAL lawyers: How seriously should anyone take any kind of e-mailed legal demand/threat like this? Wouldn’t a “real” legal notice of this sort be written on paper, on a lawyer’s letterhead, and sent via certified or registered snail-mail?
I would think it’s step 1 or at least step .5 of any legal action. If I were the OP, I’d take a copy of the NDA/noncompete, the email from the lawyer and the emails to the employees to another lawyer and see what they think. Hopefully they can return fire with a letter to the ex-boss inviting her to eat an econo-sized bag of dicks.
Would love too, but I’m poor and also currently unemployed. Well, I’m doing freelance web design. Ehem… emphasis on free. My current project is for my girlfriend’s friend’s local business. They can’t afford to pay me, but I offered just so I could add it to my portfolio.
Looking for new jobs at the moment. I just wanted to get the heck out of dodge if you know what I mean. I told friends and family that I quit and they responded with “I don’t blame you at all.”
You never know. I would guess they want the OP to stop emailing the current employees. We obviously don’t know enough details to conclude if anything was done in violation of a signed agreement, but I’m skeptical. A lawsuit is expensive, and what would they expect to collect if the eventually prevailed? A nasty letter is cheap and often effective. I am reluctant to offer any specific advice, but if the OP doesn’t do anything more, I would be quite surprised to see a lawsuit filed based on the facts as described.
I’m no lawyer, but I do have a lawyer’s advice on this: The most important thing is that you have some confirmation the communication was received. Certified mail can achieve that. E-mail only gives you confirmation if they respond. So e-mail is not a bad step given that it’s fast and cheap, but you can’t be sure that it will give you what you want. (And if you do have to serve the victim some other way, the e-mail might put them on the alert to refuse certified mail and make themselves hard to find.)
Your OP is very ambiguous, and it leaves out key details which make it impossible for even an informed layman to offer advice, other than the obvious “See a lawyer.”
Did you sign this non-compete agreement when you were hired, or when you parted ways? If it’s the latter, did they give you anything of value, such as a separation package, or insurance benefits?
What did you agree to in this non-disclosure agreement? There are many elements of non-competes, and it’s essential to know what you agreed to:
[ul]
[li]Did you agree not to work for a company that directly competes with your former company for x months? [/li]
[li]Did you agree not to work for a company, or start a company, that directly competes with your former company within an x mile radius? Or x states away?[/li]
[li]Did you agree not to contact current or currently known prospective clients from your former employer? Did you agree not to take proprietary information with you, such as client lists, phone numbers, and email addresses? [/li]
[li]Did you agree not to induce former co-workers to work for another company, aka “employee raiding”? [/li]
[/ul]
3) You say that you emailed people who you thought were your friends, but you gave no indication who these ‘friends’ were. Were they clients of your former employer? Co-workers? Business associates?
Depending on who these friends are, and what language is in the agreement, your email may be in violation. If you never succeeded in luring anyone away, then the possibility of them actually filing a lawsuit against you is very slim, because you haven’t harmed them.
Why did you email these ‘friends’ and say, “I recognize your talents. If you’re looking for a change, let me know and I’ll help you out.”
How were you proposing to “help them out?” given that you’re currently working for free and looking for a job yourself? Sounds like you’re either misleading your friends, or you’re not being entirely forthcoming here.
When asked if you actually stole any employees, you answered “No. I can’t. The only business I have is a sole proprietorship and that’s registered in another state because I moved recently.”
Are you saying, “I can’t possibly be in violation of stealing employees BECAUSE my business is registered in another state.” or “I can’t steal employees because my sole proprietorship is so far away that these people would never agree to move that far away.”
She made us sign it on a whim. She pretty much emailed us randomly that we had to sign this non-compete. This is when I was several months in this job. No I didn’t receive any benefits.
No, I’m not competing with her company.
They were co-workers.
They hated our boss and thought she was incompetent and said that they wanted to quit but couldn’t afford to. If I strike it rich and was able to hire them, yes I would. If I got a new job and they asked me to look for competent people, I would recommend them for a position.
I can’t steal employees because legally I can’t hire anyone with a sole-proprietorship. I would have to register changes, perhaps create an llc, get workman’s comp insurance, etc. I can’t afford it.
IIAL, and I’m trying to put together the facts of the matter, but your posts are somewhat vague.
It looks like she doesn’t have a leg to stand on and is just trying to intimidate you. Lawyers do this all the time. When I worked doing (in part) PI work, demand letters were a dime a dozen. It’s typically a scare tactic. (I have a great story about representing a “dancer” in a car wreck case, and when the insurance company said they would take it to court, it turned out that we didn’t have any legal basis to sue)
Without seeing whatever it is you signed or getting a summary of it, it’s impossible to say for sure what (if any) cause of action she would take against you. “Reasonableness” is typically the standard in matters such as this, and I’m a little confused as to her complaint.
Is it that you are (allegedly) “poaching” employees or that you are engaging in a similar business as her. If it’s the latter, being as how you are in another state, she doesn’t have any claim. The “poaching” is a little trickier, but common sense makes me think that it’s a baseless claim as well.
People their want to quit though. I think she’s making it seem like me sending them emails is going to get them to quit and come with me. I’m not hiring them, but they are talented and I think they would be able to get better opportunities which is what I’m trying to do for myself. The consensus is that she’s incompetent and they don’t want to work for her. They are prime examples of wage slaves. Hell, one guy that I sent the email to said that he encourages people to quit that place all the time.
But no, I’m not going to hire them. I don’t want to deal with that. I’d rather just be in business for myself and that’s it.
I need to add that the reason they won’t quit is that they can’t get hired anywhere else. And I’m sad to say that it was true for me too. I was working a job that was paying less. I took the job because it offered just a little more with less work. And now I’m going on interviews for better jobs. If there’s only a chance at a better life, I’m going to take it within reason.
Then it sounds like you are fine. If you don’t have any commercial gain from their actions, but instead are offering emotional support, there’s no cause of action against you. Did they initially contact you, or did you reach out to them? In the first communication(s), was the intent of the email re: them leaving the company, or was it brought up in passing or after a few communications?
She’s just trying to bully you. I wouldn’t worry about it.
Out of curiosity, when was the email received? You haven’t received the certified copy as of yet?
If she didn’t give you anything of value (a job, a raise, a promotion) in return for signing the non-compete, it might not hold up in court.
You still never answered what specifically you agreed to. It probably doesn’t matter in this case because you caused her no harm, but in the future, you should keep a copy of such agreements, so that you don’t find yourself in trouble.
I still don’t understand why you’d contact your coworkers and offer to “help them out” when you have no means to help them out.
Employee raiding is prohibited in some non-competes. Depending on what you agreed to in your non-compete, this may not be kosher. You really should figure out what you signed before you get yourself into real legal trouble.