Most of those kinds of clauses aren't enforceable in court, which is why those contracts always have a clause somewhere near the bottom that states that the unenforceability of any clause does not invalidate the contract, and the invalid clause can be severed from the document without affecting anything else. Basically, they include stuff like that to see what they can get away with. It's all about scare tactics, and seeing who will push back in court, and who will just walk away from their careers to avoid the threat of court action.
I had a job like that. I was working as a bookkeeper for a while, and the guy who ran the company pulled us in after a few weeks of trial runs, to put this three page document in front of us. I've still got a copy stored in a file folder somewhere. I took it to my lawyer, and after he read it, he laughed, and told me he wanted to know who wrote such a piece of ridiculous garbage, because he wanted to buy him a drink! If the document had, in theory, stood up in court, anyone signing it would have agreed that the entire field of accounting was covered under his proprietary trade secrets, and that any attempt to practice any of those "trade secrets" would result in the offending party being charged an amount, agreed upon in advance in the document, to be 150% of the full value of all monies and dollar-value items received by the former employee, as determined by the employer, in his sole opinion.
Oh, and the non-competition clause was set for 25 years.
The whole thing was a piece of trash, and the lawyer assured me that not a single clause was actually enforceable in a court of law. a halfway competent lawyer could get the whole thing thrown out. The reason? While a company can require agreements that you won't immediately go work for their direct competition, or solicit their clients, no one is allowed to prevent you from earning a living. That's simply illegal. And as for signing something that gives away that right... you can't. There's a whole range of rights a person has that they can't sign away, no matter how willingly they may be attempting to. One of those rights is the right to earn a living.
Best advice I could ever give you, is always, always, ALWAYS tell the employer that you want your lawyer to have a look over the contract, and you'll get back to them the next day. Then find a lawyer you trust, and ask if he can give it a quick once-over and give you their advice.
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Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.
I had a job like that. I was working as a bookkeeper for a while, and the guy who ran the company pulled us in after a few weeks of trial runs, to put this three page document in front of us. I've still got a copy stored in a file folder somewhere. I took it to my lawyer, and after he read it, he laughed, and told me he wanted to know who wrote such a piece of ridiculous garbage, because he wanted to buy him a drink! If the document had, in theory, stood up in court, anyone signing it would have agreed that the entire field of accounting was covered under his proprietary trade secrets, and that any attempt to practice any of those "trade secrets" would result in the offending party being charged an amount, agreed upon in advance in the document, to be 150% of the full value of all monies and dollar-value items received by the former employee, as determined by the employer, in his sole opinion.
Oh, and the non-competition clause was set for 25 years.
The whole thing was a piece of trash, and the lawyer assured me that not a single clause was actually enforceable in a court of law. a halfway competent lawyer could get the whole thing thrown out. The reason? While a company can require agreements that you won't immediately go work for their direct competition, or solicit their clients, no one is allowed to prevent you from earning a living. That's simply illegal. And as for signing something that gives away that right... you can't. There's a whole range of rights a person has that they can't sign away, no matter how willingly they may be attempting to. One of those rights is the right to earn a living.
Best advice I could ever give you, is always, always, ALWAYS tell the employer that you want your lawyer to have a look over the contract, and you'll get back to them the next day. Then find a lawyer you trust, and ask if he can give it a quick once-over and give you their advice.
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Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.