Florida Estate Planning Lawyer Blog

As a Jacksonville Florida non-compete Lawyer, I often am asked about some of the provisions that are contained in a Florida employment agreement. I found an article on the Texas Non-Compete Law Blog, entitled Texas Executive Employment Agreements: Checklist for Employees and thought that the information would be relevant to my Jacksonville Clients. I have based this information on what was contained in that article, but modified removed some information and added some that is specific to Jacksonville and throughout Florida .

1. Term of Employment. Employment agreements are either for a fixed term or at-will. Most at-will employment agreement can be terminated by either party at any time for any reason. Some Jacksonville employment agreements are for a fixed term (e.g., a six-months or one-year term) also contain provisions pursuant to which the employer may terminate the employee “for any reason” on shorter notice (e.g., “thirty days’ notice”). Such an agreement is in reality a 30-day employment contract.

2. Position, job duties, location. Florida Employment agreements routinely contain provisions outlining what the employee’s title will be, what their duties will be, who the supervisor will be, and where the work will be performed.

3. Compensation. Employment agreements often reference compensation or salary and sometimes discretionary compensation (e.g. bonuses and stock options).
4. Termination for Cause. Employment agreements often provide that an employee may be terminated for “cause,” and “cause” is defined to include various acts or omissions by the employee. Some acts—like commission of a felony and embezzlement of company funds are fairly easy to understand. However, defining “cause” to include the employee’s failure to perform his/her job duties can be difficult because this can be subjective. Employees want what a clear non subjective definition of cause.

5. Classification. Employment agreements often reference an employees status as exempt or non-exempt. In some cases employees are classified as independent contractors. Whether or not an employee is an independent contractor, an employee, exempt, or non-exempt is often a factual analysis of the interactions amongst employees and their employers.

6. Nondisclosure Agreements. Employment agreements can contain prohibitions on the disclosure of the employer’s confidential or proprietary information to a third party. An employee needs to know what information the employer considers to be confidential or proprietary. Employers need to notify employees what information they consider confidential or proprietary.

7. Non-compete Agreements: can contain provisions limiting an employee’s right to compete with the employer, both during and after employment. The provision should specify activities in which the employee may not engage. In Florida the geographic scope of the restrictions must be reasonable. Terms of non-compete agreements are limited in Florida, most agreements that are in excess of 2 years are considered unreasonable and the court may shorten the term.

8. Non-solicitation Agreements. Along with non-compete provisions, some employment agreements contain prohibitions on soliciting the employer’s customers, its employees, and/or its vendors. In Florida, these provisions are enforceable.

9. Change in Control. What happens if the employer is purchased by another company? Should that affect the employee’s obligations? Should the employee be able to escape his non-compete and non-solicitation obligations? On a related note, should the employer be able to assign the agreement to another company (so that the “new” company can enforce the employee’s non-compete and non-solicitation obligations)? Employment agreements don’t always address these issues, but employees are wise to think about them.

10. Arbitration. Employment agreements often state that legal disputes between employers and employees must be submitted to binding arbitration (versus being litigated in court). Provisions like this can be one-sided (i.e., sometimes, only the employee is required to arbitrate its disputes, whereas the employer can go to court). Employers need to be mindful of the effects of agreeing to arbitrate disputes as opposed to litigate them.

11. Choice of Law and Forum Selection. Employment agreements usually specify the state whose law will govern the agreement and the place where suit must be filed in the event of a legal dispute. The latter can be especially problematic for an employee, because it may require her to bring any claims she may have in a foreign state, which can be very expensive.

Often after leaving your job your previous employer will try to hold you to the terms of a non-compete or non-solicitation agreement. An important part of determining the enforceability of the agreement is whether you can afford to defend a suit by the employer.
Although many non-compete agreements are not enforceable as written, courts will see if there is a way to reduce the scope by limiting the time, range of activities restricted, or the geographic restrictions if there is a legitimate business interest that the business is trying to protect.

There are many defenses to non-compete agreements and if you are willing to fight there is a chance you can settle or will a case. The best defense is to review and structure your agreement prior to executing it. It is important to have your agreement reviewed by a Florida Non-compete Attorney or a Florida Non-solicition Lawyer to determine what your chances of prevailing are.

This is the third part to a series on Protecting the Company's Privilege and the dangers of Email. Click here if you missed Part 1 and Part 2. Many Jacksonville Business Lawyers tell their clients that email can be very dangerous in the event of litigation. One should always be careful before pressing the send button.

Some of the things you should implement in regards to email are:

1) Provide training to employees teach them what the proper steps are to prevent inadvertent disclosures, spoliation, and other risks from occurring.

2) Always separate business advice from legal advise, use lead ins to make it clear that what is being provided is legal advise.

3) Indicate in the communications when the communication is for legal purposes or in anticipation of litigation.

4) Limit the distribution of any disclosure to avoid waiver of privileges.

5) Teach and train that any disclosure, even an unintended one, can be a waiver of the privilege.

6) Create, implement, and audit your firms document retention policy.

If you have question on your Document retention policy or how your firm is using email on an internal and external basis, be sure to have a Florida Business Lawyer or Attorney review and audit your procedures.

As a Jacksonville Florida non-compete Lawyer, I often am asked about some of the provisions that are contained in a Florida employment agreement. I found an article on the Texas Non-Compete Law Blog, entitled Texas Executive Employment Agreements: Checklist for Employees and thought that the information would be relevant to my Florida Clients. I have based this information on what was contained in that article, but modified removed some information and added some that is specific to Jacksonville and throughout Florida .

1. Term of Employment. Employment agreements are either for a fixed term or at-will. An at-will employment agreement can be terminated by either party at any time for any reason. Some employment agreements that are purportedly for a fixed term (e.g., a one-year term) also contain provisions pursuant to which the employer may terminate the employee “for any reason” on shorter notice (e.g., “thirty days’ notice”)—such an agreement is in reality a 30-day employment contract.

2. Position, job duties, location. Employment agreements routinely contain provisions outlining what the employee’s title will be, what their duties will be, who the supervisor will be, and where the work will be performed.

3. Compensation. Employment agreements often reference compensation or salary and sometimes discretionary compensation (e.g. bonuses and stock options).

4. Termination for Cause. Employment agreements often provide that an employee may be terminated for “cause,” and “cause” is defined to include various acts or omissions by the employee. Some acts—like commission of a felony and embezzlement of company funds are fairly easy to understand. However, defining “cause” to include the employee’s failure to perform his/her job duties can be difficult because this can be subjective. Employees want what a clear non subjective definition of cause.

Continue reading "Florida Employment Agreements: Terms and Conditions" »

As a Jacksonville Business Lawyer, I often run up against cases which involved Tortious Interference with a Contractual Right along with Claims for Beach of a Florida non-compete agreement. The elements of this cause of action are

1) The existence of contract to which plaintiff is a party;
2) Defendant's knowledge of the contract;
3) Defendant's intentional procurement of the contract's breach;
4) The absence of justification or privilege; and
5) Plaintiff suffered damages resulting from the breach.

Tortious interference with a contract is virtually identical to the elements of a claim for tortious interference with a business relationship.

There are many defenses to Tortious Interference with a Contractual Right. They include

1) Affirmative defenses
2) Statute of limitations - four years
3) Defendant is not liable where she did not "intentionally" interfere with plaintiff's business relationship.
4) Acts occurring during a judicial proceeding are absolutely privileged and cannot give rise to tortious interference claims.
5) When the contract provision expressly reserves the right of interference.
6) Agent that gives, on request by his or her principal "honest advise" in his or her principal's best interest.
7) Plaintiff cant bring action against party of the contract at issue.
8 )Privileged or justified conduct does not give rise to Tortious interference claim.
9) Defendant acting to protect her own economic or financial interest is not liavle for tortious interference.
10) Plaintiff cannot premise claim on alleged interference with a contract that is terminable at will provided that interference is lawful competition.
11) Defendant's settlement of a lawsuit that adversely affects plaintiff's business interest does not give rise to Tortious interference claim.

If you feel that an employee has breached their Florida Non-Compete Agreement or has interfered with a contract between you and a client, you should discuss the facts and circumstances with a Florida Business Lawyer.