Non-Compete Agreements in Florida

Businesses, both large and small, must ensure that they protect their greatest assets – confidential information/trade secrets and employees. One common method is to have employees execute non-compete agreements, which require that the employee not work for a competitor for a specific period of time after their employment ends. Such agreements can and should also restrict the employee from soliciting customers or clients and/or employees of the former employer for the employee’s new endeavor.
In Florida, courts are generally willing to enforce proper non-compete agreements, although most cases settle prior to getting that far. A valid non-compete should be reasonable in temporal and geographic scope. Specifically, an agreement is considered reasonable if the restriction is for 6 months to 2 years and the geographic area is defined as the actual area in which the employee provided services. The agreement should also be limited to restricting competition in the type of work the employee was doing on the job.

The best non-compete agreements will contain restrictions within the appropriate scope and with detailed description of protected areas. Florida courts do, however, have the discretion of “blue penciling,” which is reducing an unreasonable temporal or geographic scope so that it is reasonable and then enforcing the reasonable scope. Further, Florida non-competes are valid even if the only thing the employee gets for signing the agreement is initial or continued employment (even if just for one day). Moreover, the agreement can be binding whether the employee voluntarily resigns or is terminated, with or without cause, depending on the terms of the agreement.

Example: If a salesperson based in Orlando sells product to customers throughout the U.S. and executes a non-compete agreement with his or her employer restricting him or her from holding a similar position for a period of 2 years anywhere in the U.S., a Florida court will most likely enforce the agreement and preclude the individual from working for the competitor.

The content of this post is for informational purposes only and does not and is not intended to constitute the giving of legal advice.