The Georgia Court of Appeals just made it significantly more difficult for employers to enforce employee non-solicitation provisions, which might require you to take immediate action to protect your company’s interests in protecting the stability of your workforce. In the Court of Appeals’ June 13 decision in North American Senior Benefits v. Wimmer, it held that an employee non-solicitation provision must have a territorial limitation in order to pass muster under Georgia’s 2011 Restrictive Covenants Act (RCA). Because most traditional employee non-recruitment provisions do not have such clauses, the majority of such restrictions are now unenforceable in Georgia. What do you need to know about this decision – and more importantly, what do you need to do to correct this problem?
Gap in 2011 Law Opens Door for Recent Court Decision
Traditionally, Georgia law was permissive with respect to employee anti-raiding provisions. Even in Georgia’s pre-2011 common law regime – which was extremely hostile to restrictive covenants in general – numerous cases set forth that anti-raiding restrictions were subject to lesser degrees of scrutiny than non-compete or customer non-solicitation paragraphs.
The RCA made it significantly easier to enforce covenants, stating that “reasonable restrictive covenants contained in employment and commercial contracts serve the legitimate purpose of protecting legitimate business interests and creating an environment that is favorable to attracting...
A federal grand jury in Minnesota has indicted an Indian national for allegedly making a false claim of U.S. citizenship in order to vote in the 2024 general election. Mukeshkumar Somabhai Chaudha...