For years, enforcing noncompete agreements in Illinois was akin to the Wild West.
Recently, however, the Illinois legislature enacted a new law affecting the enforceability of non-competes. In its most basic form, a non-compete is an agreement between an employer and an employee that prohibits an employee from working for a competitor for a period of time after the employee no longer works for that employer.
Non-competes were intended to protect employers from employees leaving and working for a competitor. The goal was to prevent former employees from using confidential and proprietary information gained and relationships built with customers at the prior employer for the benefit of a competitor. It also discouraged employers from poaching employees from competitors.
Non-competes eventually became more complex and might prohibit an employee from owning, consulting with, or having any involvement whatsoever with a competitor. Courts became concerned that non-competes were becoming so burdensome they no longer achieved the initial purpose -- to protect an employer's legitimate business interests.
Rather, now they put an unreasonable restraint on an individual's ability to work. Consequently, our courts identified elements necessary to limit how far an employee's activities could be restrained after leaving an employer and requiring that employees receive something in exchange for entering into the noncompete.
One element is requiring the employee be given consideration for...
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