Employer threatening with non-compete agreement

[AmitD]

Hi,

I was employed by consulting firm A and working at my client B. 2 months back I left A (for obvious reasons) and joined C, but am still working at the same client B.

My previous employer A has not paid me my last 2 weeks pay and when I asked him for it, he sent me a threaten letter saying I have broken the non-compete agreement with him and so I would owe him money. Also said his attorney woud be getting in touch with me.

(Just as a background, consulting firm A had two consultants working with B, and i was an employee with B. I had to change over to a consultant for some reasons and the company B wanted to keep me, so I went to A with the project. So A didn't have to do any marketing or anything. 6 months later, I left A as the employer was a disaster to work for. I therefore looked for company C and my client B had no problems changing the consulting firm. )

As far as I remember I have signed only the offer letter (though I am sure he has some small font agreement somewhere).

How bad can this situation be ? Do I have any chances of getting my money ? Or worse, what if he actually sues me for breaking the agreement (which I didnt even know existed).


All help will be appreciated. If there is any attorney who can find time to answer, that will be even more helpful.

Thanks,

 

[Jim Mills]

Hi,

I was employed by consulting firm A and working at my client B. 2 months back I left A (for obvious reasons) and joined C, but am still working at the same client B.

My previous employer A has not paid me my last 2 weeks pay and when I asked him for it, he sent me a threaten letter saying I have broken the non-compete agreement with him and so I would owe him money. Also said his attorney woud be getting in touch with me.

(Just as a background, consulting firm A had two consultants working with B, and i was an employee with B. I had to change over to a consultant for some reasons and the company B wanted to keep me, so I went to A with the project. So A didn't have to do any marketing or anything. 6 months later, I left A as the employer was a disaster to work for. I therefore looked for company C and my client B had no problems changing the consulting firm. )

As far as I remember I have signed only the offer letter (though I am sure he has some small font agreement somewhere).

How bad can this situation be ? Do I have any chances of getting my money ? Or worse, what if he actually sues me for breaking the agreement (which I didnt even know existed).


All help will be appreciated. If there is any attorney who can find time to answer, that will be even more helpful.

Thanks,

This is really more a matter of state employment law then it is immigration law. You really should seek the advice of a competent attorney in your area. The employer certainly can sue you if he finds a noncompetition agreement that you have signed. I can't say if he will be able to win or not but I can say that he almost certainly is not authorized to keep your last paycheck without your specific authorization to do so.

 

[immquest]

My wife had a similar situation.
She was employed by a consultant A(CA based) and worked for a client B(CO based).
After almost 2 years, the client asked her to either join them or find another project somewhere else.
As the consultant was not good in getting her new project, she decided to join the client.
The consultant then sent a letter that she had violated a rule and threatened to take the matter to a court.
She spoke about this to the client(now her employer) - The company spoke to the consultant and after some harsh talking( the client told the consultant that they would remove all others belonging to the consultant), the consulting company backed off.