Prospects Are King
Most corporations are in enterprise due to their buyer base, and people relationships should be strongly guarded.
Corporations are additionally reliant upon workers to develop and preserve buyer relationships on behalf of their employer, and in such conditions, corporations might wish to be sure that workers is not going to exploit their function to arrange a competing enterprise and take clients with them.
That is the place non-solicitation clauses are available.
Non-Solicitation Clauses
Employers typically embrace non-solicitation clauses in employment agreements, which limits the extent to which ex-employees can cope with their former employers’ clients.
When an ex-employee solicits clients in breach of a non-solicitation clause, employers must act quick to include or forestall the injury.
An employer might wish to ship a warning letter to the ex-employee or provoke authorized proceedings.
Looking for a Courtroom Order to Defend Your Prospects
Inside a authorized continuing, an employer might wish to search an Order from the Courtroom stopping the ex-employee from breaching their non-solicitation obligations on an interim foundation, till such a time because the authorized continuing is lastly decided on the deserves. Such Orders are known as “Interlocutory Injunctions”.
Nevertheless, in search of these injunctions are tough and employers must be ready to fulfill the Courtroom of three issues:
Do You Have a Case?
First, employers must fulfill the Courtroom that there’s a critical challenge to be tried. At this step, the employer wants to indicate that the lawsuit shouldn’t be frivolous or vexatious, and that the employer has a real case towards their ex-employee.
The validity of the non-solicitation clause might change into a problem at this step. Ontario Courts have more and more taken a strict strategy to non-solicitation clauses, and obscure or overly broad clauses have been held to be invalid and unenforceable.
Will You Undergo Irreparable Hurt?
Secondly, the employer wants to indicate that they may endure irreparable hurt if the injunction shouldn’t be granted. Irreparable hurt is any hurt that can’t be fastened by the cost of damages. An instance of irreparable hurt could be if the previous worker steals each buyer of their former employer, and places that firm out of enterprise.
On Stability, Ought to You Get Your Injunction?
Third, the Courtroom must be glad that the granting of the injunction is on steadiness higher than permitting the worker to proceed their actions. In conducting this balancing train, the Courtroom wants to contemplate the hurt that every occasion might endure, any broader public curiosity in granting or denying the injunction, and another elements concerning the conduct of any of the events which will weigh for or towards them.
What Occurs When You Get Your Order
If the Courtroom grants an interlocutory injunction, the employer can take some consolation in the truth that the ex-employee can not proceed their damaging conduct – not less than till the lawsuit is set on its deserves.
The employer can then protect what they’ve retained and switch their consideration to the restoration of the damages attributable to the ex-employee’s breaches.
At Mills & Mills LLP, our litigation attorneys have expertise prosecuting and defending lawsuits associated to breaches of non-solicitation clauses in employment agreements.
At Mills & Mills LLP, our attorneys repeatedly assist purchasers with a variety of authorized issues together with enterprise regulation, actual property regulation, property regulation, employment regulation, well being regulation, and tax regulation. For over 130 years, now we have earned a status amongst our friends and purchasers for high quality of service and breadth of data. Contact us on-line or at (416) 863-0125. The fabric offered via the Mills & Mills LLP web site is for normal data functions solely. It’s not meant to supply authorized recommendation or opinions of any form.
