We can provide you with legal advice on restraint of trade contracts. We advise Perth business owners, as well as employees, on non-compete clauses and restraint of trade issues arising out of employment contracts and Deeds of Confidentiality and have done so for 30 years.
We have represented clients in complex employment contract cases in the Supreme Court for 30 years. It is a growing area of litigation.
We can provide you with legal advice on your rights and obligations in restraint of trade contracts, including whether the restraint of trade contracts are legally enforceable.
Restraint of trade contracts restrain employees or contractors from carrying out a particular trade for a certain period of time and within a certain area.
They also often include “non-solicitation clauses” which are clauses that prevent an employee or contractor from pursuing clients of the employer or principal’s business.
Business owners should always be prepared for the risk of employees leaving and starting up a rival business, or joining a competitor, and trying to take your hard-won customers with them.
The best protection for an employer is to include well drafted restraint of trade clauses in their employment contracts.
Business owners should regularly review their restraint clauses. This is particularly relevant where there has been a change in the nature of business because the critical date for assessing the reasonableness of the restraint clause is the date that the contract was made.
Courts do not like to impose a restraint upon an employee’s ability to earn a living or to restrict competition. Nevertheless, courts will often uphold restraint clauses and find in favour of employers.
The ability to restrain former employees is contingent upon the efficacy of the restraint of trade clause. The law allows the use of restraint clauses where it can be proven that there were ‘special circumstances’ which made it necessary to protect the interest of the parties. In assessing what type of protection will be regarded as reasonable, an employer must identify the relevant risk such as the risk of the loss of business to a competitor by the use of a personal connection with clients and information about those clients.
We provide top tier services and top tier experience at substantially better rates than those of our competitors and we provide fixed fee costs wherever possible for all of our matters.
Further information can be found here regarding our fixed fees.
Ahern Sierakowski Lawyers handles all claims for employers and employees relating to:
We also act for employers in unfair dismissal cases.
We prepare senior employee contracts and management contracts, deeds of confidentiality and secrecy, restraint of trade clauses as well as providing the full suite of services in relation to enforcement of all these agreements.
For legal advice on pursuing employees who steal company secrets, property and client lists click here
We prepare senior employee contracts and management contracts, deeds of confidentiality and secrecy, restraint of trade clauses as well as providing the full suite of services in relation to enforcement of all these agreements.
