Businesses hiring new workers in Illinois may include protective terms in their contracts. Restrictive covenants are among the most popular modern inclusions. These specialty clauses prevent people from engaging in certain conduct while working for the business and after terminating their employment. Non-compete agreements, for example, can prevent someone from starting a competing business or working for a direct competitor in the years immediately after leaving a job at an organization.
There are other restrictive covenants that employers can ask their workers to sign as well, including non-solicitation agreements. Are non-solicitation agreements enforceable in Illinois?
What non-solicitation agreements do
As the name implies, a non-solicitation agreement will limit a worker’s ability to reach out to other parties for business purposes. Typically, a non-solicitation agreement prevents someone from going to clients or customers to pitch services or goods from a company where they now work. Non-solicitation agreements can also prevent people from trying to hire subordinates or coworkers after leaving a company.
The Illinois courts will sometimes uphold non-solicitation agreements if the courts agree that they are valid. The worker generally needs to have received something of valuable consideration for making those concessions, and there need to be limitations on how long the agreement remains enforceable or the area where it applies.
Businesses seeking to enforce none solicitation agreements usually need to demonstrate the necessity of such agreements for them to be enforceable in civil court. Former employers can sometimes take successful legal action against workers who pitch clients and customers after moving to a new job or attempt to hire people that they met through their employment at a company.
Reviewing the document itself and the circumstances of someone’s employment with an attorney can help people better understand the likelihood of enforcement when they are subject to a non-solicitation agreement in Illinois.