Employment Lawyer

[elfspew]

Hello All,

I hope you are well. It turns out I require an employment lawyer - I expect to pay and all, just not required one before (fortunately!)

I am a regular member on here, however I'd rather post this under a new username so as to not pop up on google searches etc.

My previous employer is attempting to prevent me from working for my new one. I believe they are enforcing the restrictive covenants in my contract in a manner which is 'unreasonable' as I would not be working for a company that is competitive with them, nor in role that has anything to do with them. They sent me a long and scary letter and I need to respond suitably - any recommendations as to who to use? Thanks in advance.

[Pothole]

Funny, I was talking about this just yesterday with someone; "have you ever heard of anyone actually getting doen over this sort of contractual agreement etc?" Sorry, though, I don't know any employment lawyer and my pet HR Director is on honeymoon at the moment.

Good luck though.

[Liszt]

Rich Burnley on here has helped out several PHers

[elfspew]

Liszt said:

Rich Burnley on here has helped out several PHers

Thanks for the recommendation - doing a search I come up with a thread about holidays, but that's it. Do you know his username (happy to get PM)?

Google comes up with a chap who makes furniture!

[elfspew]

Pothole said:

Funny, I was talking about this just yesterday with someone; "have you ever heard of anyone actually getting doen over this sort of contractual agreement etc?" Sorry, though, I don't know any employment lawyer and my pet HR Director is on honeymoon at the moment.

Good luck though.

Thankyou for the kind thoughts! Seems it is quite common, but depends on the exact clause and the manner of application.

[Liszt]

My mistake it is Rich Burley
http://pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/profile.asp?membe...

[NoNeed]

this one?

fingers crossed

[elfspew]

Thanks all - that looks like an employment lawyer. I'll drop them a call in the morning.

Cheers.

[anonymous-user]

post up the restrictive covenant section of your contract (if you've not been to the lawyer already) and given an outline of your new role and employer.

Most RCs are very poorly written and are unenforceable

[ChrisOB1]

Hi I am well versed in Employment law and if what you say is true, i.e they are not a competitor and the role is not designed to draw business away from your current employer then its not enforceable. A well worded letter back to current employer stating this would be all that is needed. Or simply ignore. Dependant upon what you do it is very unlikely that they could enforce any restrictive covenants. happy to respond to PM if you want to give more detail. ignore spelling here just got back from pub!

[elfspew]

Hi All,

First call with the lawyer tomorrow (busy this holiday thing!). The covenant is quite specific to my old company so i'm uneasy about posting it - they can be cunning.

I had a quick conversation with another employment lawyer today and he seems to think that if they go for an injunction it will be ruinously expensive since to fight it will require high court, barristers and so on.

I have a healthy fighting fund, however this seems to require limitless pockets, time and legal resource. Seems a little harsh on the employee trying to fight for his/her career to me!

[elfspew]

Many thanks to ChrisOB1 - a real demonstration of why I'm proud to be a member of PH. I hope I can one day be of similar help.