Non-compete agreements can mean you sit on the couch for six months because your new employer wants a release from the old one before hiring you (which your old employer won't give, or
the agreement may be complete garbage because, as mentioned above, it unreasonably restricts your right to work.
Which do you have? No way of knowing without reviewing the contract.
And your question assumes that their breach of the agreement would render its restrictive covenants non-enforceable - not necessarily. Such "non-competition agreements" often have "survival" language which means the non-compete provisions might apply regardless of who breached the agreement which led to its termination.
Given that your "business life" is at stake and things can go terribly wrong (e.g. lawsuits and injunctive actions with immediate court hearings and which cost lots of money)
I strongly recommend that you pay a business law attorney to (1) have the employment contract reviewed (2) discuss the likelihood based on the facts of an adverse response by the employer (3) what and how strong your response would be and (4) our best guess of how things will turn out.
Usually, the more important that you are to the company the more likely it is that it/they will attempt to "shut you down" and the job of our business law firm will be to prevent that. (we usually can.)
The beginning cost should be somewhere around $750.00 for review and consultation - could be more or less.
Good luck!
Law Offices of Donald W. Hudspeth, P.C.
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Phoenix, Arizona 85012
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