Legal Question in Business Law in Pennsylvania

Re: none compete

This is entirely fact specific and you have not provided enough facts. For example--did you have an agreement with ex employer? Was it signed? If not, did you agree to its terms by some other extrinsic evidence? Did the contract contain a noncompete clause? Is the clause and/or the contract enforceable?

These are scratching the surface--there are other questions to ask, but this gives you an idea of the line of questioning that would be important in determining your level of risk. In general, the employer's remedies for a breach of a restrictive covenant in a contract is either an injuntion, or money damages (the employee has usually agreed to pay this somewhere in the agreement--$25k to $40k are common amounts that I see--gulp!) or both. If you have any further concerns, you wil need to see a lawyer about this, this isn't small claims court material, unfortunately.

Practice tip: This is a good reason to seek a lawyer's help when starting a new job--many times, an employee is so happy to get the job (the "honeymoon" phase) that he signs whatever is in front of him. However, for a relatively small investment, a lawyer can look at your agreements and let you know the trouble areas, and then you can decide whether you want to try to negotiate these with the employer--it is not as difficult as it seems. Remember, the employer wants you! This 'ounce of prevention' is what lawyers do best. Once the employer gets the "ring on your finger" it is difficult to change your employment agreement in most cases. If you choose to call the lawyer to get you out of a sticky mess, you may have lost your chance for small fees and minimal time investments.