California Supremes Hear Case on Validity of Noncompete Agreements
The California Supreme Court hears oral arguments today on whether businesses can restrict career moves of their employees through noncompete agreements.
More than two dozen law professors have urged the court to affirm that public policy in the state bars enforcement of such contracts, the Daily Journal reports (sub. req.).
The case involves an accountant, Raymond Edwards II, who lost his job when Arthur Andersen collapsed in the Enron accounting scandal. The company had agreed to release him from a noncompete agreement if he agreed to waive any claims. Edwards refused to sign. A California appeals court ruled both agreements violated public policy.
The ruling “jettisoned 20 years of federal case law” that allowed narrowly drawn noncompete agreements that allow employees to be able to still practice their profession, the story says. The split had allowed litigants to file their claims in state or federal court, depending on the result they desired.
