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Comment by twblalock | Hacker News Reader

I suspect many of those noncompetes would not hold up in court.

Because folks without a highschool education can afford to fight a major company in court. /s

Sorry about the sarcasm, but this kind of abuse of the contract system needs to be stopped. You can only really invalidate an individual contract (ianal) as I understand it. So the fight would have to happen for _every employee_. While case law makes it cheaper, the reality is most of these folks can't afford to higher a lawyer for a few hours, let alone a few days.

My guess is that you could get a lawyer to take it on contingency if you were to be sued. The real issue would be the company hiring you.. would they be willing to take the risk.. They actually have no incentive to b/c they probably use non-competes as well!! So it will take an intrepid employee / applicant to make the case that they were not hired due to the non-compete. OR an employer willing to go to bat (which may happen if it's a doctor/lawyer or someone they feel worth going to bat for. And even then I bet people settle which means the law never gets its mettle tested.

They don't have to hold up in court to have a significant chilling effect on the job mobility of the employee who signed it.

There are a lot of things like this. Companies write all sorts of non-enforceable terms into contracts all of the time. That's why people should consult an employment lawyer when you start and end a job. Paying a few hundred dollars for a consult/review is worth knowing your rights.

Yup, my company had a clause that I could never talk bad about them in one contract. I refused to sign as I don't give away civil liberties for money. What amazed me was that almost no one else even bothered to read it before signing.

I had a similar non-disparagement clause. Not bad talk about company and especially CEO. I asked for a sunset clause, HR asked if I wanted my money or not. Sent it past a lawyer friend and he said take the money because it would never hold up.

I also to opt-out of Rapiscans and get pat-downs at the airport to stand up for my 'liberties'. After feeling violated after the recent 'enhanced' one where some dude rubbed every part of my bait and tackle for 2-3 min I decided to give up that fight to. No money though.

Modern America, eh?

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