Angry Ex-Employer

[xrac]

.....If you work for a small agency nothing may happen unless the owner lost a ton of business with your departure. Big companies will sue you just for the hell of it and think nothing of it......

Somarco is absolutely correct. If it is a big outfit they may sue you just to put fear in the remaining agents. I was involved in a situation where a former employer threatened a law suit. I had my lawyer respond, backed off on doing business with one client, and they dropped the matter.
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It was in the insurance field. I ran a regional office (6 states) for a large managing underwriter for 8 years and was terminated shortly after the firm was sold. At first they fired a warning shot, reminding me of the non-compete. Then I heard nothing for almost 2 yrs. By then they had lost 70% of the business I had written and were looking for someone to pin it on. I had a 2 yr non-compete. They sued me in the 22nd month.......

Somarco, it was my understanding that non-competes did not apply if one was terminated?? Did your case ever get to court or just to depositons or what? How long did it drag on?

 

[somarco]

My case never went to court. We "settled" before it got to that point.

It really doesn't matter if an employee quits or is terminated for cause or otherwise. If the non-compete (or any other applicable statute) is violated, or presumed violated, they can file suit.

In my case they lost business. Wasn't my fault. They mismanaged the clients I brought in the front door.

They could prove a loss in revenue. What they could not prove (and didn't have to) is that I was the cause of their loss. That is the purpose of the discovery process, depositions, etc.

Basically they had to rely on me to prove their case.

My attorney challenged every discovery brief. They wanted all my files, phone records, recorded calls, correspondence, etc for the prior 2 years.

They never got any of them.

We were present at every deposition. I was never deposed but was there to coach my attorney when it was his turn to depose the witness.

The case took almost a month before they caved in. Can't say how much it cost them and I really don't care. I spent almost $20k on legal fees. I never bothered to add up lost business because of their interference. That could easily have been another $50,000.

Most of the time these cases are BS but you can't just ignore them. If you do, they move for a summary judgment and then you are dead in the water.

Most of the time these things never go anywhere, but if you have a former employer with an axe to grind, as I did, they will fight you just to set an example for other employees.

That motivated these folks as much as anything. I was one of the first to go in the merger and my territory lost more revenue than the others. They thought I would roll over.

They were wrong.

They sued one other former employee. His situation ended pretty much the way mine did.

I figure it cost them close to $800k to terminate me, factoring in their lost revenue. I would have stayed around for less than that and all of us would have been better off.

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

My friend's Suntrust case is still going on. They have been suing him for over 2 years for $40K in annuity chargebacks when clients claimed he misrepresented the product.

These were in-house sales -as in the clients came into the bank and he had to use a Suntrust-approved "script" to make the sale.

His side of the story was he used, almost word for word, the script he was trained to use which was obviously very sales heavy to push the annuities.

Although this has nothing to do with with non-competes everything was fine while he was still in their employ. It was around 6 months after he left that they decided to sue.

He case also centered around the fact that Suntrust created their own damages by choosing to return the client's money sans penalties.

But Somarco's right and none of it matters. Of all ironies his 1st attorney is also now suing him for over $22,000 in legal fees he can't pay - that goes to trial in 2 months.

So the Suntrust case is still going on, he's broke and being sued by his 1st attorney and now has to find a 2nd attorney to continue the case.

Things like this can literally ruin your life when you're up against a company with limitless resources.