Non-Compete Agreement and Restraint of trade

[CarlJ]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?NJ
I left a company with which I had signed a non-compete agreement. I believe this agreement to be null and void. After leaving the first company I started my own company providing engineering services.

Through the course of Business I met a couple other ex-employees of the first company with similar ideas.
While we have discussed options available to us, we have not joined together in any legal manner.

We met with a competitor of the first company (Co.2) to discuss some ideas that they had about what they could do with our services and /or the possibility of hiring me full time.

When that meeting was discovered, we were sent cease and desist letters which I responded to asking for more information and that I felt I was not in violation of the non-compete.

Recently it has been learned that Co.2 plans to hire another ex-employee of company 1 that was much higher on the food chain than I.

Co. 2 contacted Co. 1 for permission to hire the other ex-employee because he also signed the non-compete agreement.
Co 1 told Co.2 that they could hire the ex-employee as long as they signed a contract stating that they would not work/hire me or the other two people I was considering working with. This contract would also effectively extend my non-compete by a yr.

Is it legal for Co.1 to use us as bait by allowing an employee that they are not concerned about break his non-compete while shackling us even further?
Is this also not a restraint of trade issue due to the business we were trying to develop?
Thanks for your help

[BelizeBreeze]

Please hold your non-compete up to the monitor so we can read it an advise accordingly.

[seniorjudge]

Originally Posted by CarlJ

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?NJ
I left a company with which I had signed a non-compete agreement. I believe this agreement to be null and void. After leaving the first company I started my own company providing engineering services.

Through the course of Business I met a couple other ex-employees of the first company with similar ideas.
While we have discussed options available to us, we have not joined together in any legal manner.

We met with a competitor of the first company (Co.2) to discuss some ideas that they had about what they could do with our services and /or the possibility of hiring me full time.

When that meeting was discovered, we were sent cease and desist letters which I responded to asking for more information and that I felt I was not in violation of the non-compete.

Recently it has been learned that Co.2 plans to hire another ex-employee of company 1 that was much higher on the food chain than I.

Co. 2 contacted Co. 1 for permission to hire the other ex-employee because he also signed the non-compete agreement.
Co 1 told Co.2 that they could hire the ex-employee as long as they signed a contract stating that they would not work/hire me or the other two people I was considering working with. This contract would also effectively extend my non-compete by a yr.

Is it legal for Co.1 to use us as bait by allowing an employee that they are not concerned about break his non-compete while shackling us even further?
Is this also not a restraint of trade issue due to the business we were trying to develop?
Thanks for your help

Q: Is it legal for Co.1 to use us as bait by allowing an employee that they are not concerned about break his non-compete while shackling us even further?

A: Yes.


Q: Is this also not a restraint of trade issue due to the business we were trying to develop?

A: Yes. It could be legal but since we don't know what the agreement says, we will suspend judgment on that point.