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Former employer is blackmailing me

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CELL7627

Junior Member
I'm in Pennsylvania.
I recently terminated my employment with a company.
Soon after terminating my employment, I filed a claim with the Dept of Labor Law Compliance for illegal chargebacks. My claim is solid and the DOL is advising me to pursue it.
I recently recieved a letter from my former employer basically blackmailing me.
In this letter, he states that if he hears from the Dept of Labor again, he is going to sue for not honoring my noncompete.
Lemme give you an outline of this noncompete quick. I signed this noncompete about 2 years ago with this company. About a year later, the owner filed for bankruptcy and we merged our company with a diferent company from out of state. (we basically turned into a salellite company for this new company)
All the employees all signed a NEW contract with this NEW company.
The relationship lasted for about 6 months and the owner decided to break it off. He also told all of us that if we choose to come back to work for us, he isnt going to make us a sign a new noncompete and if we choose to go to work for a competing company, then fine...do so.
So, basically..the noncompete I signed was dissolved the second I became an employee of this new company. We UNmerged with them and never had to sign a new one.
Now, I have this guy coming after me, threatening lawsuits over the old noncompete....? As far as I know..that old noncompete isnt even VALID anymore.
AND...to make matters even funnier...He's claiming I "stole" company information from him.
He's making this claim because every week, along with our paychecks and paystubs...he issued all of a "commission sheet" which basically said who we sold to and for how much. These sheets were presented and became our personal property.
However, this guy is now claiming this is company property....?
The matter is clearly blackmail and baseless and i'm not totally sure of what I should do now....should I file suit for him blackmailing me?
What?
 


Dandy Don

Senior Member
You need to be taking your noncompete to a local labor law or business law attorney to review the language to see whether your employer has a potential claim against you or whether he is just blowing smoke to intimidate you.
 

CELL7627

Junior Member
Dandy Don said:
You need to be taking your noncompete to a local labor law or business law attorney to review the language to see whether your employer has a potential claim against you or whether he is just blowing smoke to intimidate you.
Thats just it...the noncompete doesnt exist anymore.
The company went under and we merged with an LLC from a different state.
I signed a brand new contract and filled out brand new w4's
After the UNmerger....I signed new w4's, but no new contract.
In fact..he stated to us "im not going to ask you guys to sign a new noncompete...if you dont want to stay on board and decide to go to work for a different competing company...go for it"
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
If this ends up in court in a lawsuit, is there anyone else besides you who heard him make the comment about "if you don't want to stay on board, etc. . . . . ."?
 

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