How Do I Know if My Non Compete Agreement Is Enforceable in California?

In California, non-compete agreements are typically not enforceable. Unlike other states, California believes in giving employees the right to move away from an employer and be able to find employment in the same field.

So, many employers who attempt to restrict that mobility from one workplace to another are violating California laws. We can certainly help clients with those kinds of issues. Virtually every form of non-compete is prohibited except in very narrow and unique situations. One of those is if someone is selling their business, a form of non-compete following the sale of a business might be valid. That’s number one. And number two is it’s really not a non-compete, but it’s a prohibition on the misuse of confidential information of the employer.

So, the employee can’t just grab a bunch of confidential information about the employer, leave for another employer, and then use that confidential information to help the new employer. There’s this narrow category of confidential protected information that employers have that they’re entitled to keep and to protect against misuse by the employee.