Employment Contracts

Use crystal clear language in contracts when defining commissions, bonuses

12/07/2015

Do you pay some employees a bonus based on sales or hitting other quotas or targets? Make sure the agreement promising such bonuses is clear and unambiguous. Unclear language can result in you being tied up in years of litigation.

Arbitration agreement: Don’t bury it in handbook; deliver separate document

11/24/2015

Do you require employees to direct employment law complaints through the arbitration process rather than a lawsuit? If so, don’t bury your arbitration agreement deep in your handbook or job application. Instead, present workers with a separate document. As this new case shows, California courts are more likely to find a separate agreement to be binding.

Protect against breach-of-contract claims

10/16/2015

Precise language in a settlement agreement helped an employer survive a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by a former employee.

Supreme Court tackles arbitration agreements

10/09/2015

One of the first cases the U.S. Supreme Court heard in its 2015-2016 term could have important implications for employers that require arbitration to settle workplace disputes.

Confidential customer lists may be trade secrets even if the names are available elsewhere

10/05/2015

Good news if you need to protect your customer lists from competitors: You can require employees to sign confidentiality agreements to block taking customer lists to the next job even if it’s theoretically possible for the competitor or someone else to put together the same information from other, publicly available sources.

Craft noncompete agreements to protect your business interests

09/11/2015

Employers often require key employees to sign noncompete agreements ensuring that the employee will not use information or customer contacts gained during the course of employment to benefit a competitor. In return, the employer offers the employee “consideration”—maybe extra pay or, more commonly, access to the protected information, which enables the employee to succeed on the job. Each state has a unique set of laws governing noncompete agreements.

Texas court issues injunction preventing customer poaching

09/09/2015

A federal court in Texas has issued an injunction preventing a former salesperson for a plastics company from soliciting customers on behalf of his new employer. The competitor had hired the employee despite a nondisclosure and nonsolicitation agreement he had signed.

Federal court edits noncompete pact

08/19/2015

A federal court in Minnesota has invoked Texas law to rewrite a noncompete agreement that it decided was too broad.

Failure to renew contract can be basis for lawsuit

08/13/2015

Some employers mistakenly believe that if they offer annual contracts, they can’t be sued for not renewing a contract. That’s just not true if the former employee can prove she wasn’t rehired for a discriminatory reason.

Unspecified commission? Jury decides who to believe

07/29/2015

For jobs based on written employment contracts, what the agreement says typically governs all the terms and conditions of employment. If something is unclear or unstated, what the parties do later likely will influence eventual judicial interpretation.