Overview

Post-employment covenants generally involve different principles of law depending upon the type of covenant.   While some generalizations can be made about Alabama law, only a critical analysis of the facts and the law allows any reliable prediction of how a court might rule.

Non-competition covenants are usually the easiest to defeat or limit.  Often, such covenants are disfavored in the law because of their tendency to impoverish the individual.

Non-solicitation covenants applied to customers or fellow employees tend to be more enforceable since they are not as restrictive as non-compete covenants.

Properly drafted covenants that restrict the disclosure or use of confidential business information are ordinarily enforced if properly limited to true secrets or valuable commercial information.

There is constant tension between interests that seek the free mobility of labor and intellectual capital and those that seek to maintain a close hold on the activities of their former employees.  In Alabama, courts have vacillated widely over the years, a pattern also observed in other states.