Please Sign this Document: Legally Unprepared Businesses

A friend of mine recently contracted for a company that asked them to sign a non-compete agreement a few days after they concluded their employment.

What on Earth? For any business owners, lawyers, or anyone with street smarts, I am sure you would react straight away and say: “Don’t sign that”.

The company of my friend failed to sign a proper sub-contractor agreement at the commencement of their employment and wanted to sign agreements after the fact. I call this amateur and unprepared.

To serve a non-compete agreement to a sub-contractor after the termination of their employment with no prior agreement in place undermines the intelligence of the sub-contractor. Do they take them for a fool?

For future sub-contract work, sure, create a formal legal agreement. However, and a huuuugggeee however, for work in the past that commenced without a formal legal agreement, no.

Not only that, the business persisted to pester my friend to sign the document even after they said a firm “no”. Another amateur move which demonstrated the evident unpreparedness of the small business.

No Seatbelts

I compare a lack of legal preparedness to not wearing a seatbelt in a car. Someone might drive without a seatbelt for over 10 years and evade the misfortune of a car accident. However, if the misfortune ever occurs they risk a preventable fatality.

The same with law. Sound legal advice and agreements serve as the seatbelt in preparation for an unavoidable car accident, or in other words… expensive litigation.

I am a huge advocate for a small business to receive legal advice. I understand legal fees cost money but what happens when something bad occurs? The consequence of litigation may cost disproportionality more than the seatbelt of legal preparedness.

The ex-company of my friend failed to serve a written sub-contractor agreement before the commencement of employment. They forgot to put on their seatbelt. A lesson to the company and other businesses that read this, remember the danger of no legal seatbelt.

Note: The information displayed within this article is provided as a reflective piece and does not constitute legal advice. Please seek your own legal advice