Can You Argue a Non-Compete is “Unfair” and Win in Texas?

If you’re an employee in Texas and you’re bound by a non-compete agreement, you may wonder if you can argue that the agreement is “unfair” and win. The answer is yes, at least in some cases. In a recent case, a Texas Court of Appeals found that it would be unfair to enforce a 1-year non-compete agreement against an employee who only worked for his employer less than 5 months and was let go without cause.

Which States Allow Blue-Penciling of Non-Compete Agreements?

States around the country vary in how they approach the enforcement of unreasonable non-compete agreements. While the majority of states allow their courts to “blue pencil” or rewrite restrictive covenants to make them reasonable, three states do not permit such reformation, and four states have no clear legal guidance on whether blue-pencilling is permitted, leaving employers in limbo.

Texas Non-Compete Law: Confidentiality, Just Like Beauty, Is In the Eye of the Beholder

In non-compete disputes in Texas, employers often argue that everything that they provided to employees was confidential, while employees argue that nothing that was provided to them was confidential. As the result, the issue of confidentiality often ends up being an ultimate “fact issue” that must be resolved by a judge or a jury.

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