Did Section 542.335 clear up all the issues surrounding non-compete clauses?
Section 542.335 still leaves several issues unaddressed, leaving the Florida courts to sort through the various issues. Recently, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals released a lengthy opinion in Proudfoot Consulting Co. v. Gordon, which addressed several of these open issues. Several key points from the court’s decision are noteworthy from an employer’s perspective. First, the court decided that if a non-compete covenant does not contain a geographic limitation, the court can supply a reasonable geographic scope. Second, the employer does not have to prove that the employee intentionally breached the restrictive covenants in order to receive injunctive relief. The employee’s good faith and reasonable belief that he or she did not breach a restrictive covenant is not a defense. Finally, where an employee has access to confidential business information crucial to the success of an employer’s business, the employer has a strong interest in enforcing a covenant not to compete, irrespect
