A non-competition, or “non-compete” agreement is a contract, or a portion of a contract, between two parties. More often than not, non-compete agreements are between employees and employers. The purpose of a non-compete agreement is to restrict a person or company’s right to compete with another person or company. Like all other contractual agreements, non-compete agreements are legally binding and enforceable if properly drafted and used to protect a legitimate business interest.
Employers generally utilize non-compete agreements to protect legitimate business interests such as customer relationships, proprietary information, trade secrets, extraordinary training, and in some cases even referral sources. Non-compete agreements can also be a component of franchise agreements, mergers, buyouts, or contracts for the sale of a business.
As a commercial and business law attorney law firm, we know that great ideas and efficient marketing strategies may make a business stand out, but what really allows a business to rise above its competition and thrive is the effective handling of its day-to-day business law issues it may face. From entity selection, contract formation to dispute resolution for all parties concerned, having an available and proven, cost-effective legal resource is essential in today’s business environment.
Under Florida law, non-compete agreements have certain limitations and enforceability is sometimes an issue. Many questions about the drafting and enforceability of non-compete agreements include: “Is the length and duration of its restriction excessive?”, “Is the geographical area too broad?”, and most importantly, “Does the restriction serve to protect a legitimate business interest?” Employers and employees have certain rights when it comes to non-compete agreements. Failure to understand those rights often times leads to litigation.
At Heekin Law, we routinely advise employers in drafting and litigating non-compete and non-solicitation agreements. Non-compete agreements can be a critical tool for employers who want to protect their business interests from their competitors.
We also advise employers who are interested in hiring a potential employee who is subject to a non-compete agreement with a former employer. We are able to evaluate any existing non-compete agreement to determine its enforceability. A business that is not careful when hiring a new employee can find itself subject to a claim for tortious interference with a contractual relationship when the business hires an employee who is subject to a non-compete agreement with a prior employer.
In addition to representing employers, we also represent employees seeking to understand non-compete agreements they have entered into, including, the agreement’s enforceability and the employee’s own liability and obligations.
Non-compete agreements must be carefully drafted and oftentimes pose challenging questions. The attorneys at Heekin Law have drafted many non-compete agreements that have protected our clients against their competitors. We also have a tremendous amount of experience in litigating the enforceability of non-compete agreements. We understand how the Florida courts interpret and enforce non-compete agreements.
Please give us a call or fill out the contact form today to schedule an appointment to discuss how we can put our legal knowledge to work for you! We will get back to you within 24 hours.
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to