x-employer limiting my future employment

[kaybyrd]

I resently resigned as graphic designer from a small vinyl based sign shop in Mississippi. I have an offer from an electrical based sign shop in Louisiana, 30 miles away, but the possition is not as a graphic designer. My former employer says I have an "employment agreement" not to work for a competetor within 100 miles of his company within 12 months of my resignation. I have not signed such an agreement nor was it on my application for employment or implied when I was hired. Does my former employer have the right, under propietary information and trade secrets, to limit my future employement with any company in the same industry when the two companies are not direct competetors because they are in different fields of the industry?
Any advice would be great! Thank you.

 

[Doug]

Unless you signed an employee agreement to the fact, you have every legal right to seek employment in the same field.

 

[Attorney_Replogle]

Doug's advice is correct. The question of whether the two companies are in the same business is not relevant until it is first determined whether you signed a non-competition agreement. If you didn't, then the employer can't hold you to a contract that was never signed by you. Usually such agreements are separate from the employment application. So if you are sure that you never signed such an agreement, then go ahead with your life and don't lose any sleep over it.

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Mark B. Replogle