ENTtoday
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • Practice Focus
    • Allergy
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
  • Departments
    • Issue Archive
    • TRIO Best Practices
      • Allergy
      • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
      • Head and Neck
      • Laryngology
      • Otology/Neurotology
      • Pediatric
      • Rhinology
      • Sleep Medicine
    • Career Development
    • Case of the Month
    • Everyday Ethics
    • Health Policy
    • Legal Matters
    • Letter From the Editor
    • Medical Education
    • Online Exclusives
    • Practice Management
    • Resident Focus
    • Rx: Wellness
    • Special Reports
    • Tech Talk
    • Viewpoint
    • What’s Your O.R. Playlist?
  • Literature Reviews
    • Allergy
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
  • Events
    • Featured Events
    • TRIO Meetings
  • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
    • Triological Society
    • Advertising Staff
    • Subscribe
  • Advertise
    • Place an Ad
    • Classifieds
    • Rate Card
  • Search

How Reasonable Non-Compete Clauses Can Protect Your Practice

by Steven M. Harris, Esq. • October 14, 2016

  • Tweet
  • Email
Print-Friendly Version

You started a medical practice and, through the years, have developed policies, procedures, strategies, work product, client relationships, and confidential information that are specific to your practice and its success. As your practice grows, you know you will need to hire more employees. You also understand, however, that any potential employee may pose a risk to your business, because each employee will be exposed to the confidential or proprietary information and practices you have developed and compiled as you have built your business.

You Might Also Like

No related posts.

Explore This Issue
October 2016

One way to protect your practice is to execute an employment contract with each new employee, one that outlines certain requirements, covenants and representations. This agreement will memorialize the understanding of both parties regarding what the position entails and the responsibilities of both the employer and the employee. To prevent your ideas and information from being taken by an employee to a competitor’s practice, you may want to include restrictive covenants in the employee agreement.

Restrictive covenants can be essential to protect a practice. Specific examples of restrictive covenants in an employment context are non-competition and non-solicitation provisions. Non-competition provisions outline where an employee is prohibited from practicing if that employee chooses to end his or her relationship with an employer. Non-solicitation provisions prohibit a former employee from soliciting employees for a successor practice. Drafting these types of provisions in a deliberate, reasonable way is critical to ensuring enforceability.

How Are Non-Competes Analyzed by Courts?

Non-compete clauses are somewhat common in employment contracts. Their purpose is to protect an employer from unfair competition by preventing former employees from using strategies and information developed by a practice at a subsequent place of employment. These provisions also prohibit individuals who leave a practice from soliciting patients to move with the employee to a new practice, and prohibit employees from soliciting the former practice’s referral sources. Non-competition provisions help curtail the movement of this information from a practice to its competitor by limiting where, and when, employees can work after their relationship with a current employer ends.

Courts want to make sure that restrictive covenants, such as non-competition and non-solicitation clauses, are reasonable and do not impose an unnecessary restriction on trade. To do this, they will often look at a few factors when determining whether a given covenant is enforceable; the function of the covenant, the geographic scope of the covenant, and the duration of the covenant. When examining restrictive covenants, courts will also want to ensure that the covenant:

  • Is narrowly written to protect an employer’s legitimate business interests;
  • Is not unduly burdensome on the employee; and
  • Does not violate public policy.

Courts do not want employees to be completely restricted from working in their field. This would be against public policy. Instead, non-competition clauses are meant to keep former employees from being able to work at a similar practice where that employee could possibly use information, strategies, or referral sources or treat patients from its previous practice to gain an unfair advantage in the marketplace.

Pages: 1 2 3 | Single Page

Filed Under: Departments, Home Slider, Legal Matters Tagged With: employment contract, legal, non-competeIssue: October 2016

You Might Also Like:

The Triological SocietyENTtoday is a publication of The Triological Society.

The Laryngoscope
Ensure you have all the latest research at your fingertips; Subscribe to The Laryngoscope today!

Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
Open access journal in otolaryngology – head and neck surgery is currently accepting submissions.

Classifieds

View the classified ads »

TRIO Best Practices

View the TRIO Best Practices »

Top Articles for Residents

  • Do Training Programs Give Otolaryngology Residents the Necessary Tools to Do Productive Research?
  • Why More MDs, Medical Residents Are Choosing to Pursue Additional Academic Degrees
  • What Physicians Need to Know about Investing Before Hiring a Financial Advisor
  • Tips to Help You Regain Your Sense of Self
  • Should USMLE Step 1 Change from Numeric Score to Pass/Fail?
  • Popular this Week
  • Most Popular
  • Most Recent
    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment
    • Vertigo in the Elderly: What Does It Mean?
    • Neurogenic Cough Is Often a Diagnosis of Exclusion
    • Some Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Resists PPI Treatment
    • Complications for When Physicians Change a Maiden Name
    • Vertigo in the Elderly: What Does It Mean?
    • New Developments in the Management of Eustachian Tube Dysfunction
    • Some Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Resists PPI Treatment
    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment
    • Eustachian Tuboplasty: A Potential New Option for Chronic Tube Dysfunction and Patulous Disease
    • Otolaryngologists Elected to AMA Board of Trustees
    • FDA Approves First Treatment for Eosinophilic Esophagitis
    • Clinical Best Practices: Otolaryngologists Tackle Questions
    • Otolaryngologist Shares Experience with Image Manipulation in Research and How to Prevent It
    • Methodology to Study Care Barriers for Head and Neck Cancer Patients in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Yields Insights

Polls

Do you think most image manipulation in studies is done accidentally or on purpose?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive
  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Visit: The Triological Society • The Laryngoscope • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology

Wiley
© 2022 The Triological Society. All Rights Reserved.
ISSN 1559-4939