Your Legal Questions Answered

Non-competition agreements are generally void in Colorado unless they fall under specific exceptions, which include agreements relating to executive and management personnel and their staff, and agreements relating to trade secrets. An employer may also be entitled to reimbursement for the costs of training an employee who stays with the company less than two years. You indicate that you're not in a management role and that you don't possess any trade secrets. If your employer agrees, then you should be in the clear. I assume by your question, however, that you're worried your employer might disagree. If that's the case, then the enforceability of the contract will turn on the underlying facts. Disputes about whether the employee is in a managerial role generally turn on whether the employee has significant responsibility for the business and acts in a supervisory capacity. The issue of trade secrets can be even more complicated, and the courts look at multiple factors, including the measures the company has taken to obtain or develop the information, the company's interest in keeping the information from its competitors, whether the information relates to the business, the value of the information to the business, and the measures the company has taken to maintain the secrecy of the information.