the scope of activities that the employee is restricted too. A court will usually not enforce a restrictive covenant of more than 12 months’ duration from the date of termination of employment. When is a restrictive covenant not enforceable? at *23. TYPICAL DURATION OF RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS. In general, restrictive covenants are automatically enforceable between the original parties (e.g. A restrictive covenant will generally be enforceable between the original contracting parties as a matter of contract. When evaluating the enforceability of a restrictive covenant, New York courts may take into consideration whether or not the employer will make any payments to the There is no point including a 24 month restrictive covenant in a contract for a junior sales manager as the business is unlikely to be able to justify that as reasonable to protect its interests when weighed against a right to work. EXAMPLE It’s common for them to be between 3-12 months, any longer than 12 months it will usually be deem unenforceable. A more usual period is for 3- 6 months, provided that the restrictive covenant was reasonable and necessary to protect a legitimate business interest. As is well known, the law regarding restrictive covenant provisions such as non-competes is a matter of state law. Conversely, a covenant to use the property only as a residential dwelling is actually a restrictive covenant not to use the property for any other purpose than a residential dwelling. In usual circumstances, cases can take 12-18 months to get to trial. The covenants came to an end in July 2017, and so the trial needed to be well in advance of that date to be of any benefit to the IFAs. Several months into his new employment, Peltrade applied without notice for an interim injunction to enforce the covenant. Furthermore, for a restrictive covenant to be enforceable the covenant must not be worded too widely in regard to: ... Usually it would be reasonable to expect a former employee for roughly between 6 to 12 months. On leaving Peltrade he had openly declared his intention to join a competitor. employee, because even though he would receive 12 months of salary from the plaintiff, the position with the competitor might not be available at the end of 12 months. Although disfavored in the typical … If no objections are raised, an application can take three months but much longer in a disputed case. This really depends on the seniority of the employee as well as their access to sensitive information within your recruitment business. Are restrictive covenants enforceable? It succeeded. A question that is or should be important to employers and employees alike is whether non-compete provisions in an employment agreement can be enforced in New York when the employee is terminated involuntarily without cause. Id. the original landowner and a developer). Peltrade Ltd sought an interim injunction to enforce a 12-month non-compete clause against its ex-employee, Mr Scanlan. Whether you are an executive seeking a new job as a result of a voluntarily or involuntarily termination, or the HR professional assigned to manage the employee’s separation, there is a good chance that you will run into a restrictive covenant and be required to assess whether it would be enforceable under the circumstances. If your covenant is challenged and a court finds that your client connections would have been adequately protected by a 12 month non-solicitation restriction (which is narrower than a non-deal restriction) or by a shorter 6 month non-dealing restriction, then the original covenant will be unenforceable, leaving your business exposed. However, this trial was listed to start on 14 November, less than 3 months after proceedings were issued.