Are your covenants not to compete enforceable? Many factors go into whether or not a court will enforce a non-compete agreement. Courts will not only consider, among other things, the scope, territorial limitation, and duration of the agreement, but also whether there was adequate consideration.
Georgia and South Carolina differ as to what constitutes adequate consideration.
For example, if an employer asked an at-will employee to sign an agreement as a condition of his continued employment, the courts in each state differ as to whether this alone constitutes adequate consideration.
Non-competition agreements may also be valuable tools in other situations such as partnerships, franchises, and settlement agreements. However, a non-compete agreement is only a benefit if it is enforceable.
Below I have linked two opinions discussing the issue of adequate consideration, one from the Supreme Court of South Carolina and one from the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Supreme Court of South Carolina
