The High Court has granted an injunction to enforce a 12 month non-compete restrictive covenant which, if read literally, offered the claimant employer no protection at all. The court was prepared to read words into the covenant to produce a commercially sensible result.
This case is a useful reminder of the court’s powers to interpret a post-termination restrictive covenant where there is a drafting error that renders the clause useless. However, it is important to bear in mind that it is only in exceptional circumstances that a court will re-write a contractual restriction.
A checklist is available on request that explains what restrictive covenants are, when they are likely to be enforceable and how they can be used in employment contracts to protect a business’s interests.
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