Getting Out of the Way of A Settlement
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Non-compete cases that are well lawyered should be resolved early in the litigation process. Why do I say that? If the plaintiff is an aggressive former employer it will in most instances move for a temporary restraining order followed by an application for a temporary injunction in Texas state court. In that process a lot of things can happen. First, the parties will have appeared before a judge and gotten a flavor for how the judge will rule and what the judge thinks of each parties’ claims and defenses. Second, there may be expedited discovery including document productions and depositions. The judge may even order the case to mediation to avoid having to spend court time on a temporary injunction hearing – which is like a mini-trial.
Most importantly, both side will incur attorneys’ fees and in many cases a lot of them in short amount of time. Injunction cases and expedited discovery are not cheap. It all takes place up front and the client is likely to receive one large bill. Point is they will have a flavor for the costs and will see more fees on the horizon.
By the end of all this the parties should know all the bad things the other side has done and merit of their claims and defenses. Couple this with overall litigation fatigue (caused by time expended on the case and attorneys’ fees) and there is usually a good opportunity to have a settlement dialogue and get the case resolved.
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