A former employer’s non-compete lawyer just sent you a letter — or worse, served you with a lawsuit — because you took a new job, started your own business, or began working with former customers. The letter demands that you stop immediately. The deadline is short. The legal fees they’re threatening are six figures.

Most employees in this position don’t know where to start. The moment to act is now, not next week. Injunction timelines in Michigan move fast.

I’m Warren Astbury, and Astbury Law is one of the few Michigan firms that works exclusively on the employee side of non-compete disputes. Most other firms in this space represent the companies suing. I don’t, and I don’t split the practice. I’ve won injunction hearings, defeated enforcement attempts, and recovered attorney’s fees for clients as the prevailing party.

Call Today — Time Matters on Injunctions → 814-821-1140

Who I represent — and who I don’t

Astbury Law works exclusively with Michigan employees and independent contractors. Never employers. I don’t represent companies — large or small — that use non-competes to stop former employees from working and supporting their families. If you’re an employee or contractor being pursued by a former employer over a non-compete, non-solicitation, or non-disclosure agreement, you’re in the right place.

My non-compete practice focuses primarily on Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties, but I represent employees throughout Michigan.

Three services I provide

1. Is my non-compete enforceable?

If you’re planning to leave your current job — or you’ve already left — and you want to know what you can and can’t do under your agreement, we’ll walk through it together. We’ll cover:

Whether the agreement is legally enforceable in the first place
If it is, what it actually restricts (the language often reaches less far than the employer wants you to believe)
Practical, specific advice about modifications to your plans that reduce the chance your former employer takes legal action

2. Responding to a cease-and-desist letter

Getting a demand letter from a former employer’s lawyer is frightening. My job is to take the temperature down and respond strategically. We’ll:

Review the letter and the underlying agreement and assess whether the demands have any legal merit
Identify potential counterclaims you may have against your former employer
Draft a comprehensive response that signals clearly you intend to fight — and know how to
Negotiate and settle the dispute from a position of strength, not fear

3. Defending an injunction or breach-of-contract lawsuit

If the former employer has already filed suit — particularly if they’re seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) or a preliminary injunction — the timeline compresses fast. We’ll:

Review the complaint and agreement and give you an honest assessment of the lawsuit’s strengths and weaknesses
Strategize an aggressive response, including motions to dismiss where the complaint is defective
Assert every counterclaim you may have against your former employer
Prepare for the injunction hearing, which functions as a mini-trial weeks after the lawsuit is filed

The three-question intake filter for non-compete defense

This is a different intake path than the firm’s wrongful termination practice. For non-compete defense:

1. You have a non-compete, non-solicitation, or non-disclosure agreement with a former employer, and you’re leaving, have left, or are being pursued over it.

2. You received a cease-and-desist letter, a lawsuit, or both — or you have a reasonable expectation that enforcement action is coming.

3. You have a copy of the agreement — or can get one. The analysis starts there.

If those three are true, call 814-821-1140 or request a free case evaluation →. Don’t wait on this.

Michigan’s enforceability framework: the four factors

Non-compete agreements are governed in Michigan by the Michigan Antitrust Reform Act (MARA), codified at MCL 445.774a. To enforce the agreement, your former employer must prove all four of these:

The employer has a reasonable competitive business interest that the agreement protects.
The non-compete is reasonably necessary to protect that interest.
The “type of employment” or “line of business” overlaps — meaning you’re actually competing.
The duration and the geographic area in the agreement are both reasonable.

If the employer can’t prove all four, the agreement fails.

What counts as a “reasonable competitive business interest”?

Michigan courts have found the following qualify:

Customer relationships — specifically the relationships you developed while working for the employer
Confidential information — client lists, pricing data, proprietary techniques, and similar sensitive business information the employer shared with you
Trade secrets — under the Michigan Uniform Trade Secrets Act, a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, or process that both (a) derives independent economic value from not being generally known, and (b) is subject to reasonable efforts to maintain secrecy

Not every piece of information an employer calls “confidential” actually qualifies. The test is legal, not rhetorical.

What counts as “reasonable” time?

There’s no bright-line rule in Michigan. Courts have struck down 1-year restrictions as overlong in some contexts and upheld 3-year restrictions as reasonable in others. The factors that matter:

How competitive is the field? Engineering is more competitive than janitorial work. More competitive fields support shorter restrictions.
What was your role? Executives and senior leaders with broad customer or trade-secret access may face longer enforceable restrictions than junior employees.
How wide is the geographic restriction? Courts trade off time and geography — if the geographic scope is wide, the time window should be shorter.

Restrictions of three or more years are often struck down absent extraordinary circumstances.

What counts as “reasonable” geography?

The geographic reach has to match the employer’s actual business reach.

A worldwide restriction may be reasonable for an international employer (GM, Ford, Stellantis) where you were involved in worldwide sales.
A nationwide restriction may fit for a national employer (UWM, Rocket) where you handled national accounts.
A statewide restriction may fit for a Michigan-focused employer (Corewell, Henry Ford, Ascension) where you operated statewide.
For a single-location employer, the geographic reach usually can’t extend beyond the radius of the employer’s actual customer base — if 90% of customers come from within 10 miles, a restriction that extends 50 miles is likely unreasonable.

Common defenses to a non-compete

Michigan law offers many defenses. Three of the most common:

No competition. Your new business or employer doesn’t actually compete with the former employer. The agreement applies only to actual competition.
Overbreadth. The geographic scope, time window, or activity restriction is broader than what’s reasonably necessary to protect the former employer’s business interests. Courts can refuse to enforce overbroad agreements — or, in some circumstances, narrow them (a “blue pencil” approach).
Unclean hands. The former employer engaged in unlawful or improper conduct — underpaying you, breaching your employment contract, retaliating for protected activity — that relieves you of your obligations.

There are many other defenses depending on the specific agreement and facts — misuse of information, lack of consideration, public policy, and more. We’ll work through which apply to your situation.

What happens if you violate (or are accused of violating)

The typical progression:

1. Cease-and-desist letter. Usually from the former employer’s attorney, demanding you immediately stop competing or soliciting customers. The letter typically sets a short deadline for your written confirmation.

2. Lawsuit. If the C&D doesn’t produce the response the employer wants, a lawsuit often follows. Common claims:

Breach of contract — alleging you violated the non-compete, non-solicit, or NDA
Tortious interference with business relationships — alleging you interfered with the employer’s relationships with its customers

Your new employer or business may also be sued for tortious interference with contract — the theory that they knew about your restriction and helped you violate it. If your new employer gets pulled in, they may suspend or terminate your employment pending resolution — a serious secondary harm.

3. Injunctive relief. The former employer almost always asks for either a temporary restraining order (TRO) or a preliminary injunction to stop your alleged violations while the case is pending.

TRO vs. preliminary injunction

A TRO stops a party from engaging in specified conduct for up to 14 days. It can be issued without notice to you (ex parte) in limited circumstances where the employer shows irreparable harm.

A preliminary injunction stops a party from engaging in specified conduct for the duration of the lawsuit — often a year or more — until final judgment or settlement. Preliminary injunctions always require notice and a hearing.

The preliminary injunction hearing is where most non-compete cases are effectively decided. It functions as a mini-trial, happens within weeks or a few months of the lawsuit being filed, and is expensive to defend. Proper preparation requires gathering evidence, identifying witnesses, and developing legal theory on a compressed timeline. This is why early engagement matters.

Representative non-compete case patterns

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Each case is different. The following are representative fact patterns from cases I’ve handled.

Complete defense victory for a financial services employee sued by her former employer over alleged violations of non-competition, non-solicitation, and non-disclosure agreements. Attorney’s fees were recovered for the client as the prevailing party.
Complete defense victory for an engineer sued over alleged non-competition and non-disclosure violations.
Complete victory at an injunction hearing for a physician whose former employer sought to impose a non-solicitation agreement and force other former employees to resign from his new practice.
Multiple cases where a former employer filed a non-compete or non-solicitation lawsuit and abandoned the effort after my notice of appearance was filed.

See more representative case frameworks on the Results page →.

Frequently asked questions

Are non-competes enforceable in Michigan?

Yes — but only if the former employer can prove all four MARA factors above. Many non-competes fail at least one. A free consultation can usually surface the weak points in 30 minutes.

Can I be fired for refusing to sign a non-compete?

Generally, yes. Michigan is an at-will employment state. Unless you have an employment contract for a specified term, your employer can terminate you for refusing to sign a new non-compete. Practical advice: if you’ve been asked to sign a non-compete as a condition of keeping your job, call before you sign — small wording changes during negotiation can dramatically reduce the future risk.

I signed my non-compete electronically. Is that enforceable?

Yes. The Michigan Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA), enacted in 2000, treats electronic signatures as equivalent to wet-ink signatures. If a law requires a signature, an electronic signature satisfies that requirement.

What can the former employer actually recover if they win?

Typically three categories: injunctive relief (a court order stopping you from continuing the competitive activity), money damages (usually measured by the former employer’s lost profits attributable to your conduct), and attorney’s fees if the agreement expressly provides for them.

How fast do I need to respond to a cease-and-desist letter?

Fast. The letter typically sets a short deadline — days, not weeks. Even if the legal claims are weak, ignoring the letter lets the former employer move straight to filing a lawsuit with an ex parte TRO application. A strategic response, sent on time, can often resolve the dispute without litigation.

Do I have any claims against my former employer?

Often, yes. Depending on the facts, potential counterclaims may include wage-and-hour violations, retaliation for protected activity, breach of the employer’s own contract with you, wrongful termination, defamation, or tortious interference with your new employment. Part of responding to a C&D or lawsuit is always evaluating what you can bring against them.

Ready to talk?

If you got a cease-and-desist, got sued, or are planning a move and want to know where the risk sits, call today. Non-compete matters move on injunction-hearing time, not civil-lawsuit time. A free consultation takes 15–30 minutes and gives you clarity fast.

Schedule a Free Case Evaluation →

Or call 814-821-1140 directly.

Astbury Law, PLLC 607 Shelby Street, 7th Floor, #1115 Detroit, MI 48226 814-821-1140 · warren@astburylaw.com

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. The information on this page is for general educational purposes and is not legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by reading this page or submitting a form.