The Non-Compete Nightmare
Welcome to the podcast Organized Money. You can listen to today’s episode on Apple on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
"I was served papers while picking up my children from school." That was the beginning of real estate broker Courtney Van Cott's shocking six-year legal nightmare to fight a non-compete.
As a young mother just starting in real estate, Courtney tells Matt she was pressured to sign a contract requiring her to pay 75% of commissions earned for three years after leaving her team—even for clients she found herself. After moving to a new brokerage, she faced a lawsuit demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars, then endured years of litigation before finally winning her case. Their conversation reveals the devastating personal and industry-wide impacts of non-competes, especially for independent contractors. While the Federal Trade Commission attempted to ban most non-competes nationwide in 2024, that rule remains blocked in court, leaving a patchwork of state laws, and ongoing uncertainty for millions of American workers like Courtney.
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