Non-Compete Agreements

A form of modern slavery (an apparently unenforceable in California):

Keith Bollinger’s paycheck as a factory manager had shriveled after the 2008 financial crisis, but then he got a chance to pull himself out of recession’s hole. A rival textile company offered him a better job – and a big raise.

When he said yes, it set off a three-year legal battle that concluded last week but wiped out his savings along the way.

“I tried to get a better life for my wife and my son, and it backfired,” said Bollinger, 53, of Conover, 45 miles northwest of Charlotte, N.C. “Now I’m in my mid-50s, and I’m ruined.”