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Help ------- Advice regarding solicitation of my candidate by my vendor.

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First of all I would like to thank you for taking your time out inspite of your hectic schedule.

I have placed a candidate on contingency basis to a client through a vendor. After working for 8 months the consultant went ahead and joined the vendor directly and still he works at the same client.
Consultant says the project which he got through me was over and this was a new project., the Vendor says that they can't help us as he found the project on his own.

I don't have any Non-Solicitation/Non-Compete agreement from the Consultant and the Vendor. The consultant and vendor tried to cut me in the intial first three months itself, but somehow I threatened them that I will file a law suit as well I agreed for the rate increase to the candidate, he stayed with me for five more months.
During that course, I tried to get a Non/Solicitation/Non-compete agreement, but they never signed it as well the vendor never replied my e-mails.

The consultant worked with me till December'2007. I want to forget this & go ahead, but day in & day out it bother's me.

There is a chance the project may go for one to two years.

I would like to know whether is it worth(time & money) to pursue the case against both of them without the agreement.

I appreciate your help & expertise in this regard.

Thanks,
Tektree Gopi.

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Permalink Reply by Maren Hogan on May 6, 2008 at 10:22am: Hmmmm. Usually after a six month period, we allow our clients the option of hiring the consultant full time. However, we do have them sign a non-compete so that if they take another contract position at the same company, not only is the company liable but the candidate is as well. That usually stops people. I have had my mishaps with not having contracts signed before everything starts rolling really fast. To maintain relations with the client, I would chalk it up to a learning experience and never place anyone there without an ironclad contract protecting you on both sides. NE is an at-will state so for us, we have to make sure our contracts are very specific. Not sure about your state.

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Letourneau on May 6, 2008 at 1:50pm: Tektree - is there a "Right to Represent" clause in your agreement? If you can email me your contract, I'll look at it (although I'm not a lawyer, these cases are normally very straightforward). The issue is not what 'project' a contractor may be working on . . . rather, it's about the statute of limitations regarding how long you can 'represent' him or her. The concept of a 'project' is what we call a "loophole" in contractual language - what I imagine is that there is a dirty player involved here that is trying to cut you out (it may be the client, the contractor, or collusion between both). My perception is also that someone is hoping you'll just go away since you can't literally drive to the client site and speak to a VP and/or their General Counsel.

If you have ground to stand on, I'd recommend filing a civil suit against the client for any amounts less than $10k as this can be handled outside of the actual state's Supreme Court.

This leads me to a further question: Where is the work being performed? Is it here in the U.S.? If not, I can't help much as the only other areas I have intimate knowledge of are Hong Kong and the EU as I have a number of clients there.

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