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The Boston Business Litigation newsletter from Yurko, Salvesen &
Remz recently brought to our attention an
interesting new lawsuit involving a claim by a dental
practice that a dentist violated non-competition and
non-solicitation covenants he entered into when he sold
his practice. The noncompete restriction at issue
prohibited the dentist from "practicing dentistry"
for three years within a 15 mile radius of the plaintiff's
South Weymouth office. So far, there is no decision on the
plaintiff's injunction request, but the case does
raise interesting question: can you stop a dentist
from practicing dentistry within a specific geographic
area? Or put another way: shouldn't dentists
be exempt from noncompetes?
In Massachusetts, there are a number of professions that are
exempted from noncompete enforcement. As Brian Bialas
recently explained, lawyers cannot be
subject to non-competition restrictions. And there are a few
other professions that enjoy this special status in
Massachusetts: physicians, nurses, broadcasters,
and
social workers. Employees in these professions
cannot, by virtue of specific legislation altering the common
law of noncompetes, be subject to a post-employment
noncompete. So, if your doctor leaves his medical practice
and wants to hang a shingle down the street, he cannot be
restricted from doing so by a traditional non-competition
agreement.
But no statutory exemption exists in Massachusetts for
dentists. Certainly a good argument can be made that the
public policy underlying the exclusion for physicians -- that
a patient's interest in receiving medical treatment from the
doctor of her choice overrides any business interest in restricting
unfair competition -- should apply equally to
dentists. But for now, dentists don't enjoy this
protection.
To view Foley Hoag's Massachusetts Noncompete Law
Blog please click
here
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