Alberta Court Rejects Non-Solicitation Injunction Application

In 1731271 Alberta Inc. v Reimer, 2024 ABKB 446 (Mah, J), the Alberta Court of King's Bench denied an application by an employer for an injunction preventing a former employee and her new employer from soliciting the prior employer's clients.

This case is important because it is a reminder that the Courts are reluctant to impose barriers to free competition on former employees, especially using interlocutory injunctions, and will only do so in certain specific circumstances.

For non-lawyers, notes that an "interlocutory injunction" is generally when the Court issues an order prohibiting someone from doing something until liability in a legal action is resolved. Injunctions are hard to obtain because the Court is giving a remedy before it has decided whether a party is liable, which can be severely harmful to the financial interests of a business.