That's like saying, "it's dishonorable to agree to a contract to kill someone knowing full well such a contract isn't enforceable."
If one party holds all the cards in a contract negotiation it's never truly being negotiated in good faith in the first place. Furthermore, one could argue that without having an expert on contract law right then and there available to answer any questions about any given contract means it falls under a "lack of capacity" for basically anyone who isn't a lawyer.
Employee agreements often fail in courts because of:
- Duress
- Lack of capacity (e.g. due to overly complicated legalese *specifically written to be hard to understand*)
- Undue influence (e.g. company says they'll hire someone else if you ask to get the contract reviewed by a lawyer before signing)
- Misrepresentation (e.g. job was described as "X" but turns out it's "Y")
- Non-disclosure (e.g. candidate was not told job would require purchasing products or services sold by the company itself or a partner)
- Unconscionability (e.g. some term or terms in the contract are so unfair that it cannot be allowed to stand... Like a non-compete that says you can't work within 50 miles of your former place of employment if you leave)
The "usual one" is unconscionability: Employers have unfair bargaining power almost all of the time and judges and juries are easy to convince of this. Also, these sorts of things don't usually make it to court unless there's something ridiculous in the contract. What's interesting is there usually is something ridiculous in every employee contract. It's just that those ridiculous things aren't usually the part of the contract a company is trying to enforce so they don't come up as often.
If one party holds all the cards in a contract negotiation it's never truly being negotiated in good faith in the first place. Furthermore, one could argue that without having an expert on contract law right then and there available to answer any questions about any given contract means it falls under a "lack of capacity" for basically anyone who isn't a lawyer.
Employee agreements often fail in courts because of:
The "usual one" is unconscionability: Employers have unfair bargaining power almost all of the time and judges and juries are easy to convince of this. Also, these sorts of things don't usually make it to court unless there's something ridiculous in the contract. What's interesting is there usually is something ridiculous in every employee contract. It's just that those ridiculous things aren't usually the part of the contract a company is trying to enforce so they don't come up as often.