Problem: Sarah is a graduate of the University of Alberta accounting program. She is 25 years old and lives in Stony Plain, Alberta. Stony Plain is a bedroom community for Alberta's capital city, Edmonton. It is approximately 20 minutes west of Edmonton, and its population is approximately 15,000. Edmonton is a city of approximately 750,000 (excluding surrounding areas).
Sarah was very pleased to obtain employment with Acme Accounting in Stony Plain after graduation. Acme is the only accounting firm in town and operates a full-service, general accounting practice. Clients include everyone from individuals, businesses, and even the municipal government. Upon accepting employment with Acme, she was asked to sign a contract with the following provisions:
If the employee leaves the employ of Acme at any time, the employee agrees:
Not to set up any business in competition with Acme within a 10-km. radius of Acme's offices
Not to solicit any of Acme's clients
This clause shall survive the termination of the employment relationship for a period of three years.
After two years, however, Sarah became dissatisfied working for Acme. The partners were impossible to please-and cheap to boot. When they hired her, one of the Acme partners had assured her that there would be performance bonuses and regular raises. However, these promises did not appear in Sarah's employment contract, and she never received any bonuses or raises during her time of employment.
Sarah quit and started up her own small business, servicing Stony Plain, the nearby community of Spruce Grove, and west Edmonton. She makes house calls to seniors to help them with accounting and financial matters. The bulk of her business is completing annual income tax returns and dealing with estate matters. Because Sarah had a good rapport with clients, many of Acme's clients have now become Sarah's clients.
Acme is outraged that Sarah is operating in Stony Plain and claims she is stealing clients. They think they would have a good chance of winning a lawsuit against her.
Take Sarah's side and provide a reasonable defence that what she is doing doesn't violate her contractual obligations.
Post your arguments in point form so that others can clearly follow your arguments. You should pay special attention to the definition of "solicit", the reasonableness of the 10km radius restriction, and the reasonableness of a 3-year restriction from the time of termination.