Non-Compete Violation Investigation
When a key employee leaves and your customers start drifting to a competitor that did not exist last quarter, the suspicion writes itself: they are violating their non-compete. But a suspicion is not a case. Before an employer can send a cease-and-desist or ask a court for an injunction, it needs facts – where the former employee actually landed, whether they have stood up a competing business, and whether they are soliciting the clients or using the relationships the agreement was meant to protect. A great deal of that evidence is hiding in plain sight: business registrations, public professional profiles, advertising, and the trail a new venture leaves as it gets off the ground. This page is about gathering that lawful, public evidence so your counsel can evaluate and act. Enforceability of non-competes varies sharply by state – some restrict or ban them – so we research the facts and leave the legal judgment to your attorney. We are a public-records research firm, not legal advisors. This is general information, not legal advice.
The Short Version
A non-compete violation investigation turns a suspicion into documented facts your counsel can act on. The questions are concrete: Where did the former employee actually go – a direct competitor, or a new competing business they formed? Are they soliciting your clients or trading on the relationships the agreement protects? And what public evidence exists to show it? A surprising amount sits in the open record: business registrations naming the new venture and its principals, public professional profiles and announcements, advertising and a website, and the digital footprint a launching business leaves. Our role is to gather that lawful, public evidence and document it cleanly. Two boundaries define how we work. First, we collect only what is publicly and lawfully available – we do not access private accounts, devices, or communications. Second, whether the non-compete is enforceable and what relief to seek are legal questions for your attorney, and the answer varies sharply by state, where some restrict or prohibit these agreements. We supply facts; counsel supplies judgment. This page is general information, not legal advice.
Watch: Proving a Violation
The public evidence that builds a case.
Watch Overview
Where the Evidence Hides in Plain Sight
A new venture leaves a public trail.
A person who has gone to work for a competitor, or stood up a competing business, is usually not hiding it – they are promoting it. Forming a company means filing a business registration that names the entity and often its principals and agent. Getting customers means advertising: a website, listings, social posts, and announcements that a new venture is open and seeking exactly the clients your agreement was meant to protect. Career moves get posted on public professional profiles, and the people involved leave a connected footprint – the same former colleagues, the same client names, surfacing in public view.
That public trail is the evidence. It can show that the former employee is at a competitor or running their own competing shop, when the venture started relative to their departure, and whether they are openly soliciting the market they agreed to stay out of. None of it requires reaching into anything private; it is assembled from what is already public, the same disciplined gathering behind a lawful social media investigation and the documentation in our background investigation services.
What the Public Record Can Show
The evidence, and what it establishes.
| Public source | What it shows | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Business registration | A new competing entity. Key | Names the venture and principals. |
| Professional profile | The new role or company. | Where they actually landed. |
| Advertising & website | Active solicitation. | Targeting your market. |
| Public announcements | Launch and timing. | Relative to the departure. |
| Associated people | Co-founders, recruited staff. | The scope of the move. |
Each source is a thread; together they make a documented picture. A registration plus an advertising push plus a profile change, timed just after the departure, is a far stronger foundation than a hunch – and it is exactly what your counsel needs to evaluate a cease-and-desist or an injunction. Because the value is in the documentation, we capture and source each finding so it can be relied on, the same precision behind any records-based investigation.
When Employers Call Us
The situations behind a suspected violation.
Clients Drifting Away
Accounts following the ex-employee.
A New Competing LLC
An entity formed right after leaving.
Joined a Rival
Now at a direct competitor.
Open Solicitation
Advertising to your clients.
Recruited Coworkers
Staff leaving for the new venture.
Hidden Ownership
A venture under a spouse’s name.
How We Build the Evidence
Lawful, public, and documented.
Locate the Person
Where they actually landed.
Map the Venture
Entity, principals, and timing.
Capture the Activity
Advertising and solicitation, public.
Document for Counsel
Sourced findings, ready to use.
Our Role: Facts, Not Verdicts
We gather public evidence; counsel decides.
We are careful about the line we stay on. We gather only publicly and lawfully available information – business registrations, public profiles, advertising, websites, announcements, and the open footprint of a new venture – and we document each finding with its source. We do not access private accounts, email, devices, or communications, and we do not surveil or pretext anyone. We are a skip-tracing and public-records research firm, not licensed private investigators, and we work under a permissible purpose. When something is not lawfully available, we say so rather than reach for it.
Equally important, we do not opine on the law. Whether a particular non-compete is enforceable, what it actually prohibits, and what relief to pursue are questions for your attorney – and the answers differ markedly by state, with some restricting or banning these agreements and others enforcing reasonable ones. Our deliverable is a documented, source-backed picture of where the former employee landed and what they are publicly doing, so your counsel can make those calls on solid facts rather than suspicion. The same disciplined, lawful gathering underpins our people search services and broader records research.
Who Uses This
For employers and counsel protecting the business.
Employers
A departed key employee
Employment Counsel
Evaluating enforcement
HR Leaders
Documenting a departure
Business Owners
A poached client base
Franchisors
A former franchisee competing
Litigation Teams
Backing an injunction
A suspicion does not move a court; documented facts do. We gather the lawful, public evidence – where they landed, the competing venture, the open solicitation – so your counsel can evaluate enforcement on solid ground. It connects to our background investigation services and broader skip tracing services. Tell us the former employee; a first read typically comes back within 24 hours.
Our Commitment
We turn a non-compete suspicion into documented, source-backed facts – where the former employee landed, the competing venture and its timing, and the public solicitation – gathered only from lawfully available public information. We do not access private accounts or devices, surveil, or pretext, and we do not opine on enforceability; that is your attorney’s call. Lawful records research since 2004 – never pretext, never private contents, never a substitute for legal advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you investigate a suspected non-compete violation?
By gathering lawful, public evidence that answers concrete questions: where the former employee actually went, whether they formed or joined a competing business, and whether they are openly soliciting your clients. We work from business registrations, public professional profiles, advertising, websites, and announcements, documenting each finding with its source so your counsel can evaluate enforcement.
What public evidence can actually show a violation?
A business registration naming a new competing entity and its principals, a profile or announcement showing the person joined a rival, advertising and a website soliciting your market, and the timing of all of it relative to their departure. No single item is conclusive, but several public sources together build a documented picture far stronger than a hunch – and that is what counsel needs.
Do you access the former employee’s email or accounts?
No. We gather only publicly and lawfully available information – registrations, public profiles, advertising, and open footprints. We do not access private accounts, email, devices, or communications, and we do not surveil or pretext. When something is not lawfully available, we say so. That boundary keeps the evidence usable and free of the legal risk that improperly obtained material carries.
Can you find a competing business hidden under another name?
Often, yes. A venture set up under a spouse’s name or a different entity still leaves public traces – registrations, shared addresses, associated people, and advertising that connects back to the former employee. We follow those public connections to identify the real venture behind a nominal owner, documenting the links so the relationship is clear to your counsel.
Will you tell me whether the non-compete is enforceable?
No. Whether a non-compete is enforceable, what it prohibits, and what relief to seek are legal questions for your attorney, and the answer varies sharply by state – some restrict or ban these agreements, others enforce reasonable ones. We provide the factual evidence; your counsel applies the law. We supply documented facts, not legal conclusions or advice.
Is this kind of investigation legal?
Yes, the way we do it. Gathering publicly and lawfully available information for a legitimate business purpose is lawful, and we work only from public records, public profiles, and licensed data under a permissible purpose. We do not pretext, hack, or access private contents. We confirm the purpose and stay within those boundaries, which is also what keeps the evidence usable.
How does this help my cease-and-desist or injunction?
A demand letter or an injunction motion is far stronger backed by documented facts than by suspicion. By handing your counsel a sourced picture of where the former employee landed, the competing venture, and the open solicitation, we give them concrete evidence to act on and to put before a court. How to use it, and whether to, remains your attorney’s decision.
How fast can you gather the evidence?
For a workable request, a first read typically comes back within 24 hours, with a fuller report as the public-record research completes. You receive documented findings – the person’s current role or venture, the entity and its timing, and public solicitation – with sources and honest notes on what is confirmed versus uncertain, so your counsel can evaluate enforcement quickly.
Turn Suspicion Into Evidence
Tell us the former employee and your permissible purpose, and we’ll gather the lawful, public evidence – where they landed, the competing venture and its timing, and the open solicitation – documented for your counsel, typically with a first read within 24 hours. Contact us to get started.
Start Your Request →
