Can a legal document be determined null and void due to poor grammar and punctuation?

good question.maybe

a buddy of mine says no, the parties involved consented to wordage when signing. as long as it can't be inferred in a diffent manner due to punctuation. criminal act or involvment changes thing though. verbal agreements can be binding with compensation and people talk in all manners. he's a attorney, so i guess he knows.

So in one of the sentences there is a period three words into it and the rest of the sentence continues after that, wouldn't that change the meaning of the statement?

Nope. Unless you can prove that one of the parties was temporarily or permanently incapacitated at the time of signing, the contract would probably stand no matter how poorly it was written.

what happened jeremy?

Depends. What's the sentence? If it lends to ambiguity, it could be deemed contentious.

Let's just say I was scammed into signing a non solicitation agreement.

that sucks jeremy.i would seek legal consul

I think I will call a lawyer on Monday. I talked to one of the owners of the company I'm going to and he told me not to worry about it.

If the placement of a "period" is the only issue, and is your basis for voiding an agreement, then I would have to say no. It is not sufficient cause to void an agreement.

How were you "scammed" into signing an agreement? Did they threaten to withold compensation unless the agreement was signed? Was it signed prior to your employment, or after you turned in your notice?

It was at the end of the day Friday, my last day with them so after my notice, right after we were done inventorying my equipment that I turned in. The boss checked off everything and said I need you to sign here. Being that it was on a clip board just underneath the checklist I thought it had to do with what I just turned in. It had a small paragraph about "employee acknowledges agreement, etc...." and a line for me to sign and a line for him to sign. After that he asked me if I wanted any copies and I said yes but didn't think it was anything important. He went into his office and printed off the other 4 pages that went with the signature page and made copies of it along with some other paperwork. I got into my friends car and we headed home. I started to flip through what he gave me and found the non-solicitation agreement in the papers. I started to read it and now I'm freaking out. Maybe I'm just reading to much into it. It is poorly written and confusing, I'm sure for court purposes of interpretation.

I'm no lawyer, but I write contracts almost daily. Reads to me like you acknowledged an agreement. If contested legally, you'll have to prove that the additional pages were not presented to you prior to your signature. Then explain why you signed it without full prior review.

That being said, your former employer would look awfully bad in court if shown to have been less than honest when asking for your signature on a document. But, its your responcibility to read before signing.

Good luck on this.

In Real Estate there is a grace period after signing which allows you to re-read everything and back out if you see something you don't like.
I'd see a lawyer asap!- that's a pretty low thing for them to do, sounds like you are much better off without them.

They have become a very vindictive company over the years, and that is the only thing that worries me.

So what is the purpose of the non-solicitation agreement? Like most, does it prevent you from approaching your former customers with an offer of a new service provider?

Are you in sales for your new company? If so, this may certainly affect your ability to perform your duties if your duties include soliciting new business. If however you are in a service role and go to calls assigned to you, or your company has sales reps that contact potential customers including your former clients, then there should be no issue depending on the wording.

Personally I'd be more concerned with a non-competition clause.

Seek legal counsel so that you know exactly what you have and how it may affect you.

The more I look at it the less I worry, I'm not in sales. But what if a big customer that I did do work for come over there, I could see my previous employer trying to blame it on me. I have made friends with a couple of customers over the years, am I not allowed to talk to them anymore?

no, you just can't solicit work from them. you can talk about work, even give them advice on there problems,just not ask for work.(let a salesman make a call) you can even do the work.i've worked through two non-compete agreements. (received compensation for signing) but nothing stopped me from net-working with contractors, i just couldn't bid there work until the agreement has ended.

In the state of Fl we call this being a consultant.

Isn't that what the First Generation Firebird forums are full of, consultants???

I agree with the bad grammar comments. As long as the meaning of the contract clauses can be determined, bad grammar will not void a contract.

But I have always believed that for an agreement to be a contract, there must be "consideration" which means that if I agree not to solicit former customers, then what do I get in return? Or what is my consideration? If you received nothing in return for this agreement, you may not have an enforceable contract.

Disclaimer: Consult an attorney if this is important. Don't believe opinions on the internet.............

LOL!!! Some insulting consultants!! Just kidding.