The Boston Business Litigation newsletter from Yurko, Salvesen & Remz recently brought to our attention an interesting new lawsuit involving a claim by a dental practice that a dentist violated non-competition and non-solicitation covenants he entered into when he sold his practice.  The noncompete restriction at issue prohibited the dentist from "practicing dentistry" for three years within a 15 mile radius of the plaintiff's South Weymouth office. So far, there is no decision on the plaintiff's injunction request, but the case does raise interesting question:  can you stop a dentist from practicing dentistry within a specific geographic area?  Or put another way:  shouldn't dentists be exempt from noncompetes?

In Massachusetts, there are a number of professions that are exempted from noncompete enforcement.  As Brian Bialas recently explained, lawyers cannot be subject to non-competition restrictions.  And there are a few other professions that enjoy this special status in Massachusetts:  physicians, nurses, broadcasters, and social workers.   Employees in these professions cannot, by virtue of specific legislation altering the common law of noncompetes, be subject to a post-employment noncompete.  So, if your doctor leaves his medical practice and wants to hang a shingle down the street, he cannot be restricted from doing so by a traditional non-competition agreement. 

But no statutory exemption exists in Massachusetts for dentists.  Certainly a good argument can be made that the public policy underlying the exclusion for physicians -- that a patient's interest in receiving medical treatment from the doctor of her choice overrides any business interest in restricting unfair competition -- should apply equally to dentists.   But for now, dentists don't enjoy this protection. 

To view Foley Hoag's Massachusetts Noncompete Law Blog please click here

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.