I attended a training course last year which cost about 12,000 US dollars. Also I signed a 3-year contract which means I need to repay part of training fee if I leave the company within 3 years. But now I realize this contract may be unfair.
I'm a software engineer and the system we are developi...
You don't have to physically see a lawyer, or even be in the same country as a lawyer to retain their services, especially just for a legal opinion. Email a few firms that do contract law in the US state in which your employer is and sure enough someone will be happy to take your money. Someone may even give you a prelim "no/maybe" answer for free, as this is a fairly trivial question.
Thank you. I’m not even a US citizen but I’ll try my luck as you advise. I searched here before I posted my question. I saw other questions that involve legal factors so I decided to post mine here to see if anyone has similar experiences.
This software doesn't have documentation you can read? Any software worth using usually has documentation with it that explains this in detail for people who purchased it.
Try law.stackexchange.com/questions. You will probably get the same as here: a lot of "get a lawyer" answers. Consider asking an additional question around "how to find good & affordable legal advice when living in a different country". "getting a lawyer" in the US is a lot easier said than done.
You will need a lawyer to help you with the legal aspects. In the future, you should be more careful. But consider that not only you, but also your boss got tricked; your boss thought he was paying for a useful course. Maybe a way forward is for your boss to demand his money back from the training firm.
In which State are you located in? Also, please do everyone a favor, when you leave, write a full review of what happened on glassdoor. Even if that contract is unenforceable, it would still be good for others to know about it and that the training was worthless.
I thought I knew what I would get from that training. That’s why I signed the contract. I joined this company for less than a year then. I thought I was excellent enough to be selected for such a training. I trust the company. I attended this training course in Las Vegas but this company has many branches around the world. As you advise, I should try to ask a lawyer about this. Thank you all for all the information you provide. It’s really helpful.
Is your manager aware that the training didn’t provide the knowledge it was supposed to? I would start by bringing it up with him to see if there’s anything the company can do.
I haven’t talked with my manager or HR who organized this training yet. I don’t know the aim of this training. Right after the training, my manager asked me about the content and I said it was only installation rather than database structure and he looked calm. It is an internal training because this software is developed by my company. I’ll talk to my manager and HR first but my colleagues tell me there’s little chance they’ll compromise.
"But now I realize this contract may be unfair." Contracts doesn't have to be fair. Their perceived fairness by one party is immaterial. You signed it and you are responsible for it.
@PagMax I know. That’s why I say I don’t think they’ll compromise. But I think there are problems in the whole process so I post my question here to seek others’ advice.
@PagMax What you said is just wrong. One of the components of any legally binding contract is a consideration, and if any of the parties was not privy about the extent of what they are getting, they may well have been unable to give it proper consideration at all, possibly making the contract not binding. That's why OP needs a lawyer, not random internet opinions. Also keep in mind that even if it may not be binding, if OP cannot negotiate a way out of it, this will have to go to court for a ruling, as only the parties and court can invalidate it.
So you work in Nevada? Or did you just go there for the training? It's important to know in which State you're actually working in, as that's the legal jurisdiction that applies to you. It doesn't matter if your company is in multiple States.
I cant fathom a jurisdiction where this wouldn't be a valid contract. You signed a contract to receive services at no cost provided you paid for by working for the company for the agreed upon time. None of your rights are being circumvented here. I've seen contracts like this through a lot of companies that hire through recruitment services. Revature is one of the largest of these organizations in the US and this is standard to all of their contracts. Don't sign contracts with 3 year commitments if you aren't willing to fulfill your side or pay the costs of the exit clause.
@Josh I just want to add that I know there are many training courses of such kind in other companies. But honestly I've almost never heard of any training courses that has so little to do with one's responsiblities and obviously the knowledge that I got from this two-week training course which cost so much can used nowhere else. Yes, it was a two-week training course, which I forgot to mention in my question.
@Stephan, I just went there for the training. It will take some time to figure out which state’s law can be applied. But since so many people here think this contract may be invalid, I’ll try to negotiate with HR first.
@TymoteuszPaul. All I meant is assuming everything is done as per the books, thinking later that contract may not be fair does not makes sense. Something like I decided to sell my company to you for X and signed a contract. Later thought X was unfair and I should have charged you 2X, will not really be a strong legal argument. Of course, lawyers opinion is better than random internet opinion but the question was asked to random internet people and hence the opinion.
@Stephan, in my early comments, I mentioned that I don’t live and work in the USA. So my company is in the USA but I don’t work there. I work remote. That’s why I need to figure it out.
Discussion on question by user113117:…
Discussion on question by user113117:…