Are Non-Competes Enforceable for Therapists and Behavioral Health Staff in New Jersey?

Yes — a New Jersey practice can have an enforceable non-compete, but no statute hands it to you.

No New Jersey statute governing employee non-competes, generally or specifically for therapists, psychologists, social workers, behavior analysts, physicians or nurses, was found in force as of October 7, 2026, so enforceability is governed by case law.

That case law has two features that shape everything else.

New Jersey courts test a restrictive covenant by asking whether it protects the employer's legitimate interests, imposes no undue hardship on the employee, and is not injurious to the public.

And clinician covenants are not per se unenforceable — the state's Supreme Court said so about a hospital's covenant with a physician, while cutting the covenant's geography back to protect patient access to care.

How the states compare on all of this is covered in our guide to non-competes nationally.

New Jersey's governing law is judge-made, set out in two leading decisions.

Solari Industries v. Malady, 55 N.J. 571 (1970): the New Jersey Supreme Court abandoned the old rule that non-competes were void per se and adopted the opposite — a court may enforce a non-compete in total or in part, to the extent reasonable under the circumstances.

Community Hospital Group v. More, 183 N.J. 36 (2005): the court reaffirmed that a restrictive covenant between a hospital and a physician is not per se unreasonable and unenforceable, reexamining its earlier physician-covenant decision, Karlin v. Weinberg, 77 N.J. 408 (1978).

Senate Bill 1407, which would prohibit non-compete clauses with limited senior-executive provisions, was introduced and referred to the Senate Labor Committee on January 13, 2026, with no later action recorded as of October 7, 2026.

Assembly Bill 1647, which would restrict restrictive employment covenants for physicians and nurses, went to the Assembly Health Committee the same day and had seen no further action as of October 7, 2026.

Neither bill is law.

No New Jersey statute our research found singles out behavioral health.

No statute in force as of October 7, 2026 was found governing non-competes specifically for counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychologists or behavior analysts — and A1647, the pending health-care bill, names physicians and nurses only, not counselors, social workers or psychologists.

The clinician-specific authority our research found is physician case law, and it matters because of what More did with it: the court found the physician covenant's geographic area excessive and reduced it to avoid harm to the public interest — the third prong of the state's test at work when a clinician's departure affects who can get care.

For a therapy practice, expect extra public-interest scrutiny in a covenant with a therapist, a BCBA or a prescriber — what happens to the clients is the question that prong asks.

Our research for this page did not cover New Jersey case law on therapist, psychologist or BCBA covenants specifically — treat the physician cases as the closest analog and have New Jersey employment counsel read your draft against them.

The New Jersey test asks three questions of the covenant as written.

Does it protect the employer's legitimate interests?

Does it impose no undue hardship on the employee?

Is it not injurious to the public?

What the test does not do is fix numbers.

Our research found no New Jersey statute setting a maximum duration or a maximum geographic radius, so there is no safe template to copy: every number in your draft has to be justified hire by hire.

Since Solari, a New Jersey court may enforce a covenant in whole or in part to the extent reasonable — and More shows a court doing it: the geographic area came back reduced.

Overbroad does not automatically mean void in New Jersey; it can mean the clause comes back smaller than you wrote it.

Do not draft for that outcome — draft the original to be reasonable on its face.

The covenant in More did not stand alone.

Alongside the non-compete, it included — for two years after employment — a ban on soliciting or inducing the hospital's patients to use other providers.

The case did not set out a separate legal test for the non-solicit as a distinct instrument.

How New Jersey courts treat patient and client non-solicitation clauses on their own terms was outside our research for this page, so before you lean on one as your only protection, put it to New Jersey employment counsel.

Know what the tool is, though.

A non-solicitation clause binds the clinician's conduct — no soliciting your clients, referral sources or staff — where a non-compete restricts whether and where they can work at all.

It binds the clinician, not the client: a client who wants to follow a departing therapist remains free to choose.

What the ethics codes expect when a clinician leaves — informing clients of their options, avoiding abandonment — is covered in our guide to non-solicitation clauses.

Draft to the test, not past it.

Name the legitimate interest in one sentence before you write the clause, tie the duration to that interest, and limit the geography to where this clinician actually served clients.

The narrower the covenant, the less it depends on a judge trimming it.

Pair any covenant with a written client-transition plan — who takes each client, how records move — because client access to care is what the public-interest prong weighs.

A well-drafted client non-solicit may get you most of what you want without restricting where a clinician works at all.

Use the tools that do not restrict practice.

A confidentiality clause covering schedules, fee structures and business information restrains disclosure rather than work, so it can cover the whole roster.

And if the worry is paying to train a clinician who then leaves, training repayment agreements are a different instrument with their own enforceability rules — see our guide to training repayment agreements before adding one to an offer.

Finally, watch the bills: if S1407 or A1647 moves out of committee, the framework on this page changes.

Confirm current status with the New Jersey Legislature or employment counsel before relying on it.