The Georgia House of Representatives is hard at work on the restrictive covenant bill (HB 173 – note that the linked version is not the most current as we understand it).  The House Civil Judiciary Subcommittee (led by Rep. Mike Jacobs) has been reviewing the proposed legislation.  Although a vote was anticipated earlier this week, the bill was held over so the subcommittee could look at adding language to ensure that the statute did not have the unintended consequence of reaching employees who were not involved in sales and whose duties would not normally involve interacting with customers or access to trade secrets and confidential information. 

On Tuesday of this week, HR 178, the companion resolution recommending an amendment to the Georgia constitution "so as to allow the enforcement of contracts that restrict competition during or after the term of employment or of a commercial relationship so long as such contracts are reasonable in time, area, and line of business; to provide that courts may modify such contracts to achieve the intent of the contracting parties; to provide for the submission of this amendment for ratification or rejection; and for other purposes," was cleared through the subcommittee with a "do pass" recommendation. 

We are not sure when we will see a new draft of the proposed legislation, but we will post a link when it is available.