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I have a wonderful caregiver that I hire through an agency. It would be financially beneficial to the caregiver and myself to bypass the agency and just hire the caregiver privately. I don't believe this is legal. Would it be legal if the caregiver resigned from the agency?

Also, is the caregiver soliciting you to do this? That is a violation of her contract and unethical.
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Reply to brandee
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Generally it is not legal. You need to read the contracts that you each signed. Generally there is a waiting period, i.e. if she quits you can't hire her for a year. Some contracts have a penalty. i.e. You pay them $3000 or $5000 to break the contract you can then you can hire her direct.
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Where I live I have found, if there is a no compete clause, it lasts about a year.

I would say, the only way you may get around this is the aide has to quit and you have to stop doing business with the agency. We have people on the forum who own agencies or have worked for them. They probably know how this all works.
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jbgeyer Jul 28, 2026
My clause states that I must wait 6 months after cancelling my contract with the agency. The caretaker probably has a similar clause prohibiting them from working for a former client until a specified period of time has elapsed.
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There's a 99.99% chance that the caregiver signed a "no-compete" style contract with the employer that is enforcable and would prevent what you're wanting to do -- which by the way lots of people want to do and try to do and that's why the employers pretty aggressively enforce them, sometimes there's a financial penalty. The contracts go from several months to may longer.

Start by asking them if they signed such a contract. If so, then read it to see how long it lasts and what the conditions are. Did you sign a contract? Probably, so read yours as well.
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Reply to Geaton777
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It depends on who has signed what, and what you mean by “legal”. The caregiver has a contract with the agency, and it quite probably includes a clause that she won’t poach business. If she does, she’s in breach of her obligation and can be sued for damages for breach of contract. It’s a civil case between her and the agency. You may also have a contract with the agency with a clause that says you won’t poach carers (though this is less likely). But if so, you can be sued too. Either contract (or both) would almost certainly provide for the obligation to continue for a period of time after she ceases work though the agency.

If you don’t want to take the risk of legal cases, you and/or the carer could ‘buy her out’ from the agency. This might work if your business is all she needs.
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