Breaking a Contract in Washington

[Wvenden]

Hi!
This is our situation, three of us are Realtors and we are being sued for leaving the firm before our three year contract was up. They say we owe $5000 for training, that we never received. Two of us were there 27 months and one was there about 26 months. What we are wondering shouldn't the $5000 be prorated? Also, the reasons we left early is we got a new part owner broker which should of broken the contract in general because we didn't sign a new one when he came on, but two of us were being sexually harassed and felt like it was a hostile work environment for females.

The attorneys and our legal hotline say that it is standard to sign a contract which we already know that part but they had us sign an addendum to that stating the three years but nothing about if change of ownership or anything else. Basically no one is wanting to help us here locally because half the real estate attorney's are on retainer for our previous firm.

We are an at will state but they say it doesn't apply to us as independent contractors, we feel like our rights are being taken away and we are very angry about this whole thing. We feel they misrepresented the firm and the contracts when we signed not letting us know that it wasn't the norm to have an addendum to the independent contractor contract making you stay for three years. We weren't ever provided a copy even when we asked for them.

What we have found out is they are only suing randomly they aren't suing everying that leaves.

on top of all that even our clients that were personally referred to us, they won't release their listings even though they have been requested by sellers, and fired. They have been taking keys out of our lockboxes, the list continues. Is there any legal recourse for us?

Thank you
Wendi

We are considered Independent Contractors working under a licensed broker.

[cbg]

Only an attorney in your state who has read the contract in question can answer you. We cannot comment on the enforceability of or what legal options you have under a contract we have not read.