I was "let go" from my employer of five-plus years in the HVAC trade. They are offering me a severance payment which falls below what they were to have paid me for health insurance, but which I am willing to accept given their financial concerns. Does accepting this effect my ability to receive unemployment, and can any such agreement in illinois prevent me from starting my own company in the same service area (where I have lived for some time) as my former clients without perhaps aggressive selective soliciting of those former clients (some of whom I have had a strong relation with over the years)? The agreement is five pages long and contains a silence clause, etc.
