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By: Lubin Austermuehle, P.C.

Latest from Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog - Page 31

A manufacturer of dairy silos and a distributor of such silos entered into an exclusive distribution agreement covering 13 Latin American countries. The agreement specified that the manufacturer would refrain from selling silos to third parties in the covered countries. Despite this, the manufacturer completed almost $4 million in direct sales in the covered countries during the time of the agreement. When the distributor sued, the manufacturer argued that the agreement expressly prohibited recovery of lost profits. The district court and appellate court found that this portion of the contract was unconscionable under Wisconsin’s interpretation of the Uniform Commercial Code,…
Continue Reading Distributor Awarded Damages After Contract Provision Limiting Damages Voided — Chicago Franchise and Dealer Termination Lawyers Near Naperville and Evanston

Two companies entered into an exclusive distribution agreement for a medical bed that was marketed to hospitals and long term care facilities. The agreement contained a provision automatically extending the exclusivity period if the distributor agreed to purchase at least $200,000 of beds in 2011. Though the CEO of the distributor orally agreed to purchase $800,000 worth of beds in December 2010, the manufacturer still attempted to cancel the agreement six months later and enter into an exclusive agreement with a competitor of the distributor. The court found that damages from this breach were foreseeable and consequential under New York…
Continue Reading Medical Equipment Distributor Awarded Significant Damages After Manufacturer Breached Contract — Chicago Business Litigation Lawyers

Employers across a wide variety of industries include non-compete clauses in their employment agreements. This practice has come under increasing fire in recent years. The latest being a petition filed by the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, and a number of other labor and public interest groups with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) calling for the FTC to its rulemaking power to issue a federal rule banning the use of non-compete agreements nationwide.

According to the petition, it is estimated that one out of every five U.S. workers — or about 30 million — is bound by a…
Continue Reading Labor Groups Petition FTC to Ban Use of Non-Compete Agreements — Oak Brook, Wheaton and Naperville Non-Compete Agreement Attorneys

Congress is currently considering two new bills that take aim at the practice of requiring consumers to agree to resolve all disputes through binding arbitration and including class action waivers in consumer contracts. If passed and signed into law, the laws could dramatically change the way businesses contract and resolve disputes with consumers.

The first bill being considered is the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act (“FAIR Act”). Introduced by Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut in the Senate (S. 620) and Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia in the House (H.R. 1423), the FAIR Act seeks to amend…
Continue Reading Congress Considers Two New Bills Limiting Arbitration and Class Action Waivers in Consumer Contracts — Chicago Class Action Defense Attorneys Near Oak Brook and Naperville

In suspending attorney Joel Brodsky from practicing in federal court in Chicago for a year, the Executive Committee held:
By clear and convincing evidence, based on the same misconduct found by Judge Kendall in the Tywman
case, the Executive Committee finds that Joel Alan Brodsky violated the following American Bar
Association Model Rules of Professional
Conduct:
A. Rule 3.1: A lawyer shall not assert an issue unless there is a basis in law and fact that is not
frivolous.
B. Rule 4.5(a): A lawyer shall not use means that have no substantial purpose other than to
embarrass or burden a…
Continue Reading In Suspending Former Drew Peterson Lawyer Joel Brodsky For a Year From Practicing Law in Chicago’s Federal Court, Executive Committee Finds that the Evidence Supporting Suspension was “Clear and Convincing”

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court hear arguments in a case that will decide the fate of a federal prohibition against granting trademark protection to immoral or scandalous material. The case Iancu v. Brunetti involves a lawsuit initiated by Los Angeles street artist Erik Brunetti who sought to challenge the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s decision not to register the trademark for his “FUCT” clothing line. His application had been denied, as deputy solicitor general Malcolm Stewart, who was defending the law, delicately put it, because it “would be perceived by a substantial segment of the public as the equivalent…
Continue Reading Supreme Court Considers Issue of Vulgar Trademarks — Chicago First Amendment Lawyers

A former judge of the Illinois circuit court sued a reporter and a newspaper, accusing them of defamation and false light for publishing an article in which a law professor was quoted as stating that the judge was “corrupt as the day is long” in relation to the judge’s practices when handling asbestos litigation. The Illinois Appellate Court found that the statement was protected speech as an ordinary reader would consider it to be hyperbole.

Heather Gvillo, a reporter for the Madison County Record wrote an article in September 2014 concerning asbestos litigation which recently concluded in the Madison County…
Continue Reading Newspaper Escapes Defamation Suit by Former Judge — Chicago Defamation Libel and Slander Attorneys Near Oak Brook

We obtained justice in a shareholder dispute and shareholder oppression case after Defendants hired a former partner of the judge.

The Sun-Times reported the story as follows:
Lawyer’s motives questioned after judge’s recusal 

Did lawyers for one side of a case hire the judge’s former law partner just so the judge would recuse himself?

It doesn’t matter — it “just simply looks bad,” Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird, presiding judge of the Cook County Circuit Court’s Chancery Division, wrote in a rare order knocking attorney Myron “Mike” Cherry off a case. Cherry is a heavyweight fund-raiser for Democrats such as former President…
Continue Reading Lawyer’s motives questioned after judge’s recusal  — Chicago Business Litigation Lawyers Near Oak Brook — Chicago Shareholder Oppression Lawyers Near Oak Brook and Naperville

Smollett’s Alleged Attackers Sue His Attorneys for Defamation

The case of the alleged attack against Jussie Smollett continues to get even more strange. After an outpouring of love and support following an allegedly racist and homophobic attack on Jussie Smollett in Chicago, in which his face was scratched and a noose was tied around his neck, the media turned on Smollett after the Chicago police department found evidence that the attack had been staged and Smollett had been in on it the whole time.

Despite Smollett’s initial claim that his attackers had been white men wearing MAGA hats, the Chicago…
Continue Reading Smollett’s Attorneys Sued For Defamation — Chicago Defamation Libel and Slander Attorneys Near Oak Brook and Naperville

Our settlement for our client in a Chicago Libel, Defamation and Slander Suit was featured in the Cook County Record.
Our clients give us five star reviews for our work in Oak Brook and Chicago Libel Defamation and Slander cases:
I really appreciate this opportunity to highly recommend Peter Lubin of the Law Offices of Lubin and Austemuehle. I recall in 2016 considering that I might be involved in litigation. This lead me to search Google for a lawyer as people might do. I saw the law offices of Ditomasso and Lubin which specialized in the problem I had.

…
Continue Reading Lubin Austermuehle Fight to End Media Smear of the Their Clients — Top Chicago Defamation Attorneys — Top Oak Brook Libel Lawyers

Our clients give us 5-star reviews for winning judgments or obtaining favorable settlements for them in used car fraud cases where they could have lost 10s of thousands of dollars:
****** 6 weeks ago

Super Lawyers named Chicago business dispute lawyers Peter Lubin a Super Lawyer and Patrick Austermuehle a Rising Star in the Categories of Class Action, Business Litigation, and Consumer Rights Litigation. Lubin Austermuehle’s Chicago business trial lawyers have over thirty years of experience in litigating auto fraud, franchise and dealer termination, breach of contract, complex class action, copyright, partnership, and shareholder oppression suits, noncompete agreement, trademark and…
Continue Reading Lubin Austermuehle Gets Results for our Clients in Auto-Fraud Cases Against Used Car Dealers — Chicago Auto-Fraud Lawyers

Litigation can be an expensive proposition. It used to be that a company with a great claim may not have had the ability to assert that claim because it lacked the ability to pay for the litigation it would take to enforce its rights. Commercial litigation funding has changed this.

Commercial litigation funding (also known as litigation finance) is the provision of capital to a plaintiff in exchange for a portion of any future settlement or judgment. Litigation funding is not a loan because it is non-recourse, meaning the plaintiff does not owe anything unless it recovers in the underlying…
Continue Reading Commercial Litigation Funding: What is it and How to Get it

Where an asset purchase agreement between two companies did not contemplate the forfeiture of an entire reserve payment as a result of an audit of assets taking one month longer than originally contemplated, and such a forfeiture would result in a windfall for one of the parties.

ARC Welding Supply Co. was a distributor of compressed gases and welding supplies in Vincennes, Indiana. As part of an asset purchase agreement American Welding & Gas, Inc. paid ARC $1,534,796.06 for ARC’s assets, of which the primary assets where its asset cylinders. Some cylinders were already rented to ARC’s clients, so determining…
Continue Reading ARC Welding v. American Welding — Appellate Court Finds Taking Monies from Reserve Would Constitute a Windfall — Chicago Business Litigation Lawyers near Oak Brook and Naperville

One of the reasons many sexual assault survivors don’t come forward is because doing so involves telling a traumatic story over and over again, so most of them figure they have a better chance of being able to move on with their lives if they just don’t say anything about it. However, sometimes the men are in fact falsely accused and this also has a traumatic and life-altering impact on them. These two factors are now causing more libel suits to be filed by male students who allege that they have falsely accused as a way to restore their reputations…
Continue Reading Sexual Assault Accusers On College Campuses Can Face Defamation Lawsuits For Making False Claims — Chicago Defamation Libel and Slander Lawyers Near Wheaton Elmhurst Lake Forest and Evanston

When officers of a corporation misrepresented the capacity of the corporation to meet requirements of an RFID manufacturing project, the district court allowed some claims for breach of contract, quantum meruit, and unjust enrichment to proceed. The court also dismissed some claims against the individual officers of the corporation, based on questions regarding the existence of valid contracts between the client and the officers.

A-1 Packaging Solutions, Inc. is a corporation that selects and provides RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technologies from a variety of manufacturers to provide custom solutions for customers. Fiberteq hired A-1 to design an asset and inventory…
Continue Reading A-1 Packaging v. Firefly RFID Solutions Court Allows Some Breach of Contract Claims to Proceed for Misrepresenting Capacity to Complete Construction Project and Dismisses Some Claims Against Officers and Directors — Best Chicago Business Dispute Lawyers

After a “professional sugar baby” went on a campaign of revenge targeting her ex-boyfriend, the district court awarded $7.5 million in damages to the ex-boyfriend. The woman’s actions spanned 17 months and included multiple defamatory postings on her social media accounts, as well as the creation of many fake social media profiles in the ex-boyfriend’s name, which she used to distribute false and harmful content to her ex-boyfriend’s personal and business contacts.

John Doe is a 45-year-old technology professional employed as a Senior Director at a consulting firm. Jessica Jiahui Lee is a 19-year-old part-time exotic dancer and “professional sugar…
Continue Reading Woman Ordered to Pay $7.5 Million After Campaign of Revenge Targeting Ex-Boyfriend — Top Chicago Libel Slander Defamation and Cybersmear Lawyers