Business Broker Wins Contract Suit Against Accountant: Special Concurrence Chides Overuse of Adverbs in Briefs

APS v. Sorkin, 2023 IL App (1st) 211668-U considers some important issues that recur in breach of contract litigation and features an appellate judge urging lawyers to excise superfluous adverbs from their legal briefs. The business broker plaintiff sued an accountant for damages after he sold his practice to a buyer introduced by the plaintiff …

‘Zestimates’ Are Estimates; Not Fraud – 7th Circuit

The Seventh Circuit recently affirmed the Illinois Northern District’s Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal of class action plaintiffs’ fraudand deceptive practices claims against the owners of the Zillow.com online real estate valuation site. The lower court in Patel v. Zillow, Inc. found the plaintiffs failed to sufficiently allege colorable consumer fraud and deceptive trade practices claims based …

Non-Shareholder Can Be Liable On Alter-Ego and Veil Piercing Theory – IL Bankruptcy Court

Buckley v. Abuzir  will likely be viewed as a watershed in piercing the corporate veil litigation because of its exhaustive analysis of when a non-shareholder can be personally liable for corporate debts.  In that case, the court provides an extensive survey of how nearly every jurisdiction in the country has decided the non-shareholder piercing question. …