Paul Porvaznik – Business Litigator
Case Notes and Summaries of Recent Cases (State and Federal Courts – Illinois Focus)
Reversing a trial court’s dismissal of a law firm’s quasi-contract claims against a former client, the First District recently considered the enforceability of a contingency fee contract that was missing a material term. The plaintiff law firm in Seiden Law Group, P.C. v. Segal, 2021 IL App (1st) 200877 sued the defendant, an ex-client, for …
Continue reading “Missing Contingent-Fee Term Doesn’t Doom Law Firm’s Quantum Meruit Claim”
Exculpatory and limitation of damages provisions are staples of commercial transactions; especially in the service contract setting. The former shields a contracting party from all liability (“if something goes wrong, I’m not responsible”), while the latter caps a party’s monetary damages (“if something goes wrong, my maximum liability is $100”). For decades, cases across the land have grappled …
A contract law axiom states that an illegal contract is unenforceable. The prototypical example involves a plaintiff attempting to sue on a contract that violates a statute or encourages criminal or fraudulent conduct. Those situations clearly give rise to an illegality defense. But what if a contract term technically violates a statute, but the resulting damage is either trivial or nonexistent? A …
Continue reading “Contractual Illegality and Medical Fee-Sharing”