Illinois Business Litigation Report https://auster.law/report/ Short notes on the court decisions, legislation, and regulatory changes affecting Illinois businesses and employees. Published by Austermuehle Law, P.C. en-us Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A software rival built a fake insurance agency to get inside the product https://auster.law/report/notes/applied-systems-v-comulate-trade-secrets https://auster.law/report/notes/applied-systems-v-comulate-trade-secrets Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A competitor created a shell company, passed it off as an insurance agency, and used it to license software it could not otherwise reach. Most of the case survived dismissal. Two new obligations for Illinois businesses, with two different deadlines https://auster.law/report/notes/illinois-cash-acceptance-jury-duty-pay-2026 https://auster.law/report/notes/illinois-cash-acceptance-jury-duty-pay-2026 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 One requires you to take cash. The other requires you to keep paying employees while they sit on a jury. Neither is in effect yet, and they arrive a year apart. The bank sold the collateral cheap, and the personal guarantees evaporated https://auster.law/report/notes/marchi-v-centrust-bank-guaranty-ucc-sale https://auster.law/report/notes/marchi-v-centrust-bank-guaranty-ucc-sale Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Two minority owners personally guaranteed their company's loans. The company defaulted. Because the bank could not show it sold the assets in a commercially reasonable way, neither guarantor paid anything. A narrow arbitration clause still swallowed an LLC member's statutory claims https://auster.law/report/notes/roake-v-whittington-llc-arbitration https://auster.law/report/notes/roake-v-whittington-llc-arbitration Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 The operating agreement only sent disputes arising under its own terms to arbitration. A member's claims under the LLC Act went to the arbitrator anyway. One voicemail about a competitor, $2.2 million in punitive damages https://auster.law/report/notes/miramar-capital-v-wells-fargo-disparagement https://auster.law/report/notes/miramar-capital-v-wells-fargo-disparagement Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 An investment adviser warned a prospective client away from a rival using what he found on Google and BrokerCheck. A jury awarded $27.5 million in punitive damages. The trial court cut it, and the appellate court kept the cut. A court found defamation, found real harm, and awarded one dollar https://auster.law/report/notes/sullivan-v-schiman-defamation-nominal-damages https://auster.law/report/notes/sullivan-v-schiman-defamation-nominal-damages Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A physician was falsely accused of sexual assault in a Facebook post seen by thousands. He won, and was awarded $1. The appellate court sent it back. Illinois passed a landmark AI law. It almost certainly does not apply to your business. https://auster.law/report/notes/illinois-ai-laws-what-applies-to-your-business https://auster.law/report/notes/illinois-ai-laws-what-applies-to-your-business Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 The headline law regulates companies with half a billion dollars in revenue. The AI rule that actually reaches ordinary Illinois employers took effect quietly in January. A disinherited son lost his will contest. What he needed and did not have. https://auster.law/report/notes/in-re-estate-of-ticknor-will-contest-burden https://auster.law/report/notes/in-re-estate-of-ticknor-will-contest-burden Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A father left everything to a woman outside the family and explicitly cut out his only child. The son challenged capacity, undue influence, and financial exploitation, and lost on all three. Winning the judgment was the easy part https://auster.law/report/notes/gupta-v-siaw-collecting-judgment-across-borders https://auster.law/report/notes/gupta-v-siaw-collecting-judgment-across-borders Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 A creditor traced his debtor's money into family trusts and out to Ghana. The trial court said Illinois had no jurisdiction over the people holding it. The appellate court disagreed. Two branches of a family tried to remove the general partner. They ended up paying the capital call. https://auster.law/report/notes/bredemann-family-partnership-capital-call https://auster.law/report/notes/bredemann-family-partnership-capital-call Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Eleven family trusts hold the limited partnership behind a group of Chicago-area car dealerships. Two branches sued to expel the general partner, lost on every claim, and were ordered to fund the contribution they had refused. Money taken from the company is the company's claim, not yours https://auster.law/report/notes/bogot-v-haverford-derivative-standing https://auster.law/report/notes/bogot-v-haverford-derivative-standing Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Owners alleged that funds they had paid in were spent for someone else's benefit. They sued in their own names and lost on standing before anyone examined whether it happened. Both Illinois non-compete bills died. Here is what actually governs. https://auster.law/report/notes/illinois-non-compete-bills-2026 https://auster.law/report/notes/illinois-non-compete-bills-2026 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 One bill would have banned non-competes outright. Another would have limited them to people earning over $300,000. Neither moved, and the federal rule is gone too. The statute that voided this non-compete was not the one anyone was arguing about https://auster.law/report/notes/community-home-physicians-v-de-la-mora-non-solicit https://auster.law/report/notes/community-home-physicians-v-de-la-mora-non-solicit Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 An employer sued over a covenant it believed was governed by the Freedom to Work Act. A licensing statute it had not focused on decided the case instead. The fix for ruinous fingerprint-scan damages reaches cases already on file https://auster.law/report/notes/bipa-damages-amendment-retroactive-seventh-circuit https://auster.law/report/notes/bipa-damages-amendment-retroactive-seventh-circuit Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Illinois capped biometric privacy damages at one recovery per person in 2024. The Seventh Circuit has now held that cap applies to lawsuits that were already pending. A majority owner engineered a minority buyout down to zero. It cost him $10.4 million. https://auster.law/report/notes/kazemi-v-maron-electric-buyout-valuation https://auster.law/report/notes/kazemi-v-maron-electric-buyout-valuation Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 The shareholders' agreement said the accountants' valuation would be binding and conclusive. The company treated that as permission to decide what the accountants would be working with. A fifty-fifty company came apart, and the court dissolved it https://auster.law/report/notes/wolfson-v-dugout-northbrook-fifty-fifty-deadlock https://auster.law/report/notes/wolfson-v-dugout-northbrook-fifty-fifty-deadlock Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Two owners held half a youth baseball business, one owner held the other half, and the one with the other half took over the books. The dissolution and the punitive damages were both affirmed. A California franchisee could not escape an Illinois non-compete https://auster.law/report/notes/brightstar-franchising-california-section-16600 https://auster.law/report/notes/brightstar-franchising-california-section-16600 Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 +0000 California is famous for refusing to enforce non-competes. A former franchisee argued that killed the covenant in its franchise agreement. The court held that California rule is about employees, not businesses.