In an ideal world we would always get what we pay for, and people would always live up to their obligations. Unfortunately in both residential and commercial buildings, the contractor does not always provide the quality of work that was contracted for. Often litigation arises to resolve the dispute. The focus of the litigation is [...]
Posts under ‘General Civil Litigation’
Be Careful When Granting the Power to Terminate a Contract Early
It seems quite often you see contracts that contain provisions similar to the following:
Either party may cancel this contract at any time by giving the other party 60 days written notice.
This always sounds like a good idea when you discuss it. Basically it is the back-out provision, if things are going badly, you can [...]
Do I need a DirecTV Commercial License for my bar?
The short answer: YES. DirecTV is cracking down on Commercial Misuse over the last year and a half, particularly misuse of NFL Sunday Ticket, resulting in huge fines. Previously DirecTV had limited its focus to just those who were using “Pirate” boxes or illegal access cards to get at its content. Now, DirecTV is unleashing [...]
Can I just keep the earnest money if a buyer backs out? (A recent Wisconsin Appellate Court decision gives us pause)
In an opinion that was issued last week the Wisconsin Appellate Court upheld a circuit court decision in which the plaintiff’s were not able to sue for actual damages in a failed residential real estate transaction because they did not return the earnest money to the buyer. The court ruled that they irrevocably elected liquidated [...]
What Happens when one Partner Leaves a Partnership?
In a January 2007 decision, Estate of James H. Matteson v. Robert R. Matteson et al. , the Wisconsin Appellate court takes the time to further clarify its decision from Lange v. Bartlett , 121 Wis. 2d 599, 602 which stated
[W]hen one partner leaves a partnership and allows the other [...]
Dangers of Businesses taking the Law into their own hands
To the unsuspecting business, there are a surprising amount of consumer protection laws in Wisconsin, especially relating to penalties from a business. Businesses regularly get themselves into hot water by imposing sanctions on consumers without taking those laws into account, the consequences can be dire and expensive. A recent Wisconsin Appellate case James Cook et [...]
Are you actually getting the personal liability protection from your LLC or Corporation?
Unless you are making all other parties actually aware of your business entity, you may not be. A recent Wisconsin Appellate decision Black v. Bach, 2005AP3010 reminds us that agents (this means anyone, employees, owners, or anyone acting to bind the LLC or Corporation) need to take steps to ensure that everyone they [...]
How to Find an Attorney in Milwaukee?
It is probably relatively obvious how to find an attorney, open the yellow pages or jump on Google and you will have thousands to choose from. The title of this post should be “how to find a GOOD attorney in Milwaukee?”
The first thing to realize is that a good attorney for one person, is [...]
Can I sue in Small Claims court for more than $5,000?
The short answer- Yes; but you can only recover damages of up to $5,000 plus statutory attorney’s fees ($250-$500) and court costs. A recent decision in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals Winkler v. Spaman Wholesale confirmed as much when it denied the defendant’s motion to vacate the default judgment for $5,000 because the demand in [...]
What if there was no written Contract?
This is an issue that comes up quite often in my Business Litigation Practice. When two businesses, especially small businesses, first get together they are excited to have the service/ a new client and other than maybe a written a proposal have nothing in writing setting out the terms of the agreement.
If everything does not [...]
Can I get attorney’s fees in my business lawsuit?
Everyone always wants them, very few people actually get them. There are generally three ways to get attorneys fees.
One, if they are explicitly granted as a part of a contract for which you are pursuing a breach of contract claim, if you win you will get Attorney’s fees. If you do not, you may [...]
Would you allow a nurse to perform your surgery?
Then why allow your Realtor to perform Legal Work?
As odd as the analogy sounds, it is not really that far off base. A nurse has seen many surgeries performed successfully, and chances are with a little practice the Nurse could pull off a fair amount of surgeries without any real problems. Of course, that one [...]

