Emergency Commercial Litigation

Time is money, as the saying goes. Where the future of your business is concerned, however, time is worth more than money. In emergency situations, when your business faces the risk of losing customer goodwill, or even losing customers to former employees, no dollar amount can reflect the extent of the harm you might face. The traditional methods of litigation will not be able to help you fast enough. Our business and commercial litigation attorneys at Lubin Austermuehle, P.C. offer emergency litigation assistance to businesses in crisis, including temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions, and declaratory judgments. These require quick preparation and response, sometimes even overnight. Our Chicago commercial litigation lawyers also assist defendants facing emergency measures like injunctions, helping them respond in short time frames to potential restrictions on their business or liberty.

Legal Emergencies

Emergency legal situations most often occur in disputes between business owners, or between employers and employees. They also may occur with regard to a company's intellectual property, particularly brands and other trademarks. If one party has the opportunity to betray the other party's trust, the aggrieved party has every right to go to court to hold the other party liable. However, this could take months, and the threatened harm may occur within days, or even hours. Situations that call for a far faster response than standard litigation can provide include:

• Business-to-business contract breaches, such as non-payment or non-delivery of inventory;
• Violations of restrictive covenants in employment contracts, such as non-compete agreements and agreements not to solicit current employees or customers;
• Disclosures of trade secrets and other confidential or proprietary information;
• Client privacy violations;
• Intellectual property infringement;
• Shareholder, member, or partner disputes;
• Business disparagement, trade libel, and other acts that can harm your business' reputation and goodwill; and
• Allegations of criminal or fraudulent activity in a business venture, such as theft or conversion.

When the goal of litigation is to prevent an imminent harm from occurring, or to minimize the damage done quickly, several emergency litigation tools are available. Our commercial litigation attorneys can advise Chicago clients on which of these may be useful to them.

Preliminary Injunctions (Known as TRO’s)

TROs – Temporary Restraining Orders are court orders that force a party to do something, or stop an opposing party from doing something. The length of time the temporary injunction is enforced is limited to a set period and at the end of that time period, a preliminary injunction can be issued. This is an order that may cover the same actions, but that remains in force until modified or revoked by the court. Courts characterize these measures as “extraordinary relief,” and tend to limit them to situations where harm is imminent and not reparable by monetary damages.

Declaratory Judgments

If you believe that a lawsuit against you or your business is imminent, a suit for declaratory judgment allows you to take proactive action against the party opposing party you’re opposing. A declaratory judgment ois useful and sometimes needed to clear up or explain the legal duties, obligations and rights everyone involved. It helps define the boundaries of the upcoming dispute, and it gives you the opportunity to choose the court where the argements will be heard.

Lubin Austermuehle, P.C.'s Chicago well-known commercial litigation attorneys , bring more than twenty-five years of Illinois business law experience to the service of clients in Illinois, especially in the greater Chicago area and DuPage County. We also serve clients in Indiana and Wisconsin. We frequently handle business emergencies for our clients from our offices. Contact us today via email, at 630-333-0333 to schedule a consultation with a commercial litigation lawyer in Chicago.

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