Legal Question in Business Law in California

If the contract was entered in CA, or related to business in CA, you can file here, and TRY to validly serve him there and assert jurisdiction in CA. If he contests it, you have a fight on your hands. If you can get a judgment here, then it can be enforced in other states through proper motions and filings. You don't need to worry about that just yet. Worry about getting jurisdiction so you don't have to file suit in his home state or elsewhere. If serious about hiring counsel to help in this, and if this is in SoCal courts, feel free to contact me.

Asserting that jurisdiction in California is proper is problem number one. Proper jurisdiction for a civil lawsuit can be (a) where the defendant is domiciled or has its principal place of business, (b) where the contract was to be carried out;at least in substantial part, or (c) instead of (a) or (b), in the state specified in the contract for jurisdiction of suits.

It is quite important to note whether any agreements with the broker specify where jurisdiction of lawsuits will be.

If the jurisdiction can be California and the amount in question is over $75,000, you should consider filing in a Federal court in California. Based on your Zip code, that would be in San Francisco (state court would be San Mateo County, I believe).

Asserting jurisdiction in California (state or Federal court) may ultimately depend upon (b), where the contract was to be carried out. If it involved purchase (or sale) of a business in California, not only would you probably have jurisdiction here, you might have an additional issue as to whether the broker was licensed here.

Collecting a California judgment in Illinois is probably a two-step process. First, the judgment needs to be "domesticated" in Illinois, probably a matter of filing it with supporting papers in the local Illinois county court. Then, you probably will need an enforcement proceeding through an Illinois bill collector or attorney. These are fairly routine steps and not too expensive or time consuming, but sometimes annoying little problems arise, such as the judgment debtor filing bankruptcy, etc.

I agree with Mr. Whipple. I do not read any facts in your post that would indicate that California would have personal jurisdiction over the defendant.