Legal Question in Business Law in Illinois

Re: Commission Agreement

On whether a document that you both sign is "legal", the general answer is that any writing intended by the parties to be an agreement is an agreement when signed by the party against whom it will be enforced. Notarization isn't generally required for documents to be "legal". There are some exceptions for wills, some government documents, and some other procedures.

For any business agreement to work, it must be a "win-win", or fair to both parties. It is typical in independent contractor agreements for the right to commission on clients obtained to survive the end of the relationship for some period of time. Typical provisions are for 90 days or one year, or for a declining percentage over a longer period of time.

If there is potential for material commissions, you would be well served to have an attorney involved in preparing a commission agreement for you. There will be issues that may not occur to you, but which are better addressed before there is any profit to fight over.

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Re: Commission Agreement

Yes, it's fair and prudent to have a written agreement. Most likely, anything signed by both of you can be a binding agreement, although whether or not it's a good agreement obviously depends on its particulars.