Legal Question in Personal Injury in Illinois

Re: Battery by owner of a franchise

You can sue the franchise owner whether or not she is found guilty of the battery charge(s) in criminal court. If she pleads guilty, you could use this fact in a civil damages case against her. If she does not plead guilty, you can learn much about the quantity and quality of evidence against her, and perhaps what her defense are, by watching the criminal trial.

Before you file a lawsuit, you should consider what your actual damages are, and also consider having the states� attorney (in the criminal battery matter(s)) include your actual damages as restitution in sentencing.

In civil cases, intentional battery is a cause of action upon which punitive damages may be awarded. It is also a cause of action which is not infrequently excluded from general business liability insurance, so the shop owner might not be covered.

Because this is a personal individual wrong, and an intentional act, it is doubtful that you could successfully sue the franchise chain. You have described the actor here as "the franchise owner" which signals that there is no employer-employee connection, and its unlikely that there was a master-servant or principal-agent link.

Also, the franchisor will likely be a separate legal entity with little or no power to control the circumstances involved here, and little or no supervision over the shop owner. If so, to prevail, you would have to show what the franchise chain did to make it liable. Ask yourself how the chain could have foreseen this conduct and prevented it, or how the chain is otherwise responsible for the battery(s). I don�t see a cognizable claim against the chain unless the shop owner was under the control of tha chain at the time the battery(s) was committed.

Re: Battery by owner of a franchise

You may be able to hold the corporation liable for the acts of its employee done within the scope of the employee's employment. Please call us with more detailed facts and we may able to answer your questions a little more thoroughly.

Re: Battery by owner of a franchise

You can sue both - whether the company is responsible will depend on whether they can be seen as liable for the acts of its employees - the result will depend on whether you can prove your damages in court.

Re: Battery by owner of a franchise

You may pursue a battery cause of action against both the employee and against the employer requesting both compensatory and punitive damages. Your civil case for monetary damages against the employer and the employee technically has no direct bearing upon the prosecution of the criminal case except that a guilty plea in criminal court can be used as an admission of guilt in the civil case. Therefore, we normally recommend that the civil claim not be pursued until after the criminal case is resolved. However, please remember that there is a two year statute of limitations to pursue the civil claim. A more detailed discussion of your rights and remedies can be provided by contacting my office to schedule an appointment to meet with me. There is never any charge to discuss your injury claim. All of these types of matters are handeled on a contingency fee basis.