Legal Question in Product Liability in Illinois

I've signed a settlement agreement with an Illinois company relating to bad services provided. The agreement has a non-dispargement clause. "Individual agrees he shall not, directly or indirectly, through any means of oral, written, electronic or other communication, make, publish or repeat any statement or information regarding any of the same or the business of any of the same, which may tend to damage the reputation of the business of Company."
Since the agreement was signed, I was notified that I would receive my settlement cheque in 2 week (this would be about a month after I sent in my signed settlement agreement). It did not arrive then and my repeated emails/phone calls have mostly been ignored. They've given poor excuses for the delay. The cheque is now 2 weeks overdue. If I document my experiences of receiving the cheque on a public forum read by the company's customers (leaving out the experiences leading to them awarding me the cheque), will I violate this non-dispargement clause?

Asked on 3/29/10, 7:08 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Betty Tsamis Tsamis Law Firm PC

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Was there a statement in the agreement providing for the timeframe in which the check was supposed to be issued? Reagrdless, I would really try to work this out with them without resorting to the method you described. You can argue that there is no agreement because they never gave you the consideration (money) for the agreement but then you are at square one with respect to negotiating a settlement. However, I would tell you that you should wait 30 days (if no timeframe in the agreement) before you claim that the agreement is invalid due to lack of consideration.

Answered on 4/03/10, 7:38 am

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