Legal Question in Business Law in New York

Re: lawsuit

You're in terrible shape, and you clearly can't afford the services of a private-practice lawyer (which is the respondent pool here).

Call your county's Legal Aid Society to see if you are income-qualified for their services. They will likely shop you out to a private-practice attorney who concentrates in business law and who is looking to fulfill pro bono hours that all attorneys are encouraged to provide.

Legal Aid, btw, is NOT charity. It is a service provided by the state to give legal help to NY citizens who cannot otherwise afford it. The lawyers, the courts, and others are paid out of funds generated by the interest on lawyers' escrow accounts.

Call them sooner rather than later.

Good luck.

THE INFORMATION PRESENTED HERE IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND IS NOT INTENDED, NOR SHOULD IT BE CONSTRUED, AS LEGAL ADVICE. THIS POSTING DOES NOT CREATE ANY ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN US. FOR SPECIFIC ADVICE ABOUT YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION, CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY.

Re: lawsuit

Interference with contract can sometimes be based on interference with a PROSPECTIVE contract and/or interference with PROSPECTIVE business relationship or PROSPECTIVE business relationship, i.e. if not for the defendant's intentional interference the plaintiff would have been able to enter into the contract or business relationship with the third party.

Thus, even though there was no contract and no relationship between your partners and Network Solutions as regards this domain name, they might be able to allege that you intentionally prevented them from entering into a potential relationship or contract with Network Solutions with the intent to damage your parteners economically, and that without your interference they would have been free to enter this contract or business relationship with Network Solutions.

I don't think they have a good case for tortious interference, since as I understand your factual synopsis, your former partnesr voluntarily authorized you to purchase the domain name with your own separate firm's credit card which they knew, or should have known, would confer ownership of the domain name to your separate firm, and you then relinquished ownership of the domain name to them after the split.

I see no demonstrable intent on your part to interfere with your former partners' prospective contract or other business relationship with Network Solutions.

You may be able to countersue for the money they owe you for your former partnership interest and perhaps for consequential damages as well, e.g., your current unemployed status if this is a result of their keeping the money owed to you from you.

I recommend that you heed

Ms. Delain's suggestion about contacting the Legal Aid Society.

However, if you want, you can contact me, and I can check if some of my associates might be interested in taking this case on a CONTIGENCY fee basis.