"Adding a Silver Bullet to the Commercial Litigator's Bag of Tricks," Davis Wright Tremaine Webinar

Beware the "Silver Bullet"!
The termination of a commercial contract with or without cause can provoke messy disputes as the affected party seeks to protect its investment. Faced with this situation, commercial litigators should be prepared to use and defend against a potential “silver bullet” remedy: a claim that the commercial contract is a franchise or another type of protected relationship under state or federal statutory law. This argument can easily be missed when the contract lacks express franchise terminology - but may be available in a variety of cases, even when the underlying contract expressly states that it is not a franchise. In some instances, a party may use franchise, consumer protection and unfair trade practices claims offensively in order to significantly increase the settlement value of a wrongful termination case.

About the Presenters
Shelley Spandorf and Jennifer Brockett have together handled a number of significant contract termination cases for both plaintiffs and defendants involving the “silver bullet” remedy. In this CLE, they shared important lessons learned from these cases and insights about how to use franchise, consumer protection and unfair trade practices claims strategically to maximize the settlement value of a case or mount a successful defense against one.