Business law

Rick represents clients in Rockford, Loves Park and across Winnebago County from his office at 7111 N. Alpine Rd, Loves Park.

What Rick handles

• Choosing a form for a business and setting it up: your own name, an assumed name, an LLC or a corporation
• Contracts: reading one with you before you sign, and disputes when a deal goes wrong
• Sales of goods
• Promissory notes and other commercial paper
• Agency and employment matters, including hiring your first employee
• Business property, and goods left in someone else's care
• Insurance questions
• Consumer and creditor protection, including a customer who will not pay

For wills and plans for what happens to a business after you, see Estate planning.

Starting out in Winnebago County

There are three common ways to open a business here. You can trade under your own name. You can trade under a made-up name as a sole owner or a partnership, which means an assumed name certificate with the Winnebago County Clerk. Or you can form a limited liability company or a corporation, which is filed with the Illinois Secretary of State, not the county.

The choice matters later, when something goes wrong: who can be sued, what they can collect from, and which papers you had to keep filing. Those are easier questions to answer before you sign the first lease than after.

When a deal goes wrong

A contract dispute in Winnebago County is filed with the Circuit Clerk at the Winnebago County Courthouse, 400 W. State St in Rockford, where civil filings go to Room 108. The clerk sorts cases by the amount claimed: small claims up to $10,000, “law minor” from $10,001 to $50,000, and law cases above $50,000. A case filed in Boone County is heard at the Boone County Courthouse, 601 N. Main St in Belvidere.

Questions and answers

Ask these before you sign the first lease. Business law questions in Illinois

• Do I need an LLC or a corporation in Illinois?
• Does an LLC protect me personally?
• What does it cost to form an LLC in Illinois?
• Does an Illinois LLC have to file every year?
• Can I use a business name without forming a company?
• How long do I have to sue over a broken contract in Illinois?

When to call

Before you sign a lease, a supply contract or a partnership agreement. Before you hire your first employee. When a customer will not pay, or a supplier will not deliver.

What to have ready

The contract in question, signed or not, any letters or emails about it, and the names of the people and businesses involved. If the business already exists, bring its formation papers and the most recent annual report.

The first conversation

Rick reads the document with you, asks what the deal has to do for your business, and points out the terms he would question before you sign. If a dispute has already started, he tells you which court it belongs in and what the deadlines are.