The Law Office of Jeff Vail LLC provides innovative business litigation solutions for Colorado small and medium-sized businesses.  By leveraging a sophisticated project management system, strategic planning, and careful discovery execution, we have achieved notable successes for our clients.  These innovative practices also frequently allow us to offer contingency, hybrid, or flat fee options in business litigation.  While the traditional contingency-fee law firm business model requires high case volume and quick settlements, we accept only a handful of cases and diligently prepare to win each one at trial or arbitration hearing--we have taken more than one-third of our cases through trial or arbitration hearing.  We accept new cases by referral only from former clients or attorneys we have worked with.  Representative cases include:

Franchise Dispute:  We represented an Area Director in the Quizno's franchise system in a lawsuit against the three key Quizno's cororate entities, and asserted claims of breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and alter ego.  After a one-week trial to the Court, we were awarded roughly $2.1 million on all claims plus costs and attorney fees, and prevailed on our alter ego claim.

Antitrust Litigation:  Several companies hired this firm to prosecute a multi-million dollar antitrust lawsuit including illegal tying and monopolization.  We effectively managed the discovery process, took or defended over twenty depositions in four states, managed multiple expert witnesses, and processed over 500,000 pages of discovery for a fraction of competing firms' cost estimates.  We defeated defendants' motions to dismiss, defeated defendants' motions to exclude our expert witnesses, defeated defendants' motion for summary judgment, and obtained spoliation sanctions agasint defendants, tried the case in a three-week jury trial in federal court and settled favorably with multiple defendants.

Franchise Dispute:  We represented a dental franchisee in a dispute with its franchisor.  After a two-week arbitration hearing through the American Arbitration Association, we prevailed on claims of breach of contract, fraud, and alter ego and won an award of over $630,000 in favor of our client.  We also obtained a release from our client's lease, loan, and personal guarantees, and successfully defended against the franchisor's $4 million counterclaim.

Fraud in Purchase of a Business:  This firm asserted fraud and civil theft claims on behalf of our client related to an asset purchase agreement.  Pursuing an aggressive strategy of including a preliminary expert witness report with our initial demand letter, we settled the case in less than four months for a $200,000 refund constituting nearly half of the original business purchase price.

Breach of Contract:  When a technology start-up refused to pay our client promised stock-options and salary, we brought claims of breach of contract and promissory estoppel and settled the case on the eve of trial for cash and stock options worth $200,000.

Franchise Arbitration:  When a competing franchise was stealing business from our client's territory, we brought claims under the franchise system's arbitration rules and won an award of $88,000 plus costs and attorney's fees.

Investor Claims:  This firm represented an investor bringing claims against a technology startup.  After an arbitration hearing under AAA rules, we prevailed and received an award of $377,000 plus costs against the corporation.  We also prevailed on our alter ego claim, enabling collection against the corporation's owners' personal assets.

Real Estate Development Dispute:  When a real estate developer was squeezed out of its ownership and management of multiple projects, this firm simultaneously brought claims of breach of fiduciary duty and lender liability in Colorado state court, defended tort claims and personal guarantees in Texas state and federal court, and asserted counterclaims and third-party claims in Texas federal court.  Despite our client's admitted liability on a $3 million personal guarantee, we obtained a global settlement including a mid six-figure net payment to our client.