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Tech Bankruptcy
February 14, 2007
  Don't forget to sign your e-mail (at the bottom)
A recent decision by the Michigan Court of Appeals addressed the UETA's effect on e-mailed settlement negotiations. In Kloian v. Domino's Pizza, LLC, 2006 WL 3824890 (Mich. App. 2006), counsel for a personal injury plaintiff negotiated a settlement with the defendant by use of e-mails. After the attorneys agreed on the essential terms, the plaintiff refused to sign the settlement papers. The defendant moved to enforce the settlement. The Court complied. On appeal, the Circuit Court held, first, that the e-mails contained all of the essential terms of the agreement and also contained clear indications of the attorney's assent to the terms. Second, the Court held that under the UETA, the attorney's inclusion of their names on the bottom of the e-mails consituted was the equivalent of "subscribing" the agreement.

In an interesting twist, the Court noted that in Michigan, settlement agreements must be "subscribed," which is defined as placing your name at the bottom of the agreement. A claimed amendment to the agreement was, thus, ineffective because the sending attorney had put his name at the top of the e-mail, not the bottom.

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Warren E. Agin is a partner in Swiggart & Agin, LLC, a boutique law firm in Boston, Massachusetts focusing on the needs of technology companies. Mr. Agin heads its bankruptcy department. The author of the book Bankruptcy and Secured Lending in Cyberspace (3rd Ed. West 2005), Mr. Agin also chaired the ABA's E-commerce and Insolvency Subcommittee from 1999 to 2005, co-chaired the Boston Bar Association's Internet and Computer Law Committee (2003-2005), and served on the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Technology and Information Services (2008-2011). Mr. Agin currently co-chairs the Editorial Board of Business Law Today. A contributing editor to Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice, 3d, and co-author of its chapter on intellectual property for the past fifteen years, he is author of numerous legal articles and addresses on topics of technology, internet and bankruptcy law.

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