To Sue or Not To Sue? What Kim Kardashian Can Teach You About Filing a Lawsuit

BREACH OF CONTRACT

If you hired a contractor or vendor to perform a specific job or task and they failed to perform as specified in your agreement, you may have the right to sue them. A breach of contract occurs when one party in a contract fails to follow through on the terms or conditions previously agreed upon.

You will need to show proof of a written agreement or show that you have some type of enforceable oral contract to the courts. Without this proof, your claim will not hold any weight and you will not be able to pursue legal action. Depending on the nature of your claim, many breach-of-contract cases can be settled in small claims court, where you can represent yourself. In other instances, however, you’d be wise to seek out the help of a skilled lawyer.

In the Kardashian case, Jaxson is accused of violating a confidentiality agreement. But his defense—so far at least—is that while he was sent such a confidentiality agreement, he never actually signed the agreement.

Lesson: A contract isn’t legally binding until it’s fully executed (i.e. legally signed) by both parties.

PERSONAL INJURY SITUATION

If you or a family member were harmed by a defective product or service by a corporation, or someone was hurt on the premises of a store, business facility, or even someone else’s home, you may be able to sue on the grounds of negligence that led to personal injury.

In this type of situation, your best bet is to retain a personal injury attorney and work on a building a solid case. Personal injury cases can range from being quite straight-forward to quite complicated.

For example, if you are walking in a retail store and a worker who is stocking inventory causes an entire row of heavy metal shelves to collapse on you, there may be little doubt that you got injured. But to what extent? Expect to have to provide medical proof of specific injuries and proof that the individual or corporation caused your injuries.

Damages to your reputation, as Kim Kardashian may find, can be more of a gray area. If Kardashian’s efforts to muzzle her former PR agent wind up in court, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jaxson argue that he didn’t damage Kardashian’s reputation, but that she did that all on her own — via her quickie divorce filing, her previous sex tape, etc.

Lesson: Any time you want to claim injuries of any kind, document everything and be prepared to show a judge how you were “before” an incident (physically, reputation-wise, etc.) and “after” the incident in question.