Justifiably Defrauded?

“Bamboozled. Hoodwinked. Defrauded. Those words send shivers up our spines, as we have all probably been taken for a ride once or twice in our lives,” writes Danya Shakfeh in her July 2021 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Justifiably Defrauded?” Shakfeh notes the legal definition and standard for demonstrating fraud makes it hard for plaintiffs to prove, or even plead, fraud. Illinois courts have made fraud an extremely subjective and fact-specific claim, she adds. This subjective standard is evidenced by the First District of the Illinois Appellate Court’s September 2020 decision in Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust v. Feiner. Given the many ways a person can lie, the varying levels of information available, and the sophistication of plaintiffs, Shakfeh goes on to discuss how Illinois courts are presented with an array of decisions with no objective standard to determine whether a plaintiff justifiably or reasonably relied on a defendant’s representations.

Read more in the July issue of the Illinois Bar Journal.