A: The answer to both question is yes. Your severance agreement with your former employer appears to be a valid contract. Your ex-employer undertook certain obligations in that contract, including paying you 60 percent of your salary for approximately 18 months. But now, failing to pay you, it has breached the severance agreement and you can certainly sue it for the breach. Because, however, the agreement states that any such lawsuit must be brought in Illinois and because Florida courts routinely enforces such provisions, which are called choice of venue provisions, chances are you are going to have to sue in an Illinois court, unless the agreement has no connection to Illinois. Since your former employer is based in Illinois, it would appear that such a connection exists.
