Posts Tagged ‘Litigation’

Small Business Law

A common situation that millions of small business owners will deal with on a regular basis is frivolous law suits. According to the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, small businesses spent $98 billion in 2005 defending frivolous law suits, this means that the cost to defend these law suits, is only increasing as more business are finding themselves as targets. While this is no doubt concerning, the reality is that you can be able to protect yourself and your business from this kind of litigation by using different tactics that will protect your business should it ever be the defendant of one of these law suits. Below are different tactics to help you protect your business and yourself from these law suits.

Have good business organization: The first kind of legal defense that you want to use is to develop a business structure that will protect your business against these kinds of law suits. This means establishing a corporation or limited liability company. What happens is most small business are set up as sole proprietorships which means that as a business owner you are responsible personally for the debt and what ever obligations that the business may have. If your business is the subject of a law suit you they could try to go after everything you own including the assets of your business. What you want to do is establish a corporation or limited liability company that will be the initial line of defense against these kinds of law suits. Please note that while this will generally protect your business this form of legal defense can be overcame by a serious legal challenge.

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Commercial Law

For most business people at one point or another there is a possibility that they will be the subject of law suit during the life of their business. Not to imply that they did something wrong, however, the reality is that the cost of doing business today involves being prepared for different law suits that you could face. This means that you must understand the common legal problems that many businesses deal with so you can be ready for them if they do occur. Below are some of the common legal problems that many business people face every year.

Criminal inquiry: As time goes by the amount of regulations regarding particular industries is only continuing to increase at an incredible pace. This means that the power of local, state and federal governments is only increasing as they appoint more law enforcement agents to keep up with the new regulations that are being imposed on businesses. Resulting in more possible criminal inquiries that you may have to face, even if you did not do anything wrong. To avoid this situation you would want to have procedures in place that can keep up with the changes that take place in the law and you want to ensure that you have legal council available to look out for your rights should something like this happen to you.

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Franchise Law

Some larger companies who specialize in the collection and formation of franchises will help you along with the franchising process. One of these larger companies is Franchise Direct. Franchise Direct does have representatives who can help you with some of the ins and outs of franchise law. The individual franchises themselves should also be helpful with some of the laws dealing with franchising both on a state and federal basis. People within the Secretary of State’s office in your particular state should also be versed in some or most of the statutes dealing with franchises and other things such as zoning and building within your state and municipality.

Some franchises themselves have their own laws dictating that there can only be a certain number of their franchise within a certain mile radius. They have these types of provisions as not to put a damper on the business of their most trusted franchisees. Most even large franchises of course want to see all their locations succeed, no matter how small. One thing that should be noted is that it is important to get some sort of buyout clause within your franchise agreement in case your store or chain of stores closes during an economic downturn. For example Starbucks could close as many as eight to twenty percent of its franchises during a recession as a way of adjusting its portfolio.

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