Category: Business Law

Before hiring a personal or business lawyer to guide you, your family or your business, ask these 5 questions to ensure that you don’t end up paying a whole lot of money for services that are not what you need, expect or want. Hiring an attorney does not have to be a fearful experience. Instead, it can be the most empowered decision you ever make for yourself.

1. How do you bill for your services?

There is no need to be afraid to talk with your lawyer about how he/she bills for the work they will do on your behalf. In fact, when you first call a lawyer’s office, this is one of the very first questions you should ask. No one wants surprises!

If when you call the attorney’s office, they will not give you any information about how they charge for their services or any expectation of what things will cost, beware you could be in for some big surprises about what things cost down the road.

Look for a lawyer who bills all of their services on a flat-fee, project basis and never on an hourly basis, unless required to by the Court for limited purposes. In every event, be sure the lawyer you choose promises to never send you an unexpected bill in the mail for quick phone calls or emails.

2. How are you able to be responsive to my needs on an ongoing basis?

One of the biggest complaints people have about working with a lawyer is that lawyers are notorious for not being responsive. In fact, I’ve heard of situations in which clients have gone weeks without getting a call back from their lawyer.

This generally happens when a lawyer does not have enough administrative support in his or her office. Far too many lawyers believe they can take care of everything in and around their office themselves, from paperwork to client meetings to calendaring to returning phone calls to connecting with their clients other advisors, the list goes on and on.

You can and should ask your lawyer how he or she will respond to your ongoing needs, how quickly calls are returned in the office, if there is someone on hand to answer quick questions and if you should expect to get right through to your lawyer when you call the office.

A great way to test this is to call your prospective lawyer’s office and ask for him or her. If you get put right through or even worse sent to a voicemail, think twice about hiring this lawyer because it means they do not have effective systems in place for managing and responding to calls or answering your quick questions. Instead, what you want is for the person answering the phone or another team member to offer to help you and if he or she cannot then to schedule a call for you to talk with your lawyer at a future date and time when he or she will be ready to focus on your matter.

Your lawyer cannot be effective and efficient if he or she is taking every call that comes through to him or her – all calls should be pre-scheduled when you are both ready and your lawyer can focus on your specific needs.

3. How will you proactively communicate with me on an ongoing basis?

Unfortunately, most lawyers do a horrible job of proactively communicating with their clients on an ongoing basis. The general thinking in the legal industry is that legal work is transactional in nature and clients will call when something changes. But, this is faulty thinking and in my opinion just pure laziness on the part of lawyers.

You want to look for a lawyer who will proactively communicate with you at least quarterly by mail via an informative, easy to read newsletter and monthly by email. I prefer to hear from the professionals I work with monthly by mail and weekly by email, but progress can only happen so fast.

If you are considering hiring a lawyer who does not proactively communicate with his or her clients, think again. This lawyer might be stuck in an old, outdated mindset that won’t serve your needs in the best possible way.

4. Can I call about any legal problem I have or just about matters within your specialty?

In today’s complex world, lawyers must have specialized training in one or more specific practice areas, such as divorce, bankruptcy, wills & trusts, estates, personal injury, business, criminal matters or employment. You definitely do NOT want to be working with a lawyer who professes to be an expert in whatever walks through the door. However, you do want your personal lawyer and/or business lawyer to have a broad enough expertise that you can consult with your lawyer on all sorts of legal or financial issues that come up in your life and he or she will be able to guide you right.

Trust me, you probably don’t want the lawyer who designed your estate plan to also handle your personal injury claim, your dispute with your landlord and advise you on your divorce, but you do want him or her to be there to hear your story, find you the exact right lawyer and be available as a consultant to you. That way, you can call you personal lawyer before signing legal documents (even loan documents), any time you have a legal or financial issue, or whenever anything that could affect your family or business adversely comes up and know you’ll get great guidance.

Look for a lawyer who has an ongoing service program or membership program in place so that you can pay a low monthly fee and be able to call with all of your legal and financial questions without being charged hourly for the consultation. And be sure that when you call, you’ll get to schedule time to talk with your own personal lawyer who you know and trust and not get passed off to one of any number of lawyers who happen to work in the office and may not know who you are or what’s important to you.

5. What happens if you die or retire?

This is a critically important question to ask any service professional when beginning a relationship and a question that is far too often overlooked. Sure, it may feel uncomfortable to ask, but a truly excellent, client-centered service provider will have in place a plan to ensure their clients are taken care of no matter what happens to the lawyer in the future.

Answers you want to look for here are that your lawyer has a clear plan in place for someone warm and caring to take over your matter without providing any interruption of service to you. If your lawyer prepared a Will, Trust and other estate planning documents for you, or you are in the middle of a divorce or lawsuit, you want to ensure your lawyer has a plan in place so you won’t need to start everything over from scratch. And, if you are on a membership program with your lawyer, you’ll want to make sure he or she has a relationship with a lawyer or network of lawyers who can continue to service you under that program.

When you ask these 5 questions before hiring a lawyer for any type of legal matter, you will know you are engaging a trusted advisor who will help you to make the very best decisions for you, your family and your business.

Have you ever wanted to have your own business?  To be your own boss?  To not have to follow the decisions of “the man?”  Or have you recently been laid off, bought out, downsized, rightsized, or any other creative term used by companies when letting people go?  Have you realized that job “security” means nothing more than someone else having the power to determine your employment situation and your potential for success?  If you have any of these thoughts or have faced any of these circumstances, you need to know that right now is a great time to start a business, to put your idea to work, make your dream a reality, and be as successful as YOU want to be.  Sounds like an infomercial, doesn’t it?  The truth is, it IS a good time to start a business.

Here is just a sampling of the reasons starting a business now is a good idea:

• Decreased competition – due to the difficult economic conditions over the past 12-18 months many companies have had to close up shop.  Your industry choice may help you take advantage of the precipitous drop in competition.
• Financing terms – although capital is not as easy to attract as it used to be, the terms can be very favorable.  Recent changes to the SBA government program and historically low interest rates make start-up financing very attractive when available.
• The economy is expected to improve later this year, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke – don’t miss out on the opportunity to be on the ground floor of the recovery
• Government stimulus – many industries stand to benefit financially from the government stimulus money that is beginning to trickle down to the local level.  As we all know, there is a significant amount of money in the government stimulus programs put in place earlier this year.  Word is that the funds are nearing the local level.  If you have considered starting a business in an industry that may benefit, the timeframe for taking advantage of these funds is quickly disappearing.
• The public’s thirst for money saving ideas – everyone has had to “tighten their belts” during this economic downturn.  More and more people are looking for ways to save money and products that can help them do so.  Do you have an product idea that will help?  Now is the opportune time to launch it.

Don’t get me wrong, it is not easy to start a business.  You must have the ideas, drive, and determination to see it through.  However, realize that over half of the 2009 Fortune 500 companies were started in a market downturn.  Some examples of companies started in a recession are: Hyatt Corp, Burger King Corp., IHOP Corp., FedEx Corp., Microsoft Corp., CNN, Sports Illustrated, General Electric, and Hewlett Packard.**

You may not plan on starting the next GE, Burger King, or Microsoft, however all those companies started like every other company . . . an idea, dedication, and determination to see it through.  If you are ready to take the steps to start your own business or would like to consult about your various options, please feel free to contact me.  I applaud you entrepreneurs – you are the catalyst of economic recovery!

**Source – http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/the-economic-future-just-happened.aspx

***This article is by no means a guarantee that your business idea will be successful or that you will receive any of the benefits mentioned in the article.  But how will you know if you don’t try?

The Michigan Sales Representatives Commission Act (SRCA) voids any provision in a contract waiving any rights under the SRCA.  MCL 600.2961(8).  The Michigan Court of Appeals recently strictly construed this to limit it to contracts between a principal and a sales representative, holding that the prohibition does not apply to a settlement agreement of claims under the SRCA.  Reicher v SET Enters, Inc., Docket No. 278907 (May 12, 2009).

This should guide a careful reading of any settlement agreement related to a SRCA claim and caution attorneys dealing with such claims and settlements to fully inform their clients of any rights they may be foregoing under the SRCA by agreeing to such a settlement.  The waiver in the above case effectively kept the salesperson from pursuing penalty damages and attorney fees under the SRCA.

On March 31, 2009, the Michigan Court of Appeals (in an unpublished opinion) held that a 2006 legislative amendment to MCL 450.1489 (commonly referred to as the shareholder oppression section) did not apply retroactively.

The basic facts are these: husband and wife formed a corporation while married; they divorced in February 2005, and both continued to work for the company; in February 2006, ex-husband (as company President) fired ex-wife from her administrative position with the company.  Wife sued claiming, among other things, that this action constituted sharholder oppression and was actionable under MCL 450.1489 – targeting the “willfully unfair and 0ppressive” language as the basis for her claim.

At the time of ex-wife’s termination, Michigan law was that 450.1489 only proteted a shareholder’s interest as a shareholder.  Because terminating a shareholder’s employment does not affect the shareholder’s interest as a shareholder, the section does not allow recovery for harm suffered as an employee.  Franchino v Franchino, 263 Mich App 172, 173-174, 185-186 (2004).  In March 2006 (the month after the ex-wife’s termination), the legislature amended 450.1489(3) such that willfully unfair and oppressive conduct included employment terminatioon or limiting employment benefits to the extent that it disproportionately interferes with the shareholder’s distributions or other interests.  Clearly a change that would have helped ex-wife’s case IF it applied retroactively to her situation.

The court reiterated the general rule that statutes are presumed to operate prospectively unless a contrary intent was manifested.  Frank W Lynch & Co v Flex Technologies, Inc, 463 Mich 578, 583 (2001).  Numerous times the legislature has shown that it knows how to make clear its intention to apply a statute retroactively.  The court found nothing in the amendment’s language suggesting such retroactive legislative intent.  Therefore, the amendment only applied prospectively.

Although it seems that this problem will only be had by those bringing shareholder oppresion claims based on actions prior to the 2006 amendment, it is important to note the continued support for only applying legislative amendments prospectively unless the legislature clearly intended otherwise.