Legal Work for Small Businesses, Part II

Another way I like to help small business is contract work.  Most business owners think about contracts as just the way that they make sure that they get paid for the services they provide.  But a contract can be much more than that.  Think about the last time you went to get your oil changed.  You may have chosen the location because they advertised $16.95 for an oil change.  But when all was said and done you may have ended up paying in over $100.  Why?  Because the contract that they put in front of you was also a menu.  You started thinking about synthetic oils and the oil filter and an air filter.  They got you thinking about tire rotation and balancing your tires.  They also may have offered you a chassis lube as well as other services.  So quite quickly you realize the value of their services and agree to pay them over a $100.  As a small business owner, that opportunity is often times available.  Whether the business provides a service or sells a product, the manner in which the contracts are put together can actually increase sales (as well as ensure payment).  If a business puts time and energy into the contracts it uses, shouldn’t that time and energy also make them money?

Legal Work for Small Businesses, Part I

I do a lot of work with small businesses.  At some point the life of a business, it gets from being a small operation with a tight budget to a growing operation.  Legally speaking this is where the business starts to get dangerous.  So long as an owner has a chance to keep tabs on everything that is happening, they usually have the foresight and spare attention to make sure that they don’t engage in any legal risks. 

 

But once they get busy and start getting help from others that is usually when they need to bring an attorney in.  The rationale for this is that legal errors can cost money and big errors will cost more than just the business’s money – the business owner’s legal risk isn’t limited to just his business accounts and asset but rather he can lose his home and personal assets as well.  It is not enough just to have filed an LLC or S-Corp with the Secretary of State.  But rather proper corporate books need to be put together, banking practices adhered to, and other routines need to become disciplined habits.  By continuing practice in such a manner a business can preserve what is called “a corporate veil” it will limits a company’s liability to just the business assets and protects business owners.  This in one of the primary ways I help small businesses as they prosper.

Difficult felony cases

As a criminal defense attorney one of the most important types of cases that come my way are felony charges with damning facts.  Here’s a story of a real case that I had, with identifying characteristics changed to protect the client’s confidentiality:  Police discovered in excess of two hundred marijuana plants, with the dry weight of twenty (20) pounds, in my client’s second home. Such amounted to felony possession of a controlled substance.

 

There were several issues for my client including the overriding concern that he knew nothing about the marijuana plants that were in this rental property.  There is always the question in any criminal defense case where illegal possessions are found within one’s property of whether the law enforcement had the legal grounds to enter the property.  Such facts bring about the constitutional issues under the Fourth and Fifth Amendment’s for the search and seizure of one’s personal property.  For this type of law enforcement conduct there must be probable cause and usually a search warrant.  Such was not much of an issue in this particular case as it was my client who consented to the initial search.  The background is that he was called to the property as the power company had identified that his property had been illegally wired and was drawing more electricity than was being registered by the power meter.  It was a concern between the public utility and law enforcement that such an illegal wiring may cause a fire hazard and they requested entry into the property to determine the level of risk.  As such my client (not knowing what was in the property), allowed law enforcement into the property where the marijuana growing operation was identified by the plants, grow lights, and fertilizers.  The property was sealed and promptly thereafter a search warrant was solicited from the signing judge and law enforcement re-entered the property.

 

The next issue was a question of possession.  Clearly my client owned the property but he was unaware of it’s contents. The fact that there was another legitimate owner it can arguably be said that he did not possess the marijuana.  In this particular case, proving that the marijuana was possession of another was major difficulty.  The client had rented the property based on an oral lease and it was clear from the search of the property that the renter was not using the property for any other purposes other than growing the marijuana as such the renter was never seen again as he never returned to the property.  The skepticism of the law enforcement immediately assumed that there was no renter and my client was the owner of the growing operation.  In conjunction with a number of other allegations by third parties, the County Attorney’s office decided to charge my client with the possession of the marijuana.

 

After exhaustive work with the file and much dialogue with the client and the County Attorney’s office, my client wasn’t willing to plead guilty to a crime he did not commit.  But I was able to secure for him the opportunity to resolve the matter without trial.  We estimated that my client would have been at risk of being found guilty at a jury trial.  As such my client was able to enter a plea of guilty based on not an admission of guilt but rather acknowledgement of likelihood that he would be found guilty at trial and his desire to take advantage of the State’s offer that would keep the felony off of his record after a period of probation and assured him no jail time.  Thus upon negotiating that resolution, my client avoided the felony charges without the risk of conviction at trial, without any jail time, and without admitting to a crime he did not commit.

Spousal Maintenance

Sometime ago I represented a husband in a divorce action.  The client came to me some time after being represented by an attorney. Though the attorney was experienced and respected, he did not have confidence regarding her aggressiveness and zeal in pursuing this case.  Upon meeting, the client and I clicked immediately and I was retained to take on his case.  It was a twenty (20) year marriage wherein both parties worked, but the wife made in the mid-five figures and the husband was well over six figures.  Thus in addition to property division the biggest concern for my client was spousal maintenance. 

 

Known as alimony in other states, spousal maintenance is the continuing obligation to support one’s spouse after a divorce.  Sometimes it is for a limited period of time to allow the spouse to rehabilitate their careers: such as either agreed to or awarded by the court upon the belief that the recipient spouse sacrifice their careers for the marriage and it should be given the opportunity to rehabilitate those careers to where they reasonably would have been had they not got married.  Other times spousal maintenance is awarded for a long period of time (sometimes until 65 and sometimes beyond) under the argument that the recipient spouse during the marriage had enjoyed a particularly high standard of living that they cannot continue to enjoy after the divorce.  The grounds here is that the support of both spouses allow the parties to work together to achieve that higher standard of living and therefore the recipient spouse is due a monthly award from the contributing spouse to maintain that standard of living as much as possible.  In this case, my client was at risk for having to not only pay out a large amount of money each month to his soon to be ex-wife but also for a long period of time.  Though there were other factors that contributed to it, my client and I prepared the file as best as we could.  We examined his bare necessity expenses as well as what she could possibly argue.  Further we had to calculate what she was possible of earning herself in the future.

 

At the pretrial hearing — the four (4) hour time slot scheduled by the Court prior to trial to encourage the parties to settle their differences — we held a series of meetings with the opposing counsel and with each other, going back and forth.  When all was said and done we had negotiated a resolution that allowed my client to pay considerably less each month than what we had anticipated and for merely twenty-four (24) more months after tallying the property division and the other issues. It was a resolution with which my client was very happy.

 

Further the parties have been divorced for more than three (3) years now and no other issues have arisen.  Though there are some attorneys that just seek best possible resolution for a client at the conclusion of their divorce without regard for the future, I always try to keep in mind the long-term effect for the client.  It makes no sense to do a quick and easy for a client on unsound terms if they are just end up spending the next several years with stress and strife and thousands more in dollars of attorneys fees trying to fix what should have been done right the first time.  In this case I am glad that everything has worked out for my client and he has not needed my legal services again.

Criminal Case Diversion

Do you realize it is possible to be guilty of a crime without serving jail time, ending up with a felony on your record, or having to pay otherwise minimal expenses?  For many criminal charges this is a distinct possibility.  While there are several requirements that need to be met, it is not uncommon for drug charges or theft charges to be given such a diversionary treatment.  Please keep in mind it depends on the county in which the offense is allegedly committed, the facts involved, and the arrestee’s criminal record.  It also involves “positioning” so that nothing is said or done to destroy such an opportunity.  Please keep this in mind next time a co-worker or cousin admits to the “hot water” they have gotten themselves into – it may be just an opportunity to keep them from getting burned.

Federal Minimum Wage Increase & Your Child Support

Many of you know that the child support laws in Minnesota were changed several years ago to take into consideration both parties’ income.  What few people may appreciate is the fact that Minnesota Statute Chapter 518A has specific treatment for unemployed & underemployed individuals.  The current law states that for people who have no readily identified income, for which it cannot be argued otherwise, shall be imputed to have income equal to 150% of the State’s minimum wage (a dollar more than the federal minimum wage).  With the rise in federal minimum wage that went into effect July 25, 2009 (it went up $0.70 per hour), it will trickle down to the figures that we use to impute income for unemployed parents, underemployed parents, and parents whose income cannot be easily ascertained otherwise.  If you think this change is going to affect your child support, either on the defense or raising the amount of child support you should be receiving, feel free to give us a call to talk about it.

Welcome to the new blog

Rather than risk ending up as a Willy Loman who cannot keep up with his clients and his client’s needs, the law firm is happy to keep up with the technological trends of the 21^st century by starting this blog.

Please feel free to bookmark this blog and regularly track it for its new entries.

Certainly if there are any topics or concerns you are particularly interested in, feel free to contact us directly to talk about them.  Further if they are topics that you think would make good blog discussions, please let us know that as well – one of the purposes of this blog is to make sure to get out information that not just individual clients need but also prospective clients as well as members of the public regarding the services that we provide.