According to a study by Cottrill Research, about 60% to 80% of business transactions are governed by contracts. When two or more parties or entities are involved in a business transaction, contracts are often established to outline the duties, rights, and responsibilities of each party or entity.
During the course of doing business, commission of only two violations of state or federal law (“predicate acts”) in the last 10 years can expose you to a possible civil RICO lawsuit.
The legal rights of partners to one another are quite different than the legal rights majority shareholders or corporate management owes to minority shareholders. The legal rights of members of limited liability companies are only slowly being defined. In any dispute among owners or partners, the first step is to analyze what rights are available to you through the entity’s organizational documents and through statutory and decisional law.
Arbitration is an effective dispute resolution method that provides businesses with an alternative to costly, time-consuming, and disruptive litigation. These days, many business contracts include an arbitration clause, which basically means that the parties agree to arbitration should disputes arise. Even if there is no such clause, parties can voluntarily agree to resolve their disputes through arbitration.
A limited liability company (LLC) is a great business entity type to consider when starting a business. An LLC provides liability protection for its owners because this business structure separates owners’ personal assets from the business.
There are more than 4 million small businesses in California, many of which exist as LLCs. As an LLC member in San Francisco, California, or the San Francisco Bay Area, you have certain fiduciary duties to uphold. Breaching these duties could result in legal action against you as an individual, making it important to understand the scope of your obligations.
Starting a business can be exciting and rewarding, but it can also be risky, especially when you have a business partner. It is not unusual for business partners to have disagreements that can lead to one partner being pushed out.
If you operate a business, it is common to enter into agreements – called contracts, whether they’re written or oral – with other people or entities to supply products or services you need to run your enterprise.
Shareholders are the owners of a corporate entity and hold rights over how the company is managed. If they detect wrongdoing, corruption, or fraud they can ask the board of directors to correct the situation. If the board fails to do so, they can take the issue to court through a shareholder derivative lawsuit.
Shareholders in corporations do have rights and can press their claims through class action or derivative lawsuits. In 2022, Twitter, Inc. topped the list of largest shareholder lawsuit settlements at $809,500,000.
