Florida Business Legal Questions

Your ability to recover is limited by the contract for carriage that you entered into with the carrier. This may be significantly less than the value of the item shipped. It will not be possible for anyone to provide meaningful guidance on this claim without review of that contract. The contract may be a bill of lading, incorporated terms from a web site, or something else -- you don't provide any guidance. Also, perhaps more importantly, this is a small claim, and it will likely not be cost-effective for you to engage the services of an attorney to prosecute this claim. Generally speaking, when goods are sold, the risk of loss passes to the buyer at the time of shipment. Your inquiry does not indicate who made the contract for carriage and who bore the risk of this loss and why you are entitled to assert this claim. It is possible that you will not be entitled to any recovery because the recovery belongs to the buyer. As the forum's terms indicate, this is a source for general information and not legal advice. You will want to discuss this claim with an attorney if you are going to pursue it other than in small claims court.... Read More

Unfortunately, you may need to file a lawsuit against him.  By subleasing, you are subject to the lease which likely has a landlord lien remedy in it.  That doesn't mean that the landlord can keep your stuff forever, but he can hold it and then sell it to satisfy any deficiency in rent due. This is specific to Florida law and does not constitute legal advice as the facts presented are anonymous and incomplete. This is intended for general education only and does not create an attorney-client relationship. This should not be relied on and you must seek your own attorney client relationship.... Read More

It is not clear how you are harmed by the company's refusal to talk to you. As a general matter, in order to prevail in a lawsuit, you must suffer actual economic harm, not nominal or theoretical harm, and hurt feelings don't count. Since you don't provide any background on the inquiries you are making, it is also not clear why the company you are calling has any duty to speak with you at all. In the absence of some kind of legal duty, anyone is privileged to refuse to talk to anyone.... Read More

That is not true. The bank's right to charge these fees to you depends on your having opted into their program of overdraft protection, which is governed by their agreement with you, which you signed when you opened the account. You can opt out of the overdraft protection and, in the future, those charges will be allowed to bounce. You will still be charged a fee for each bounced item presented against your account.... Read More

Any way your employer manages to pay you more than the minimum wage, it's legal. Since employment in the United States is on an at-will basis, your employer can change the terms of employment at any time for any reason or no reason at all. The same legal principle gives you the right to quit your job if you are dissatisfied.... Read More

You will need to contact the person or entity that is the trustee of this fund for your benefit. It may be necessary for you to determine the identity of the trustee by referring to the records of the court where your grandfather's will was admitted to probate. You should not count on getting these funds by the time your tuition payments are due, because, among other things, it is not clear that you are entitled to be paid the money now merely because you are an adult. You need to refer to the terms of the will to determine when the funds will be paid to you and under what circumstances.... Read More

It is perfectly legal for you to collect donations for a bona fide charity in Haiti. You are acting as a nominee or stakeholder for these amounts and they are technically not taxable income to you. That having been said, you will need to take great pains to document that these funds collected by you under the direction and control of the ultimate recipient and remitted directly to them promptly following receipt. PayPal is happy to do business with non-U.S. citizens outside the U.S. Your family member should exhaust opportunities to deal with PayPal and alternative vendors, such as Dwolla, before dropping this in your lap. It is a lot of work for you and potentially a tremendous burden in terms of documentation if you are audited.... Read More

It depends on where the organization is incorporated. As a general matter, all certificates of incorporation are a matter of public record, and copies may be obtained upon payment of a small fee to the secretary of state where the organization is organized. However, only a few states make these documents available online.... Read More

If you are a joint venturer, it is hard to believe that anyone would buy a business without speaking to all of the owners. Even if the business was sold, if the proceeds were not shared according to ownership there would be a right to recover in a lawsuit under many legal theories such as breach of fiduciary duty, and probably fraud/concealment and conversion. A joint venture agreement in writing can have great benefit in addressing this and numerous other issues.... Read More

Valuation methods depend on the purpose of the valuation and any third parties affected by the valuation.  It is more of an art than a science.  You can start with a company CPA, and you can also get a business valuation expert involved. Unfortunately, you don't have an agreement about how the valuation is to be made for any purpose, so there will have to be a lot of dialogue and negotiation and compromise.  But first, try to determine the specific purpose for the valuation.  Remember that if you are basing your ownership interest as 1/3d of the LLC, you are valuing the LLC and then you interest is valued at 1/3d of that.  The fact that you have extra sweat equity would not change your valuation, unless you were able to change your 1/3d ownership interest.  Extra value can be distributed to you on agreement of all owners for any services or added value your provide in the form of a priority distribution or bonus, etc.... Read More

This is virtually a FAQ here. As a general matter, the 50% owner of a business has no right to force the other owner(s) to sell to him or to be bought out by the others. What you can do is commence a judicial proceeding for dissolution of the entity. These actions are invariably settled by one party buying out the other(s), because if they cannot settle, the court will liquidate the business. See an attorney who specializes in commercial litigation. Often the mere threat of a "deadlock dissolution" action (as these are called) will precipitate a settlement. Good luck.... Read More