Business Litigation Legal Questions

If you used the account as a business account, the assets in the account belong to the business (whether it is a partnership, corporation, or LLC). You say that it is in "your name," but it isn't clear to what extent the ex-partner had access to it. I don't take your ex-partner's claims of suing you to be especially worrying. Assuming you are a partnership, unless there is a written partnership agreement to the contrary, you have the right to withdraw from the partnership for any reason. Once the business relationship ends, there has to be an accounting to pay vendors, finish business for clients, and lastly, distribute any remaining assets to the owners. If you worried about your physical safety, don't wait -- you need to consult with a lawyer about your specific facts and concerns. Contact a good business litigation lawyer in your area as soon as you can.... Read More

Would need quite a bit more detail to really be able to give you an opinion of whether litigation makes sense, but he does owe you a fiduciary duty as a minority shareholder.  Is the majority shareholder an employee of the company and do you know what type of salary he takes? Is there a shareholder's agreement? Happy to get on a call to discuss with you.... Read More

In federal court, you need to answer 20 days from service of the summons and complaint, so assuming the service was valid (I would have to check the documents to be sure), your response is due Wednesday, August 31st. If you haven't heard back from defendant's counsel by now, someone should contact plaintiff's counsel on your behalf to seek an extension of time to respond.    Andrew K Jacobson Bay Oak Law  ... Read More

You can always switch lawyers.  Lawyers get hired and fired all the time.  If the new lawyer feels that he/she cannot pick up the case, they won't take the job.  If they take the job, your only risk is having to pay the new lawyer to get up to speed which naturally repeats work done by the old lawyer.... Read More

You would have a claim if the bank acted negligently in closing the account when it should not have.  However, absent a court order or a contrary provision in the account agreements, I know of no law (although I am not a Texas lawyer) that prohibits one owner from closing a joint account, divorced or not.  Your husband may have done something wrong, but I'm not sure that the bank has.... Read More

I think there's a feature on her phone that she can use to block calls from certain phone numbers.  Its going to be *__ -- not sure of the numbers.  Call whomever she uses for her telephone service and ask this question.  That might be the easiest fix.  You can probably block emails from them as well by marking the sender as "junk" and to have emails from that sender blocked by her email service. ... Read More

Transferring the bad property into an LLC might help insulate your home from liabilies arising from the bad property. You'll have to pay to have a deed prepared, the recording fee for the deed and realy transfer taxes in order to do this.  For example, on a property worth $50,000 -- it'll likely cost you $1,500 to make this transfer.  That doesn't include the cost of forming the LLC. ... Read More

This is probably not the answer you want but you really need to find a lawyer experienced in business dispute litigation to help you with this. Your facts do not suggest an easy answer.  Your recourse would depend on how the business organization was structured. In order to properly advise you of your rights and her obligations, it would be necessary to review the paperwork that you all signed when you entered into your partnership. If there are no formal papers such as corporate minutes, partnership agreement or operating agreement, it would be necessary to look at signature pages for the business' bank accounts, application for tax ID number, even emails and text messages.   With that information, your lawyer may be able to advise whether it makes sense to go to court to dissolve the businedd and/or to seek an accounting of the income and expenditures of the business. It may be that she has taken the assets of the business and has converted them to her own business. Again, this is an area where you need someone to advise you.  You should act without delay in contacting that lawyer. ... Read More

You can be sued in a state if you have sufficient contact with that state to make it constitutionally permissible for that state to exercise jurisdiction over you.  The amount of contacts necessary is much less if the claim arises out of those contacts.  Thus, for example, the fact that you advertise in Ohio may not be sufficient to give Ohio jurisdiction over you in general, but if the claim relates to something arising out of that Ohio advertisement (for example, if someone sues you for fraud growing out of representations in that ad) Ohio probably would have jurisdiction over you.  If the claim is that you sold infringing products in Ohio, that will probably be enough to give Ohio jurisdiction over you.  There is no way to even estimate how much it will cost you to defend the suit, at least not without much more information.... Read More

Unfortunately, you owe all of the lease payments until the end of the lease.  Your options are (1) to negotiate a lesser payoff; or (2) to file for bankruptcy protection.  Your negotiation with the lessor should include mentioning your option to file for bankruptcy protection.  If you do nothing, then the lessor may be abel to get a judgment against you.... Read More

It's hard to answer your question without more detail, but if the car dealer made a false representation of fact on which you reasonably relied to your detriment, you could sue it for fraud.  However, there are a lot of other rules which may be relevant.  For example, if the dealer orally told you that the car had 20,000 miles on it, but the  paperwork accurately reflected that it had 40,000 miles, you are probably out of luck.... Read More

Why can't your friend open a new account with the vendor and resume deliveries?  What's the connection between the vendor and the store being padlocked?  Sounds like the business owner owed some money that he didn't tell you about and the problems have come to a head.  Your friend needs to get a qualified business attorney involved right away to determine his rights and possible remedies. ... Read More