Adkins Law PLLC was recently featured in Creative Loafing's April 29, 2015 issue for Charlotte's Top 12 Businesses. Click here for the link.
If you're looking to hire a business attorney, then congratulations are in order, because that is probably a good sign that things are booming. But as you set off to find the right business attorney, you have to keep a few things in mind. First and most importantly, if you're hiring a business attorney for the first time, you need to make sure you don't get ripped off. This requires surveying the market to find out what the going rates are, deciding how much of your budget you want to allocate for legal expenses, and then selecting an attorney who fits within your budget. Please note that when it comes to business attorneys, more money does not always mean more quality. In fact, sometimes, the opposite is true. Business lawyers at large firms charge insanely high rates, and they tend to specialize to a very narrow degree. For example, a given lawyer doesn't just practice business law, nor does he specialize on a particular type of transaction or even a particular type of deal document. Instead, a given lawyer might specialize exclusively on a particular clause within a particular deal document! Granted, he's probably one of only a few hundred experts on that clause, but if your legal matter doesn't pertain to that clause, you don't give a rats ass. You would rather have an attorney with a broader view of what's going on. The point is, you shouldn't assume that more money means higher quality of service. The next thing to think through is the scope of the engagement. If you're hiring an attorney to perform a limited scope of services, you should search one way, but if you're hiring an attorney to be a long term partner and advisor in growing your business, then your selection process should be very different. As an example, some people hire an attorney to form their corporate entity (LLC, corporation, etc), and they know, at the time, that they have no intention of sticking with that attorney for the long haul. If this is the case, then it's perfectly fine to hire based on price and proximity (there are some caveats, which we will explain in a future article). On the other hand, if you're looking to hire someone who you will view as a trusted advisor and who will grow with you as a business owner, that is a very different story. It's the difference between searching for a provider of commodity legal services and searching for a true legal counselor. The final thing that you should be aware of is the basics of how different services are priced. For services where the attorney is able to predict, with reasonable confidence, the amount of time and effort that will be involved, attorneys will generally be willing to price their services on a flat fee basis. Examples of this include incorporation, forming an limited liability company, and writing a partnership agreement. By contrast, services that appear open ended tend to be priced on an hourly basis. This is for good reason - if the attorney has no way of knowing how long the engagement will take or how much work will be involved, he would be ludicrous to commit himself to a fixed price. Examples of this tend to come from contentious cases - disputes between founders, disputes between management and owners, disputes between company and stockholders, etc. That wraps it up for Business Attorney Fees in a Nutshell. In another article, we will put some actual numbers onto all of this to help you form a better idea of how much it will cost to hire a business attorney for your legal needs. The majority of states hold landlords to strict guidelines as to the appropriate circumstances in which they must return security deposits. Landlords who violate these laws can be held to stiff penalties. A security deposit is usually in the amount of one or two months' rent. It usually must be paid at the time that the Landlord and Tenant sign the lease. The landlord must place the funds in an escrow account and give the tenant any interest generated by such funds. Upon the termination of the lease, the landlord must return the security deposit to the tenant if no violations of the lease occurred. He or she may keep the security deposit or portion thereof for the amount of any damages, which can be proven, pursuant to the terms of the lease. Basic “Wear and Tear” versus Excessive Damage The general rule is that you are not responsible for normal wear and tear. For example, if the dishwasher must be replaced because it has simply worn out, that's the landlord's responsibility. See the bottom of this article for examples of repairs and damages that can and cannot be deducted from your security deposit. If you or your guest cause damage by your unreasonable carelessness or deliberate misuse, however, you must pay for it. The cost of replacing the dining room carpet because you and your friends thought those pizza and BBQ sauce stains would magically disappear is probably on you. You must leave a rental unit at least as clean as it was when you moved in. Because "normal wear and tear" can be interpreted in many different ways, disputes often arise. The bottom line is that the better you itemize and document the condition of your unit when you move in, the better case you'll have against a landlord who tries to gouge you on the way out. Deadlines Landlords are typically required to return security deposits within 14 to 30 days after you move out. The landlord must send, to your last known address, either: Your entire deposit (plus interest, in some states and in some cities), or: A written, itemized statement describing how the deposit was applied to back rent, cleaning, or repairs, plus the remainder of the deposit. How To Get It Back If your landlord fails to return your deposit when and how the law requires, you can sue the landlord in small claims court. If the landlord has intentionally and flagrantly violated the law, in some states, you can recover two or three times the amount of the deposit, plus attorneys' fees and other damages. Ordinary Wear & Tear (Landlord’s Responsibility)
By Elspeth Crawford False imprisonment, sometimes called false arrest, is a form of injury involving, as the name implies, the unlawful restraint by one person of the physical liberty or freedom of another person. In general. In order to sue over a false imprisonment, a plaintiff needs two things. First, they must have been detained or restrained against their will. Second, the restraint must have been unlawful.
Common Situations
Damages Plaintiffs in false imprisonment cases may be entitled to a variety of different kinds of damages.
|
Archives
January 2022
|