Legal Issues Faced by Organizations
STRATEGIC LEGAL ANALYSIS – A MUST FOR ANY BUSINESS
Legal issues are unavoidable in business, but preventative measures help minimize the risks or avoid problems altogether. Businesses can implement policies and procedures designed to avoid legal problems and avoid potential legal problems by recognizing and neutralizing them before they materialize.
Many business structures, such as corporations and LLCs, are purely legal entities and are therefore intertwined with the law from the time they are formed. When multiple owners, employees, suppliers, customers and other factors are added, the risks of legal entanglements is elevated.
The broad-array of potential legal issues that confront businesses is almost infinite. However, discussing issues among owners and anticipating possible internal and external problems before they happen significantly reduces the risk of surprises.
BUSINESS FORMATION, ORGANIZATION & STRUCTURE
When starting, re-organizing or expanding a business, the choice of business entity structure can have important taxation, liability and operational effects.
There are many types of business entities, including sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability companies, and various sorts of corporations, associations, professional groups and many others.
For more detailed information about the more common California business entities, see our ENTITY FORMATION & STRUCTURE page.
RIGHTS AMONG SHAREHOLDERS, MEMBERS & PARTNERS
When multiple people share in the ownership and operation of a business, there are many issues that might potentially lead to disputes., including: voting & control rights, fiduciary duties, minority shareholder rights, partnership disputes and dissolution, and actions for accounting.
For a more detailed discussion of these issues, visit our SHAREHOLDER/PARTNER DISPUTES page.
Contracts are an integral component of the business world, as the delineate the rights and obligations of the parties, and create expectations of performance and payment. When agreements are broken, litigation often follows.
It is critical that parties to agreements understand what they are promising. Often times, ambiguity or other miscommunication leads to disputes. For more, go to the CONTRACT & RELATED DISPUTES page.
Occasionally, third party litigation issues arise from contracts, product defects, traffic or property accidents, or other issues that are often unrelated to the core business (such as a company vehicle driven by an employee is involved in a traffic collision).
For a more detailed discussion of third-party claims, see our THIRD-PARTY / TORT LIABILITY page.