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AdobeStock_168060971-300x200Prop 19 is now effective in California. The new law makes changes to existing property tax laws, so it is important for homeowners to understand how their tax obligations can change under the new rules. Business owners must also be prepared for changes to property tax assessments on corporate real estate holdings. Learn more about the changes to state property tax laws, what business owners need to do to prepare for these changes, and how a California corporate attorney can help you determine the best way to manage real estate assets held by your business. With advanced planning, your business will be prepared to meet its tax obligations without compromising its financial goals.

What Is Prop 19?

According to the Office of the San Francisco Assessor-Recorder, Prop 19 makes changes to certain state property tax benefits. The law is an amendment to the state constitution that limits certain property tax benefits to make them available to others who need them. For example, this amendment requires an owner who inherits family property to use the home as a primary residence in order to retain the lower property value assessment for tax purposes. On the other hand, a homeowner who is over 55 years of age, disabled, or the victim of a wildfire or natural disaster may transfer a low property tax base on a replacement residence up to three times. These amendments have large impacts on families, especially in the bay area where the value of homes have increased significantly for many individuals who are now looking to pass the property on to their children.

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AdobeStock_185592300-300x200Most attorneys are familiar with the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility.  Beyond studying for the MPRE, these rules are important in practice and attorneys who do not understand how they apply can face disciplinary issues with the State Bar.

A new change to an old rule may allow pro bono providers to help their clients in more effective ways.  Learn more about the changes to ER 1.8(e) and how they can affect your organization’s pro bono policies.

The History of Model Rule 1.8(e)

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Senate Bill No. 1162 (SB 1162) was an act to amend Section 12999 of the California Government Code and Section 432.3 of the California Labor Code relating to employment. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law this past September, which is effective January 1, 2023. Anybody needing help complying with this new law should contact a San Jose business attorney.

Pay Data Reporting Requirements Under Senate Bill 1162

SB 1162 requires all employers with 100 employees or more (including employees hired through labor contractors) to submit annual pay data reports to the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) beginning next May 10, and every second Wednesday in May annually thereafter.

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AdobeStock_114356861-300x200The term “startup” refers to a company in the initial stages of its operations, usually founded by one or more entrepreneurs aiming to develop a product or service, while having high costs and limited revenue. The first thing any startup founder will need to do is hire experienced Austin startup attorneys for assistance navigating the many challenges that will arise in the early stages of operations.

You will want to have a lawyer working with you early on because it will save you a lot on costs on the frontend, ensure the entity is properly formed and maintained, and establish an effective legal strategy as operations evolve. Make sure you are working with an attorney who understands the complexity of laws relating to startups and the relevant industry.

Early Startup Challenges

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AdobeStock_273133653-300x200California business owners face many different types of litigation. It is important to mitigate the risk of liability by consulting with a California business litigation attorney before your business is even established. The experienced California business litigation lawyers at Structure Law have helped entrepreneurs in all types of industries protect their companies from preventable losses. What follows are some of our tips to protect your business from litigation.

Have a business litigation attorney in California draft an operating agreement.

An operating agreement is not required to form a business in California. As a result, some business owners make the mistake of starting business operations without them. Without an operating agreement, the business is exposed to litigation and liability. An experienced business lawyer can draft an agreement that will reduce the likelihood of future liability. According to the Small Business Administration, an operating agreement sets the rules that guide a company’s decisions. Having an operating agreement can set decision-making processes that reduce the likelihood your company will face litigation. This agreement can even reduce the risk of future costly conflicts between owners of the company.

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AdobeStock_219561092-300x200Tokenization is the process in which you replace sensitive data such as a credit card number with a non-sensitive equivalent known as a token, and real estate tokenization refers to creating tokens on the blockchain and assigning them to real estate properties that already exist or are currently under construction. Tokens may represent an interest in real estate but can also raise capital for development investments.

If you are new to the tokenization process, you will understandably have a lot of questions about how it works and what you can do. You will want to make sure you are working with an experienced Silicon Valley blockchain attorney at Structure Law Group, LLP, who can guide you through the entire process and help you achieve the results you desire.

Real Estate Problems Tokenization Can Solve

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AdobeStock_398358954-300x200Most businesses in California have confidential and valuable information to protect. Ensuring its protection is often a vital priority. In the ordinary course of business, companies will enter into numerous consulting agreements, service agreements and strategic alliances. These agreements are best made with the advice of a Los Angeles employment attorney who can help protect proprietary information by drafting enforceable non-disclosure agreements.

NDAs and best practices

The proper use of NDAs and noncompete clauses is to protect your company’s valuable proprietary information. NDAs can be used to safeguard trade secrets, and this is their preferred mode of operation. Nonetheless, if your company wants to protect trade secrets, you must show that you made some effort to protect those secrets. Informing hires that they will have access to proprietary trade secrets and signing an agreement not to divulge those trade secrets makes the effort enforceable and shows your company took measures to protect their intellectual property.

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AdobeStock_507078931-300x169In the twenty-first century, information is power. Businesses are facing unprecedented challenges in the race to create, maintain and protect information. These challenges have become painfully obvious in recent years. Business owners have had to move their operations to an entirely remote format while still maintaining cybersecurity. Cybersecurity has been breached in multiple brazen attacks against some of the country’s largest companies. Information security can no longer be taken for granted by any successful business. The key to success starts with the right human infrastructure within your organization. The right Chief Information Officer can protect your company’s confidential client information, intellectual property, and trade secrets to prevent the legal liability and bad publicity that comes with a data breach.

How Corporate Information Changed During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The global economy has become increasingly interconnected in the early twenty-first. Business moved online as companies have expanded their reach across the world. For most companies, however, these online operations were merely supplemental to a workforce that primarily operated in person. All of that changed with the coronavirus pandemic. Suddenly, businesses were forced to move their operations entirely online if they wanted to survive. Data had to be secured to allow employees to work remotely via Zoom, Skype, WebEx, Facetime, and other video conferencing services. Two+ years into the pandemic, it seems clear that remote work will become more and more popular in the years to come. Businesses must find a way to facilitate this major change while ensuring the security of their data.

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AdobeStock_413139303-300x200Residential tenants have many more protections than commercial tenants because residential tenants have less bargaining power, or so the law presumes. It is, therefore, much easier to evict a commercial tenant than a residential one. After all, the employees will still have a home to go to post-eviction.  Under California law, the power shifts to the landlord in these agreements. Nonetheless, disputes tend to harm both parties, and resolving them tends to be a matter of coming up with a better agreement. Still, it’s important to understand your rights as both a tenant and a landlord when it comes to commercial leases. In this article, our San Jose real estate attorney will discuss how to manage commercial landlord-tenant disputes.

Eviction

There is no guarantee of habitability; a commercial tenant has limited options when it comes to leveraging a landlord to make repairs. Rent cannot be withheld, even in escrow, and there is no guarantee that repairs will be made unless it is in the lease. The covenant to pay rent supersedes all other considerations when it comes to commercial tenancies. A commercial landlord may send an eviction notice for a lease violation or the failure to pay and the commercial tenant will only have three days to respond. Clauses in the lease may prevent you from suing or prevent you from asserting rights as an evictee. Again, the language will be contained in the lease, so it must be read carefully.

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AdobeStock_104337814-300x233Data breaches continue to make the news as more individuals have their personal information exposed to hackers. The hackers can then set up credit cards in a customer’s name, apply for government benefits, and potentially expose them to legal action. Companies traditionally have a duty of care to ensure the protection of sensitive information, and this is especially true for companies that operate in the health sector. Such lawsuits have become commonplace and can result in class action lawsuits against the company that negligently secured their customer’s vital information.

While companies do everything in their power to prevent hackers from accessing vital company information, these measures sometimes fail. It is therefore imperative for companies that solicit such information to have a San Jose business attorney to provide legal representation in the event of a breach.

Damage control

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