Articles Tagged with litigation attorney

Avoiding the Most Common Business Lawsuits 

Defending against any lawsuit has the potential to sink a Silicon Valley start-up. You must defend against even frivolous litigation especially so in today’s fast-paced and ever-expanding startup industry. There is no way to bulletproof a business from all litigation, but there are ways to greatly reduce the likelihood of lawsuits and their financial impact on your business. The experienced business litigation attorneys at Structure Law Group, LLP can help advise and protect start-ups against business litigation before it happens. While you can’t protect against all litigation, you can protect against the most common legal complaints against businesses. Business attorneys commonly defend against the following lawsuits:

  1. Breach of Contract Claims – Sometimes start-ups enter into contracts that aren’t favorable, or they run out of funding to fulfill their obligations. The business lawyers at Structure Law Group can review and draft the terms of any proposed contracts and include certain protective indemnification and liquidated damage clauses to reduce the cost of or prevent litigation.

Fotolia_183822998_Subscription_Monthly_M-300x176Many San Jose business owners find themselves embroiled in legal disputes with vendors, clients, employees, contractors, and other business relationships. It is highly likely that a legal dispute will arise at some point during your business operations. It can be difficult to know how to resolve such a dispute. Litigation can subject a business to unnecessary time, effort, and costs which will not always be reimbursed after a trial. Yet in some cases, litigation remains the only method of effectively preserving important legal rights.

Mediation and arbitration provides clients with the ability to settle their claims quicker and for less expense. However, one of the biggest cons of mediation and arbitration is the fact that neither party will be totally satisfied as the result of settlements is a compromise.

The experienced San Jose corporate attorneys at Structure Law Group have extensive experience in litigation, mediation, and arbitration.They can help you determine how best to protect your financial and legal interests in a business.

Fotolia_92329578_Subscription_Monthly_M-300x213Despite the fact that everyone is entitled to their day in the court, the reality is that most cases do not make it to trial.  Many clients will approach their lawyers with the hope that they will be able to quickly get in front of a judge and explain their story—a vision of American justice that is reinforced in popular media and Court TV.  However, the reality is that it takes a long time to get to the point when a party can tell its story directly to a Judge.  In most situations, the cases take earlier exit ramps, such as informal out-of-court settlement, non-binding mediation, binding arbitration, or a ruling by the Court before trial.  If a case does make it to trial, the parties often settle on its eve.  Often, the cheapest and most efficient way for a dispute to get resolved is for attorneys to work on an out-of-court settlement.  This can occur at any point either before or after a lawsuit has been filed.  Under this track, attorneys informally negotiate a resolution.  If the parties agree to it, the attorneys will memorialize the resolution in a settlement agreement.  This is often the quickest way to resolve a case, as it does not require any third-party intervention—it only requires parties who are willing to work together to settle their differences and capable counsel to guide the parties through the process.

In addition to out-of-court settlements, cases often get resolved with the help of a third-party neutral.  The decision of this third-party may be binding depending on the posture of each case.  For instance, cases often go to non-binding mediation before they move on to trial.  Indeed, more and more courts are requiring this step before allowing the case to move to trial.  With a non-binding mediation, the parties all present their cases to a neutral, who tries to facilitate a settlement agreement.  In short, non-binding mediation is like the informal out-of-court settlement discussed in the previous paragraph, with the addition of a third-party neutral who helps ease things along. Sometimes, cases may end up in front of a third-party neutral who has the authority to make a binding decision.  For instance, if the parties previously signed an agreement for binding arbitration, the case may end up in front of a private judge whose decision is final.  In other instances, the parties decide to submit their case to binding arbitration at the time of the lawsuit for a variety of reasons, such as cost and efficiency. If the case does actually end up in court, it is still unlikely to reach trial.  The purpose of trial is to get to the truth of what actually happened in a conflict, so if there is no dispute about what actually happened, a judge might rule on the case early based on a dispositive motion like a summary judgment motion.  With a summary judgment motion, the moving party argues that there is no dispute of fact in the case, so the judge has no finding of fact to make in a trial and can proceed to a ruling earlier. If a party brings a summary judgment motion, it has the burden of providing evidence that there is not any dispute of fact in the case.  This evidence may come in a variety of forms, including affidavits, declarations, and discovery responses.  If a judge is persuaded, it may decide to rule on the case right there. As you can see, getting to trial is an involved and lengthy process with the potential for a lot of different early exit ramps.  If a case does make it all the way through the end of trial, it may take a long while to do so.  For instance, a timeline of one year would be a relatively quick timeline in most cases, and it is not uncommon for cases to take several years to make it from beginning to end.

Contact the Experienced California Business Litigation Attorneys at Structure Law Group

The last thing a business wants is the unexpected surprise of having to pay back money it has received from a customer for goods or services. Although charge-backs and payment disputes may be more common in today’s digital world, a startup or business will likely be caught off guard when it is served with a “preference action” filed by a bankruptcy trustee or bankrupt customer.

The Bankruptcy Code permits the trustee to avoid and recover from creditors for the benefit of all creditors of the debtor’s bankruptcy estate certain pre-petition transfers made within 90 days (and sometimes longer) of the debtor’s bankruptcy filing that would otherwise benefit one creditor at the expense of others. Such transfers are referred to as “preferences.”  Simply put, a preference is where a trustee can recapture certain payments made by the debtor prior to its bankruptcy filing.

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The avoidance and recovery of a preference payment helps to ensure equal distribution among the debtor’s creditors and is intended to discourage aggressive collection tactics by creditors that force the debtor into bankruptcy. An adversary proceeding (a lawsuit filed in the debtor’s bankruptcy) is required to avoid and recover a preference, but a preference action is often preceded by a demand letter from the trustee setting forth the trustee’s claims and demanding immediate repayment of the preference payment.

Whether you are starting a company or already have an established business, you will likely need legal advice on many different issues. From business formation to dissolution, an attorney can assist you regarding contracts, employees, mergers, corporate disputes, and much more. Because you want to hire the right attorney for your legal case, the following are five questions you should consider.

What is the lawyer’s business law experience?Fotolia_93396178_Subscription_Monthly_M-300x200

Laws regarding businesses can be extremely complicated and difficult to decipher. Just because an attorney handles cases in court involving individuals does not mean they can skillfully interpret business law and apply the laws to your case. You should ensure that the attorneys at the law firm you hire have extensive experience specifically in business law.