BLOG

Arbitration clauses are often slipped into employment agreements to provide employers with a means to avoid costly lawsuits filed by employees. The agreements force employees into mandatory arbitration when they have grievances at work.

If you operate a business, you may find yourself the victim of fraud by contractors or others with whom you do business. Conversely, you yourself may be accused of fraud for certain actions you undertook or failed to undertake. How do you know when actual fraud has taken place, and what are the legal remedies – or consequences – if it has?

You’re operating a profitable business, and a consumer comes in and asks if you’ve seen the latest Facebook post about your business. The customer then informs you that the post claims your products are a ripoff from someone else’s patent, and wants to know if that is true.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating to businesses in a variety of ways. Shutdowns, supply chain disruptions, and shifting consumer demands have wreaked havoc on the way businesses operate. Many have not survived, while others are facing monumental change.

As if businesses weren’t subject to enough trouble from lawsuits — real and frivolous — before COVID-19 arrived, the pandemic only exacerbated the challenges of running a business. Employees, consumers, suppliers, competitors, and other parties all seem ready to rush to the courtroom to drain your pockets.

The California Corporations Code governs how individuals and entities can file articles of incorporation. The code also stipulates that, unless the articles specify the number of directors for the new corporation, the new entity must also create corporate bylaws.

Most employment in California is “at-will,” meaning either employee or employer can end the relationship at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all, so long as it’s not an illegal act like discrimination. When an employment agreement exists between employer and employee, then the rules of the game change.

Operators of e-commerce sites are coming under increasing pressure, not only for monitoring credit card usage but also for compliance with ever-evolving governmental regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) here at home. Online retailers must now allow consumers to opt out from sales of their private information and can be held liable for data breaches.

Indemnity clauses — common to the construction industry — will often protect a general contractor at a construction site from losses incurred and are used to transfer common law and statutory risk arising from one party’s negligence to another party. Whether you’re the indemnitee or indemnitor, you may need guidance on how to proceed.

Shareholders in corporations can bring lawsuits against the company if they feel they have been personally harmed, or if they feel the corporation as a whole has been harmed. In either case, they must show that the harm resulted from decisions or actions by the board of directors or company officers.