Legal-Ease: End of the year action items for small businesses

If you’re a small business owner, there are a few things you should add to your checklist before the year is over: Ask your accountant what needs to be done for tax purposes, review your insurance policy for the coming year and make sure it’s still appropriate, and make sure your employees are taken care of during the holiday season.

Legal-Ease: Tax Implications of Gifts

As we begin the gifting time of year, it’s important to remember taxes when considering gifts. Typically, there is no gift or estate tax if a person gives away less than $5 million. However, there are many different areas that affect the circumstances of the taxes.

Legal-Ease: What is a ‘notary’?

A notary public typically does two things on every document they sign: Add their signature after the person signing the document, and after one of the major paragraphs. There are two types of major paragraphs, a jurat paragraph and an acknowledgment paragraph.

Legal-Ease: Powers of Attorney only powerful if properly used

A power of attorney is an important legal document that many people misunderstand. There are different forms: healthcare and general.

Power of attorneys can be durable, meaning they allow the person named in the document to make decisions for the person who is incapacitated. However, once the principal dies, the agreement is void.

Legal-Ease: The rules in asking questions of witnesses

Although TV and the Internet portray lawyers in the courtroom as either geniuses or bumbling idiots, most of the time questioning a witness is a more mundane middle ground. Typically, one attorney questions a witness they believe will help their case—this is “direct examination.” Then, the other lawyer questions the witness during “cross examination.”

Legal-Ease: Whom should I sue, and for what?

Although anyone can technically sue anybody else for any reason, it’s a complicated process that should be thought over extensively before undertaking. There are several different types of lawsuits involving both individuals and companies, and knowing what to expect from each can be beneficial for all parties involved.

Legal-Ease: ‘Unjust enrichment’ recovers benefits provided to others

Unjust enrichment is a legal method that may be used to force someone to pay for a benefit they have received from another person or business. Three things must be present for unjust enrichment to occur: the person must have actually benefitted from the goods, the person must know they have benefitted and the item they’ve received must be something that is unfair for them to keep.

Legal-Ease: Liens against farm crops

Liens are a complicated and difficult to understand legal process available in some businesses. For farmers, creditors can have liens placed on crops to receive their money. There are even specific laws for liens on grain as opposed to other crops. There are many steps and specifications required to utilize liens.

Legal-Ease: Steps to starting a new business

When starting a new business, many people want to jump into the marketing phase and get the word out before their business is actually ready for that. Ensuring that your insurance, accounting, banking and legal set-up is in order is important before spreading the word, in case your business doesn’t progress as intended.