If you need a Utah Business Attorney, you should call Ascent Law LLC. The law puts businesses at a serious disadvantage, particularly small companies. They are held responsible for complying with dozens of federal and state laws that can only be understood by someone with legal training, yet it’s often impossible to operate a business with the overhead it would require to consult with an attorney on a regular basis.
It is far too easy for someone who is upset with your company to file a lawsuit and allege a violation of one of these laws or to complain to a government organization and trigger an inspection. Unfortunately, even if a business successfully defends itself from one of these actions, it will have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to do so.
Business law encompasses all of the laws that dictate how to form and run a business. This includes all of the laws that govern how to start, buy, manage and close or sell any type of business. Business laws establish the rules that all businesses should follow. A savvy businessperson will be generally familiar with business laws and know when to seek the advice of a licensed attorney. Business law includes state and federal laws, as well as administrative regulations. Let’s take a look at some of the areas included under the umbrella of business law.
Business law is the law that governs what happens with commercial matters, and there are two main types: regulation of commercial entities and regulation of commercial transactions. Laws have evolved over centuries, and have had to adapt to changes in technology and society.
Types of Business Law
Here are some of the most common types of business law:
Employment Law
Especially in today’s modern workplace, it is vital for any company with even one employee to stay abreast of current employment laws. Are you required to offer health insurance or workers’ comp insurance? Has your business discriminated against an employee, or stood by while one employee committed sexual harassment against another? There are many areas where your company could face major financial liability, not to mention the potential loss of reputation when treating employees unfairly.
Immigration Law
There are more and more occasions where immigration law becomes an issue in modern businesses. Temporary employees, full-time employees, and special event workers may be from other countries. You need to know if you are following the law when dealing with foreign labor.
Consumer Goods Sales
The Uniform Commercial Code contains the laws governing financial transactions in the United States. The Code deals with everything from contracts to fraud to leases to secure transactions. Ambitious in its aim to consolidate the laws in one place, the Code is actually quite complex. Lawyers spend a lot of time learning about how to apply the UCC to actual business practice and can give businesses advice on how to stay compliant with the laws while staying productive.
Contract Drafting/Negotiations/Litigation
Whether for a property lease or for a product sale, contracts help make sure that the parties who are making a deal are on the same page. Attorneys can help make sure your best interests are represented when your business enters into a contract.
Antitrust Law
Antitrust laws help make sure the different businesses in a marketplace are operating on a level playing field. Some companies use unfair or deceptive practices in order to get a larger share of the market, and it may be difficult to identify unfair behavior in your own company. A business attorney can help you make sure that your business is operating ethically while helping protect you from unfair actions by other companies.
Intellectual Property
Businesses may need to patent unique products in order to protect that work in the marketplace. Otherwise, anyone could sell a product your company worked hard to make. Copyright laws will protect creative work, and you will need to file for protection if your business is identified by a unique logo.
Taxes
Income taxes for the profits of the company, which may be paid as personal income taxes for sole proprietorships or single-person LLCs or through a partnership business tax return. Partners earning profit from a business must report that income personally, too. Sales tax on services and/or products. Also property tax on any real estate owned by your business. You may end up paying capital gains tax if you sell a business-owned property.
Self-employment taxes, so that business owners will still pay into Social Security and Medicare. Normally employers take those taxes out of their employees’ paychecks.
Employment or payroll taxes, including FICA taxes for Social Security and Medicare and workers’ compensation taxes.
Dividend taxes on corporate shareholders. This is a kind of income tax based on the profits received from the business.
Bankruptcy
Sometimes businesses are forced into a bad situation because of circumstances beyond their control. There are several kinds of options, with different requirements and filings. Business lawyers can help find the best solution to what seems an impossible problem and will have experience with the advantages and disadvantages of each option.
Some Examples of Business Law in practice. Here are just a few examples of how attorneys can help your business:
Business Formation
Business law attorneys can give you advice when you are starting your company as to how to form and register your company. You will need to choose your business structure and decide how and where your business will operate. Your attorney will help make sure your business is protected from the beginning.
Contracts
Unless you have some experience with legal terminology, you may not understand all the complicated terms in a contract. Sometimes parties will try to take advantage of you by inserting clauses which are against your best interest or even changing the terms of the contract. Your attorney will make sure your rights and interests are protected.
Lawsuits
Many businesses don’t think to get an attorney involved until there is a lawsuit, but having an attorney assist with how your business operates can help you avoid many lawsuits. Sometimes a lawsuit is inevitable, and your attorney will work to mitigate the damage to your business. You may want to negotiate a settlement or go to trial and deny liability entirely, and your attorney will help you get through the complicated process of trial litigation.
Importance of Business Law
Business law plays a vital role in regulating business practices in a country. Here are some points that prove why business law is so relevant:
Compensation Issues – Business law is essential to handle various compensation issues in an organization. A professional business attorney can help companies in settling issues related to compensation and salary management. It is the responsibility of the attorney to ensure that his or her client does not violate compensation and benefits laws at any cost. The consequences can be fatal in case of any discrepancies.
Safeguard the Rights of Shareholders – Business law plays a vital role when it comes to safeguarding the rights of a company’s shareholders. An experienced business law attorney can successfully handle such issues along with conflicts related to minority shareholders, constitutional documents, and resolution by arbitration, and more.
Business Formation – Business law plays the role of a foundation stone for any business concern. Establishing business includes a lot of legal processes, leasing, and permits. A business law attorney is well-versed with all the relevant regulations, and can help the concern establish its operations successfully.
What are the Functions of Business Law?
Every business concern, either large-scale or small-scale, is bound to comply with their respective legal regulations. Here are some significant functions of business law that can help you in understanding it better.
Business law entails the taxation system for different types of businesses.
The level of competition and antitrust are also involved.
Business law also includes regulations about employee rights and privileges, workplace safety, overtime rules, and minimum wages law.
It strives to alleviate the impact businesses have on the environment and nature. It aims to regulate pesticides, limit air and water pollution, chemical usage, and so on.
Business law determines the formal process of establishment of a business organization and regulations related to the selling of corporate entities.
It also includes rights assignment, drafting, and work delegations, breach of contract, transactions, contracts, and penalties for violation of the agreement.
Business law defines laws related to business partnerships, entities, sole proprietorships, liability companies, and corporations.
It describes laws related to business and real property.
Business law analyses the overall impact of computer technology on other business domains.
Includes laws related to bankruptcy and governance of the securities.
Starting a Business
Much of business law addresses the different types of business organizations. There are laws regarding how to properly form and run each type. This includes laws about entities such as corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies. For example, let’s say I decide to start my own pet grooming business. I need to decide what type of business I want to be. Will this be a partnership? Will it be a sole proprietorship? What papers do I need to file in order to start this business? These questions fall under the laws that govern business entities, which are state laws. The type of entity I pick will also affect how I pay my federal income taxes. These, of course, are federal laws.
Next, what will my business be called? Let’s say I decide on Marks & Marbles as a name for my dog grooming company. Now I need to know if anyone else already has that name. This is a trademark question. Patents, copyrights and trademarks are part of intellectual property law. The federal law governs most intellectual property law. Then I need to know if I’ll require any special type of license for this business. Do groomers need a license? Am I allowed to have animals on my property, or do I need some sort of special permit? I’ll need to check my local and state laws to find out. How will I advertise my business? Am I allowed to say that I’m the ‘best in town?’ This question falls under consumer protection law, which can be federal or state law. Wow. That’s a lot of business law, and I’m not even open for business yet!
Buying a Business
Now let’s say I decide to buy a business instead. I’m going to buy Patty’s Pampered Pooches from my Aunt Patty. There are many business laws that govern how to buy a business. If I buy Patty’s business, do I now own the actual store? This is a real estate law question. Do I own the pet grooming equipment in the store? This is a property law question. Both of these fall under state law. Am I now the boss of Patty’s employees? This is an employment law question.
Can I start hiring my own employees and ordering supplies? This will involve contract law, since I’ll be making new agreements with people regarding my business and determining which of Patty’s agreements I need to uphold. Contracts are legally binding agreements made by two or more persons, enforceable by the courts. Businesses are involved in many different types of contracts, and as a result, there are many interesting cases involving breach of contract. A breach of contract is when one party doesn’t hold up his or her end of the bargain. It’s common for parties to dispute the terms of a business agreement or disagree on how the agreement should be performed.
For instance, consider the famous case of Locke v. Warner Bros., Inc. Sondra Locke was a longtime girlfriend of Clint Eastwood. When the two broke up, Locke sued Eastwood for support. As a part of their settlement, Eastwood negotiated a contract for Locke with Warner Bros. Locke was given a director’s contract, where Warner Bros. would pay Locke for any projects she directed or produced. Locke proposed more than 30 projects, but Warner Bros. never hired her. She sued Warner Bros. for breach of contract, saying that Warner Bros. never intended to hire her in the first place. After a court ruled that Locke had enough evidence to proceed with her case, the parties settled.
This case demonstrates the importance of making good contracts. A wise businessperson will be sure to enter contracts with a good understanding of the content and a good faith interest in upholding the contract.
Managing a Business
There are many laws that concern managing a business because there are many aspects involved in managing. As you can already see, running a business will involve a lot of employment law and contract law. For my new business, I’ll need to know how to hire, what my contracts should look like, what kind of benefits I have to provide, how to pay employee insurance and taxes and even how to properly fire an employee. Many of these employment and benefit laws are federal laws and regulated by government agencies. For example, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is a federal agency that enforces employment discrimination laws.
If I also decide to sell things as part of my pet grooming business, like dog collars or dog treats, then I’ll need to be familiar with the laws on sales. For businesses that conduct sales, it’s especially helpful to be familiar with the Uniform Commercial Code, or UCC.
What happens if I provide services but have trouble getting paid? Let’s say I groom several dogs for a company, but he won’t pay my bill. Can I demand payment or report him to the credit reporting agencies? This is a debt collection law question. Debt collection laws are mostly federal laws. For instance, many of the debt collection laws are found in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or the FDCPA, which is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.
Free Initial Consultation with Lawyer
It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Legal problems come to everyone. Whether it’s your son who gets in a car wreck, your uncle who loses his job and needs to file for bankruptcy, your sister’s brother who’s getting divorced, or a grandparent that passes away without a will -all of us have legal issues and questions that arise. So when you have a law question, call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you!
8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C
West Jordan, Utah
84088 United States
Telephone: (801) 676-5506
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