Back in January of 2013 I shared that the Iowa Supreme Court began a new specialty court for business cases. According to a recent article from the Des Moines Business Record it sounds as though the court is off to a good start. (Unfortunately the article is only available in the member’s section of
Entrepreneur Magazine Says Hire a Good Lawyer When Starting Business
Entrepreneur Magazine columnists Courtney Spritzer and Stephanie Abrams list Hiring a Good Lawyer as one of the four things a start up business owner should do that may not be in the business plan. Another professional they suggest engaging is a knowledgeable accountant. And I could not agree more. In fact, I get worried when
Watch for Alleged Yellow Page Advertising Scams
I was recently contacted by a business client whose employee signed a “contract” purporting to be from YELLOW PAGE IOWA that had been faxed to their business for what appeared to be a free Yellow Page or Facebook ad. The contract is misleading and deceptive and the fine print actually attempts to lock the client
Wall St. Journal Lists Troubled Franchise Brands
A recent Wall St. Journal article discussed some of the franchise brands with higher-than-average default rates. The highest on the list? Planet Beach at a considerable 41.1.% default rate for SBA loans from 2004 through 2014 according to the article.
The franchising industry and its model of business does a wonderful job of marketing
Listening Could Help Avoid Business Lawsuits
A blog post came to me after talking with an acquaintance last night. The acquaintance initially asked me a question but he really didn’t want to hear my answer. Instead, he wanted to tell me his news. Rather than listen to me he just wanted to talk. That was fine and I let him do
5 Reasons to Hire a Franchise Attorney
It goes without saying considering I am a franchise lawyer, but I agree completely with the Franchise King who offered his Top 5 Reasons to Hire a Franchise Attorney in a recent post.
In my experience a lot of prospective franchisees skimp on hiring a franchise lawyer to review their FDD and franchise agreement. Many
Selling or Buying a Business: Pay Attention to Why Deals Don’t Close
Steve Sink wrote recently wrote a blog post on IowaBiz covering Why Deals do not Close. I recommend buyers and sellers of businesses to read the post. Fortunately, most of the deals I work on tend to close but from time to time there are issues with a deal or perhaps even litigation after a
Vote ‘Yes’ to Renovate and Update Polk County Courthouse
I generally try to stay away from politics on this blog but there is an important vote on November 5th regarding Measure A: The Polk County Public Safety Judicial System Bond. I encourage you to vote ‘Yes" for this measure.
Our Polk County Courthouse has been in use for over 100 years. While it
Government Shutdown Teaches Lessons in Negotiation
I read an interesting blog post on the LexBlog Network from Tom Crane of the San Antonio Employment Law Blog called What We Can Learn from the Government Shutdown. The lesson Crane preaches that bullying tactics usually do not work very well in negotiation and tend to invite an equal response from the other
Insight on Business – The News Hour with Michael Libbie
You can catch me tonight on the Insight on Business – The News Hour with Michael Libbie this evening at 5 pm on AM 1350-KRNT.
Michael and I will be talking franchise law and more.
It’s a great program you should check out. The show runs Monday-Friday each week at 5 PM.