Tag Archives: oc business law

Top 5 Legal Issues to Consider When Starting a Business

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If you are planning to start a business, you should also spend some time to look at the legal issues. Every other country in the world, there are legal regulations and restrictions for all businesses. Violation of business laws can result in a fine, closure of business, a jail sentence or other consequences. To ensure that you start off on a bright note, here are the top 5 legal issues to consider when you start a business.

1. Business Structure

Before anything else, you should make a decision on the business structure. Every business is different so you have to determine the most suitable business structure for your purpose. Do you want to register your business as a corporation, S-corporation, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company or sole-proprietorship? Each form of business structure will provide a different tax structure so you need to find out which is the beneficial for your business. It’s also helpful to look at your business’ liability issues.

2. Business Name

The name of your business is a very important matter because consumers will identify your products and services by that name. Coming up with an original, catchy business name is already hard enough but you will also have to check to see if that same name already belongs to another company. After you have decided on your business name, go to the Office of the Secretary of State to conduct a name search. In the event that your business name is not used by another business, it means that you have the right to reserve the name for 120 days. During this time, you can prepare the articles of organization, articles of corporation or a partnership agreement, whichever suits your case.

3. Business Licenses

To operate your business legally, you will need to get at least a business license as well as tax registration. Other licenses or permits may also be required, depending on the nature of your business. If you are operating a food business, you are requires to get a retail food license, bakery license, meat license, non-alcoholic beverage license, dairy operator’s license, bakery distributor license or domestic kitchen bakery license, relevant to the scope of your business. Check with your local authorities to find out the types of licenses needed to run your business.

4. Non-Disclosure Agreements

Confidentiality is an important aspect of business relationships. Whether it’s a contract with your suppliers or an intricate financial arrangement, non-disclosure agreements can be used to protect your business. In your dealings with these outside companies, you will be sharing some information which may be sensitive or integral to the success of your project. For this reason, it’s important to get these companies to sign non-disclosure agreements.

5. Zoning

Make it a point to check that the location of your business is in the proper zone. Some people make the mistake of assuming that the zoning is appropriate because there are same-type businesses operating there. Remember that the business may have received an exemption to operate at that location or the zooming may have changed. Again, it’s best to check with the local authorities.

Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claims

Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claims
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Breach of fiduciary duty cases requires careful analysis of all the facts and analysis whether you are a beneficially who want to raise this claim, or you are facing allegations of breach of fiduciary duty. Either way, we have attorneys who will take a principled approach towards serving your needs.

There are hundreds of ways in which a fiduciary may breach the duties correlative to their status. This includes;

· Mismanaging, or misappropriating assets within an estate

· Negligence when it comes to timely reporting to beneficially or other interested parties including the court

· Not honoring the contents of trust, will or power of attorney

· Abuse of compensation

· Failing to help mediate disputes

· Conflict of interest

· Failing to act to actions such as failing promptly to liquidate stocks or bonds and much more

Many at times, these claims involve a fiduciary who is unaware of his or her responsibilities. However, such should not be an excuse and won’t hold especially for co-operate related fiduciaries. Whether you need to bring up a claim against a fiduciary of you have been named in a lawsuit, it is more than important to get an experienced attorney. We encourage that you seek legal guidance from Von Esch Law Group fiduciary duty attorney right away.

We will help you adhere the standard required and answer all questions you have about how to perform your duties correctly and advise you on the way forward when an issue arises concerning beneficially rights. We will also help you follow direction related to administration of an estate, and we will make sure that you are able to fulfill all your duties related to reporting and keeping interested parties reasonably informed.

If there is a conflict of interest when you are named as a beneficially to an estate, we will help you avoid or deal with any accusations of breach of fiduciary duty claim. We can also help challenge executor compensation if or when an executor or a trustee fails to perform his or her duties. Our attorneys can also handle breach of fiduciary duty claims in other legal ‘arenas’ such as civil litigation between directors, officers, partners, and shareholders.

We understand how the impact on such a claim will affect you, and we always take decisive action to protect your reputation your business reputation and profitability. We also strive to maintain family relationships if desired or when it possible.

Litigating With Subpoenas

Litigating With Subpoenas
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Subpoenas are an essential litigation tool used by attorneys to ensure that they have all of the information that is available. The intent of a subpoena is to get information that could have an impact on the outcome of a trial, but which an attorney would not want to disclose voluntarily. Often, subpoenas will result in the disclosure of information that can result in a settlement before the trial begins. Subpoenas can lead to a better understanding of the other side’s case with a legal search. Thus, the attorney for the party that might look culpable if the information were to be disclosed will now provide this information with a subpoena specifically requesting the information.

Subpoenas offer attorneys a chance to get information that will help prove or disprove their client’s case. Criminal defense attorneys use subpoenas to obtain witness or lay opinions that could cast serious doubt on the guilt of their clients. Information on how evidence was handled in a DUI case could be vital in putting up a proper defense.

Attorneys in civil cases will use subpoenas to get information that may result in resolving the claim without a trial, or at the least, will give an advantage in the trial to the side that was favored by the material subpoenaed.

Using the power of the subpoena requires an understanding of what a subpoena can do, and about how to get a subpoena issued. The reasons for requesting a subpoena must be established in the motion requesting it. Care must be exercised to avoid the errors often found in a request for a subpoena. The constitutional grounds for requesting a subpoena must be honored, or the request will be denied.

Subpoenas are issued by the court which has jurisdiction over the case. Every court has procedures for issuing subpoenas, and they will expect these to be followed. Courts will also stipulate how the subpoena must be served upon the person who is expected to respond.

Subpoenas must be specific in requesting information, or the judge may deny the request; subpoenas cannot be used as a witch hunt.

Subpoenas are formal legal commands and they should be taken seriously. Failure to comply with a subpoena can lead to contempt of court charges, which may ultimately lead to financial penalties and cause harm to the case you have been asked to help with.

Breach Of Fiduciary Duty Claims – How To Avoid Them and How To Resolve Them

Breach Of Fiduciary Duty Claims - How To Avoid Them and How To Resolve ThemWhat Is A Breach Of Fiduciary Claim?

A breach of fiduciary duty claim arises when a person who is trusted to handle certain affairs according to a prescribed agreement fails to do so. This is just one element of a claim; it is also necessary to prove that the fiduciary’s actions were contrary to the interests of the person for whom the fiduciary has responsibility. Another element of a breach of fiduciary claim stems from the failure of the fiduciary to provide their best efforts in protecting the interests of the person they have agreed to serve.

Although this is an overview of the fiduciary’s responsibility, it does capture the essence of a fiduciary’s responsibilities. Therefore, it is essential that the person who agrees to accept fiduciary responsibility fully understands the responsibilities, and these should be clearly stated in a written document. Courts at every level have ruled that a fiduciary is held to a high standard of ethical conduct, the highest standard of honesty, and they must avoid even the appearance of obtaining a personal benefit at the expense of the person for whom they are acting.

However, courts have ruled that the fiduciary must exercise all of the skill, diligence, and care at their disposal. Some legal experts suggest that this can be a problem for a fiduciary because these requirements are open to broad interpretation. However, the quality of the fiduciary agreement can greatly reduce this problem.

Actions You Can Take If You Believe You Have A Claim Against A Fiduciary

First, it is easier to prove a breach because fraud is not an essential element required to support the claim. You only need to show that the fiduciary could have taken advantage of their position for their own personal gain, and that they did so.

Simply stated, a breach of fiduciary duty occurs when the fiduciary acts in their interest rather than your interest. A fiduciary cannot obtain personal benefit by the unauthorized use of your assets. A fiduciary cannot subordinate your interests to their interests.

Our attorneys have the experience and the skill to resolve a breach of fiduciary duty claim. We can negotiate a resolution or we can litigate the matter.

Actions You Can Take To Avoid Breaches of Fiduciary Claims

The first action should be to ensure that the expectations of the fiduciary are clearly set forth and understood. This should occur in a written document that is thoroughly discussed between all parties.

The second step should be incorporating the fiduciary’s duties in the minutes of the Board of Directors which will serve to document the expectations of the fiduciary and the acknowledgement of the fiduciary that they fully understand their duties.

 

Breach Of Construction Contracts

Breach Of Construction Contracts
Photo Credit: Zorandim/Shutterstock.com

Parties involved in construction projects rely heavily on construction contracts to establish the terms of the agreement between the construction company and the project owners. Both parties are obligated to perform their commitment as it is set forth in the contract. A breach of contract occurs when either party fails to perform their responsibilities as provided for in the contract.

Often, an attorney with experience in construction contracts can negotiate a resolution of the breach. This process is most effective when the construction contract is written properly, meaning that it includes language that protects both parties and a means for resolving disputes short of litigation.

Hostilities that develop between the parties can often be prevented by the language of the contract that is very specific about the responsibilities of each party. Ambiguous contract language can lead to disputes.

However, regardless of the contract language, there are remedies provided by the law for breaches of the contract. Either party can sue for damages which are usually an amount of money that compensates for the financial loss resulting from the contract breach including delays that are a violation of the contract. A contract is breached when one party causes the other party to fail to achieve the results they were promised in the contract. While oral contracts can be enforced when breached, it is more difficult to do so than it is with written contracts. All construction contracts should be in writing.

Different types of damages may apply when a contract is breached, and the damages are provided by the legal remedies available to the breached party. Our office can advise you about which of the allowed damages will apply to your situation. California law provides for the appropriate compensation in cases of a breach of contract, but litigation filed in pursuit of damages must specify correctly the type of damages sought.

California law remedies do not include compelling the offending party to prevent a breach, but rather the law is aimed at providing relief to the party harmed to redress the breach. Since the law in this area is complex and several remedies can be available, an experienced construction contract law attorney should be involved in any effort to litigate the issues.

A statute of limitations applies to breach of contract lawsuits. This is the deadline for filing a lawsuit. The statute of limitations in California for a written contract is four years from the date the contract can be considered to be broken.

O.C. small-business optimists a minority

More than half of Orange County small-business owners see an overall business climate that isn’t rosy, according to a recent survey by Union Bank.

While their peers elsewhere are increasingly optimistic about the overall business atmosphere, only 40 percent of owners in Orange County said they have seen an improvement in the business climate over the past two years – a drop of 10 percentage points from the bank’s 2014 survey.

Sixty percent of Orange County small-business owners who participated in the survey said they plan to maintain current capital spending levels, a finding largely consistent with last year’s results.

Other results from the poll show that more than a quarter of Orange County small businesses surveyed are planning to move out of state because of tax burdens.

But it’s not all grim news.

More Orange County entrepreneurs applied for loans last year than in 2013. Lenders approved 92 percent of applicants. Owners of Orange County-based businesses also said they thought the nation’s economy is headed in the right direction; 58 percent of respondents said it is on the right track – up 9 percentage points from last year’s survey.

O.C. businesses laid off fewer workers in 2014 than in 2013. Owners said they plan on maintaining their current staffing levels.

Only 13 percent of those polled said their company had layoffs in 2014, down nine percentage points from 2013. And more business owners plan to increase staffing this year, with 23 percent saying they would add employees – up from 19 percent who said so a year earlier.

The business owners who participated in the online survey, conducted in January, were not necessarily clients of Union Bank. They were 25 years old or older and had operated a business for at least two years, with sales of $15 million or less each year.

The Union Bank survey, released Feb. 26, polled 631 small-business owners in California and the Pacific Northwest, 73 of whom are located in Orange County.

Courtesy of The OC Register

Written by Lauren Williams

Tax Court Goes To Webster For Definition Of Construction – And Watch That NAICS Code

If you are involved in construction and reconstruction, you may get a better deal on your losses from rental real estate and beginning with 2013 avoid the Obamacare tax on gains from rental real estate.  But what exactly is construction and reconstruction?  The Tax Court had to look it up in the dicitionary.  Here’s the story.

Some Background

The stake in the heart of the tax shelter vampire provided by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 was Code Section 469 , which introduced the oxymoronic concept – passive activities.  Other sections of the Code, like those concerning S corporations discuss “passive income” – interest and dividends and the like, but such investment income is not the passive activity income that 469 refers to.  Passive activity income and more significantly loss comes from a trade or business activity in which you do not materially participate.  We are required to divide our trade or business income from proprietorships, partnerships and S Corporations into two buckets.  If the passive bucket is a net loss, the loss is suspended and carried forward to be used if there is passive income in the future or when the underlying activity is entirely disposed.

The rules about how you classify your activities and measure material participation are mind boggling in their complexity.  Don’t get me started.  There is one rule that created a lot of angst, though.  Rental activities are per se passive.  This was troubling to people in the real estate industry who might for example have rental losses on a development while making money on the sale of property.  So a special rule was created for people involved in real estate trades or businesses.  If you spend more than 750 hours per year in real estate trades or businesses and the amount of time that you spend in the real estate trades is greater than the amount of time you spending doing anything else, then the per se passive rental income rule does not apply to you.  Rental losses are not passive, if you materially participate in the related properties.

Not Easy For People With Day Jobs To Be Considered Real Estate Pros

For some reason, the IRS is particularly zealous in enforcing Code Section 469.  If you have substantial income and are posting losses from rental activities, you can put as many “I love Obama” signs on your lawn as you want and you still have a better than average chance of being challenged. At least that is my inference from the cases I read and some discussions with other practitioners.

The way the cases have broken, people with non-real estate day jobs who claim that they spend more time on their amateur landlord activity are almost always accused of having insufficient records of their time, “ballpark guestimates, a colorful term that the Tax Court seems to have reserved for 469 cases. Even in the cases where people have logs, they are often found to be improbable.   You don’t see “pants on fire” in the decisions, but you suspect the judges are whispering it under their breath.
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In Pennsylvania and beyond, teaching boys and men to prevent domestic violence

B. Williamson

On a high school football field near Pittsburgh, an assistant coach tackled a topic unrelated to the upcoming game.

“One of the biggest components of being a man is how you treat females,” Kevin Murray told his players at Woodland Hills High. “We’d be doing you a very big disservice by not holding you accountable.”

At the jailhouse in High Point, North Carolina, a sterner version of that message is now given routinely to men detained for domestic-violence offenses and considered at risk of re-offending.

“We’re putting these guys on notice that domestic violence is not going to be tolerated here,” said Police Chief Marty Sumner. “The message is very clear: ‘We know who you are, we know what you’re doing. It has to stop.'”

The two programs target different audiences. But in the realm of domestic-violence prevention, where the record of success is spotty, they share a status as two of the nation’s most promising initiatives.

Coaching Boys Into Men is one of the flagship programs developed by Futures Without Violence, a nonprofit working to curb abuse of women and children. Thousands of high school coaches across the country, now joined by some middle school coaches, have received training in how to convey to their players the importance of treating young women with respect and avoiding abusive behavior.

The program has attracted the notice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The federal agency funded a three-year evaluation, involving more than 2,000 high school athletes in Sacramento County, California, which found that participating players were more likely to intervene to stop abuse and less likely to perpetrate it.

High Point’s program — the Offender-Focused Domestic Violence Initiative — was conceived in 2009 based on an approach developed by David M. Kennedy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. While many programs focus on helping victims of domestic violence, High Point’s initiative targets the offender with a strategy of aggressive deterrence.

Since the program was fully implemented in 2012, the recidivism rate for domestic-violence offenders in High Point has been cut to about 9 percent, which the police department says is about one-third the national rate. There’s been one intimate-partner homicide since 2009, compared to 17 between 2004 and 2008.

“We’d get 5,000 domestic-violence calls a year — every year it’s our No. 1 call,” Chief Sumner said. “It gets passed on from generation to generation, but this program is a really good shot at breaking that cycle citywide.”

Efforts to raise awareness about domestic violence have been vigorously pursued in the U.S. for more than three decades. After Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act in 1994, domestic violence committed by intimate partners — current or former spouses, boyfriends or girlfriends — declined by more than 60 percent over the next 10 years.

Since then, however, the numbers have stayed relatively flat.

Even as incidents involving National Football League players and other pro athletes refocus attention on domestic violence, leading prevention advocates say more resources and smarter strategies are needed to combat it.

“We now have a safety net for victims, we have the laws in place, judges who understand the seriousness of the issue,” said Esta Soler, president of Futures Without Violence. “We need to do more to prevent the problems, not just treat the problems.”

For decades, so-called batterer intervention programs have been one of the main forms of prevention, with offenders participating in group sessions aimed at promoting non-abusive behavior. A range of local programs have won praise — such as Wisdom Walk, which focuses on African-American men in Milwaukee, and Caminar Latino, which runs a 24-week program for Latino men in Atlanta.

However, research on the effectiveness of group intervention programs has produced mixed findings — causing some judges and probation officers to mandate that men participate, others saying there’s no evidence of success.

And what about the much-discussed programs in High Point and Pittsburgh? Here’s a closer look at each:

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The new regimen in High Point, a city of about 107,000, kicks into gear whenever police respond to a domestic disturbance call. Even if there’s no arrest, and no previous record of domestic violence, the alleged aggressors receive another visit from a police officer within 48 hours and are notified that they are henceforth on a “watch list.”

With any subsequent domestic violence offense, there’s an escalating series of consequences, including a face-to-face warning from a detective at the time of arrest and — for some repeat offenders — a summons to appear in person before a panel of police, prosecutors and members of the community.

“In an hour, we explain how it’s going to be different,” Sumner said. “We will use any means to sanction you.”

The pressure tactics include threatening to classify any further domestic violence offense as a felony and to expedite prosecution of any other criminal case pending against the offender. Sumner’s department has found that many domestic-violence offenders have a record of other violent crimes, and uses those records to help decide which targets of the program might deserve extra scrutiny.

The community panel makes clear that the police will maintain their aggressive stance regardless of whether the offender’s victim plays an active role in any future case or seeks to stay out of it.

David Kennedy noted that in the traditional responses to domestic violence, the onus often was on the victim to report the abuse and testify about it in court, sometimes incurring threats and further violence in the process.

“We wanted to be able to say to the offender, ‘You’re dealing with us, you’re not dealing with her. The state is going to make you stop,'” Kennedy said. “The feedback from the women is, ‘You’ve got his attention. Things are better. Keep it up, and keep me out of it.'”

If victimized women do want services, they are offered through a Victim’s Justice Center that opened in April. It’s a one-stop site where victims can meet with police, get protective orders from legal aid attorneys, and be informed of other available services.

“In the past, it was up to the victim to do all the work while dealing with the threats,” said Tiffany Atkins, a domestic violence attorney with Legal Aid of North Carolina. “Now we take the responsibility.”

Sumner said his department has been able to implement the program without increasing its budget — primarily by adding some new training and reassigning two detectives to specialize in domestic-violence cases.

Said Kennedy of the approach, “If you do it smart, it doesn’t need to be costly.”

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If any high school was tailor-made for Coaching Boys Into Men, it might be Woodland Hills. It’s a perennial football powerhouse in western Pennsylvania, sending many of its players on to major college teams and even to the NFL. It also serves a 12-town district that includes some of greater Pittsburgh’s roughest neighborhoods.

“The community of kids we deal with — there are a lot of broken homes,” said Keith Davis, who attended the school and now, at 30, is in his third year on the football coaching staff.

“A lot of players have seen where their father has beaten their mother, beaten their sister — it’s no wonder they grow up the same way,” Davis said. “The program — they’re actually living it. In some schools, it might not hit home the way it did with us.”

Davis recalled how players followed news reports of the Steubenville, Ohio, case in which two high school football players were convicted last year of raping a 16-year-old girl after an alcohol-fueled party in 2012.

“A lot of our guys came back and said, ‘Coach, I’ve been in situations like that,'” Davis said. “We have to put a stop to it.”

Launched as a public service announcement campaign in 2001, Coaching Boys Into Men has since expanded to schools and coaches associations across the country — with new pilot programs this year involving coaches of 7th- and 8th-grade athletes. It’s based on the premise that young athletes will take exhortations from their coaches seriously, and then — as role models among their peers — will be taken seriously by other students as they re-think their attitudes about relationships and abuse.

“If you’re a student athlete, you’re also a student leader — respected by peers, by underclassmen, with a degree of influence and power,” said Alan Johnson, superintendent of the Woodland Hills School District. “You can be a leader for good, or a leader for bad. You have to make the decision which kind you’re going to be.”

One of the team’s top linemen on offense and defense, 265-pound senior Daniel Gibson, said the players, by taking the program to heart, had indeed had an influence on other students.

“Whatever we do, everyone else would like to do,” he said. “They get off on our vibe”

Another advocate of Coaching Boys Into Men is Wendell Say, head football coach for 35 years at Aiea High School near Honolulu. He’s been using the program for five years — it’s now a routine prelude to practices on Wednesdays.

“The curriculum is simple — it just takes 15 minutes at most, unless you let the kids talk,” Say said. “I sometimes take 45 minutes.”

Say says his players — many from low-income housing projects — often convey their firsthand knowledge of domestic violence. They’ve seen it in their family, or abused their own girlfriends, and they’ve also followed the domestic-violence cases involving Ray Rice and other NFL players.

“We still have kids who make wrong choices,” Say said. “But hopefully every year you learn more — a little understanding that just because you’re stronger doesn’t give you the right to hurt someone.”

The program — broken down thematically on a series of “training cards” — targets such behavior as catcalling and demeaning boasts about girlfriends. It also advises coaches on how to handle actual incidents of physical and sexual violence committed by team members.

The ethos is summed up in a pledge to be taken by players and coaches:

“I believe in treating women and girls with honor and respect. I know that violence is neither a solution nor a sign of strength. I believe that real men lead with conviction and speak out against violence against women and girls. I believe that I can be a role model to others by taking this pledge.”

http://www.pennlive.com/nation-world/2014/11/in_pennsylvania_and_beyond_tea.html

What Does a Real Estate Lawyer Do?

Real estate lawyers handle all the paperwork in transactions and litigation.

Real estate lawyers document and review real estate transactions, including purchases, leases, inspections and appraisals. They also help resolve title insurance and environmental issues. When things go wrong in real estate transactions, real estate lawyers step in to file and defend lawsuits in court. Many real estate lawyers also help lenders carry out foreclosure, while others help borrowers defend against foreclosure.

Document Drafting

One of the key roles a real estate lawyer plays is that of document drafter. Real estate attorneys prepare deeds for conveyance transactions, leases and rental agreements, purchase contracts and financing agreements. While state law allows real estate agents to help clients fill out these types of documents, only licensed lawyers can actually draft and revise the documents.

Negotiations

Because real estate lawyers have sophisticated experience with many types of real estate transactions, clients often ask their real estate lawyer to negotiate the terms and conditions of real estate deals. This involves working with other attorneys, developers, brokers and investors.

Transaction Review

Some real estate attorneys are involved only in reviewing and providing advice on real estate transactions. Clients will negotiate their own deals, sign a contract and then ask the lawyer to perform the “due diligence” on the deal. This means the lawyer will examine legal title issues, environment issues and reports and any of the contracts or other documents involved in the transaction. Real estate lawyers have training that allows them to spot issues that their clients do not recognize. In this role, the real estate lawyer plays guardian for the clients to make sure the clients don’t fall into any unseen legal traps.

Litigation

Real estate transactions don’t always work out, and when they don’t, it is common to involve the court in a lawsuit. Real estate lawyers represent their clients in real estate litigation. This includes drafting legal pleadings to file with the judge, participating in hearings and trial with the judge, and filing appeals if necessary. It also includes bargaining with opposing counsel to try and work out settlement agreements.

Foreclosure

Many real estate attorneys specialize in mortgage and trust deed foreclosure, particularly during difficult economic times. Some lawyers represent lenders while others represent borrowers. The lawyers representing lenders help guide lenders correctly through the foreclosure process, which may include filing a lawsuit in court. The lawyers representing borrowers, on the other hand, try to make life difficult for the foreclosing lender by challenging any mistakes made in the foreclosure process, and by negotiating with the lender for a settlement agreement to stop the foreclosure process.

Real Estate Law

Real Estate and Property Law covers an extensive legal area, which is regulated by federal and state statutes, as well as common law. Many aspects of this area overlap with contract law. The terms “real estate”, “realty” and “real property” are generally used interchangeably, although many people associate “real estate” more closely with the structures or buildings and the land. However, real property/real estate encompasses more than just the obviously tangible aspects. It comprises land and that which is attached to or belongs with the land, such as the immovable structures like buildings, houses, trees, bushes and minerals permanently affixed to the land, But it also consists of the interests, benefits and rights that are legally considered attached to the real property, which can include certain rights to the air above the land, to drill in the ground beneath it, rights to live on the property for a specific timeframe or to acquire the real property in the future, and more.

The practice area of real estate and property law deals with a variety of related issues, including the following: rights and interests in real estate and real property; sales, purchases and other transfers of real estate and real property; legal aspects of rental property and landlord issues; tenants’, renters’ and homeowners’ rights; title to real property; settlement of claims against property rights; property development; zoning and land use; related agriculture issues; home loans and foreclosures; and various other relevant topics. This is a complex practice area, further complicated by the significant inconsistency in the laws throughout different cities and states. Real estate attorneys are versed in many different activities, from the mundane drafting of deeds and filing of liens, to handling boundary and zoning disputes and even assisting families in court when threatened with foreclosure. Copyright HG.org

http://www.hg.org/realest.html

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