When you own a small business, you don't have an entire corporation at your disposal. All you have is yourself, and your crew. Unfortunately, that can put you at risk when legal issues pop up. The last thing you want is for a lawsuit or other legal problem to put you out of business, or sap your financial resources so you can't succeed. You might not think that you can afford to put a business attorney on retainer for your small business. However, in reality, you can't afford not to. Here are three important reasons why you need to hire an attorney to oversee your business needs.
Handling Disgruntled Employees
You never know when a disgruntled employee – or ex-employee – is going to threaten you with a law suit. Unfortunately, discrimination or harassment claims don't have to be true to be devastating to your business. Even a false allegation can destroy your business. If you don't have the help of a business attorney when a law suit comes in, you may find yourself facing economic ruin. Protect yourself, and your business, by hiring a business attorney before you're facing a lawsuit that you need to fight.
Dealing with Potential Environmental Issues
Environmental issues can pop up at any time. Even if you're not responsible for the issue, you can still find yourself on the wrong end up a fine, or citation. Unfortunately, you might not even realize that you have an environmental issue on your commercial property. Or, you might not know what your employees are doing with the waste that leaves your establishment. Either way, if you're faced with environmental fines or citations, you're going to need an attorney to handle the legal ramifications of the issues at hand. Your attorney can also help you identify ways to avoid future fines and citations.
Acquisitions and Sales
Whether you're looking to expand, or downsize your operations, you're going to need legal representation before you acquire another business, or sale your present company. Commercial transactions are not something you should try to negotiate without competent legal representation. The contracts alone will require an experienced lawyer to go over. Not to mention all the permits, and additional paperwork that will be required. Before you buy or sell commercial property, hire a business attorney.
Don't take chances with your future. If you own a business, you need to hire an attorney to represent your legal needs. For more information, contact a firm such as Strauss Troy.