Archive for category Business Law
Company And Business Law Advice
Posted by admin in Business Law on October 1, 2011
Company and business law is a specialist subject so, when starting up a new venture, it’s a good idea to talk to the people with the experience. When we start a company to do business, the most common reason is to separate the enterprise risk from our own personal and family assets. This means it’s possible to limit the amount of money that a business owner can owe personally.
One of the most popular and successful types of enterprises is a limited liability company. This option has several advantages over a partnership or a company with sole trader status.
1. Forming a limited liability company means you can protect the name of your enterprise. When your establishments name has been registered, no one else can take that name. This is not the case with sole traders and partnerships, who do not have access to a register where they can protect their establishments name.
2. A limited liability company is a separate legal entity from any of its shareholders, which means that a shareholder can enter into a contract with the firm. Shareholders may be employed by the firm and may loan money to the enterprise in the same way as any other unrelated party can do. This also means that the shareholders’ liability for losses is normally limited to their share of the enterprise ownership. Read the rest of this entry »
Business Law – Understanding The Contract We Are Signing
Posted by admin in Business Law, International Law on October 1, 2011
Throughout one’s life, contracts are documents that we will enter into, sometimes without really thinking about it. It is therefore very important to be able to understand a contract and what the contents of it mean and how it will affect you. It is an agreement between parties that have set out terms and conditions for a specific period that has been agreed too, depending on the individual contract. Lawyers are the best people to draft contracts as they are the most experienced in the field of including what should be included and what should not. In the past, lawyers included legal terminology and jargon which a lay person had trouble understanding, but now lawyers have learnt to avoid the legal jargon and focus on plain English, but some are still stuck in their ways. Using legal terminology can mean that contracts are difficult to understand and read and the use of Latin terms hardly helps the matter either. Reading a contract therefore can be a very confusing and sometimes stressful thing, so therefore understanding it is crucial before signing anything.
The requirements of a contract to allow it to be valid and legally binding are important for anyone to get their head round, whether you are drafting a contract or entering into a contract written by another party. But it must be remembered that not all contracts are in writing and many can be created without needing to be in writing such as purchasing a newspaper from a newspaper stand outside a train station. Nevertheless, there are still certain requirements that need to be adhered to for the contract to be legally binding.
Firstly there needs to be intention to form a legal relationship, which is obvious in most contractual agreements. This means there should be at least two people involved who are able to enter into a binding situation, therefore has to be competent and not a minor (under the age of 16). Read the rest of this entry »