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Author Archives: Christopher P. Finney

After the fact: NYT’s Adam Liptak’s investigation into the editing of SCOTUS decisions

Author By Christopher P. FinneyPosted on

Sunday, Adam Liptak had this interesting piece in the New York Times shining a light on a little-known practice of our nation’s highest court: corrections “after the fact” of the original released decision.

The late changes by the Justices do not change the outcomes of the decision — the winners and losers — but they do occasionally change the reasoning, which becomes the basis for decades following for other appeals, and as direction to the Courts of Appeals.

I have dealt with Liptak on our U.S. Supreme Court case (here), and on the COAST/Mark Miller “Tweets” case (here) and must say he is a brilliant writer.  Liptak devotes his coverage exclusively to the Supreme Court and has a keen understanding of the law and the workings of the nation’s highest court.

Pillars of Strength: Formatting a corporate signature to protect the “corporate veil.”

Author By Christopher P. FinneyPosted on

Two other posts (here and here) address techniques useful in protecting personal assets from the creditors of a corporate entity (I.e., limited liability company or corporation).  This post addresses specifically how to sign documents to aid in that effort to avoid “piercing the corporate veil.”

The key is to sign documents not in your personal name, but in the name of the corporation, to avoid essentially personally signing for or guaranteeing corporate debt.  In other words, Courts are going to ask “who is a party to this contract?” and how you sign will be indicative of your intention of who is standing behind the contractual obligation.

Thus, the proper way to sign all documents for the corporation is with a corporate (not individual) signature as follows:

XYZ, LLC,

an  Ohio limited liability company

By:____/signature/___________________

Its: ____/title or signer/_______________

 

Read below two related topics:

Pillars of Strength: Three tips for protecting your personal assets when forming and operating a company

Author By Christopher P. FinneyPosted on

When clients approach us for business formation, one of their concerns is protecting their personal assets from a business misfortune, either simple financial failure or a catastrophic situation creating an unexpected liability.

We tell clients, first, that no undertaking is made without some degree of risk.  In shorthand, we say “if you want to avoid all potential liability, don’t get out of bed in the morning.”

But with that as background, it is possible to carefully limit  the exposure one is undertaking with full consideration given to three essential layers of protection:

  1. Engage in good practices.  Despite popular lore, most legal liability arises from either from contractual undertakings — i.e., voluntarily entering into an oral or written agreement — or negligence, i.e, failing to follow the expected standard of care in some function, whether driving a car or manufacturing a product.  As to contracts, be careful what you agree to.  As to negligence claims, if your touchstone is proper hiring, proper training, proper operation and proper supervision, and that you maintain your equipment and real estate in good condition and repair, your risks should be minimal.
  2. Buy appropriate insurance.  Then, consult with your insurance agent and purchase insurance appropriate to insure the risks that you undertake and that are inherent in your operations.
  3. Properly operate under a corporate entity.  Finally, a corporate form, properly created and respected, shields your personal assets from contractual and tort claims.  Read more here about respecting the corporate entity.

Read below two related topics:

Please contact us to learn more about how to protect your assets when forming and operating a business.

Pillars of Strength: Effectively using your corporate form for limited liability protection

Author By Christopher P. FinneyPosted on

Our clients form and do business in the name of corporations and limited liability companies for a variety of reasons, but one primary motivation is to achieve the benefits of limited liability protection that the entity offers.

Optimally, limited liability protection means that the exposure of the investor/owner in a corporate entity is limited to his capital contributions and personal loans to the company, and that his personal assets beyond those are not exposed to voluntary and involuntary liabilities, which are addressed immediately below.

  • Voluntary liabilities are just like they sound — those undertaken willingly: e.g., a real estate lease, a contract to buy equipment, a bank line of credit, and a professional services contracts. Primarily they arise from contractual relationships.
  • Involuntary liabilities are not typically contractual, but are tort and statutory liability such as industrial accidents, employment discrimination claims, and regulatory enforcement actions.

For both types of liabilities, a member of a limited liability company or shareholder of a corporation can cause (intentionally or unintentionally), the “corporate veil” to be pierced.

This entry explores ways to protect that “corporate veil” of limited liability protection, but before we get there, one more introductory comment is appropriate.  Frequently clients tell me something to the effect of: “Oh, why bother with a corporation, the Courts will bypass that anyway and come after my personal assets.”

As a broad principle, this simply is not true.  Ohio Courts and courts throughout the nation have been pretty vigilant in protecting the corporate veil of owners of corporations and limited liability companies.  The protection is powerful, and very difficult to penetrate.

So, forming and properly respecting a corporate form is an important “Pillar of Strength” of your investment strategy for your business.  Here are a few tips to assure that the “corporate veil” is protected of your business entity:

  1. Read here the proper way to sign every contract your company signs to assure respect of the corporate entity.
  2. Carefully consider any request to sign a personal guarantee, as this will indeed give rise to full personal liability.
  3. Every contract your company signs should clearly be in the name of the company (not your name personally) and use the corporate form of signature (see #1, above).
  4. On your printed materials (letterhead, business cards, brochures) note your company name as “XYZ, Inc., an Ohio corporation.” This is to assure for both voluntary and involuntary liabilities you have properly identified to everyone with whom they are dealing.
  5. Do not use the corporate checking account as a piggy bank for your personal finances.  Take money out only as regular pay checks or corporate distributions.  So, don’t pay personal expenses from the account (such as a dry cleaning bill), or put non-corporate income into the account.  This “no-no” is a key element of the “alter ego” analysis in which Courts will engage when a Plaintiff undertakes the difficult task of piercing a corporate veil.
  6. For corporations, have annual meetings and other meetings required by the corporate documents, an d maintain corporate minutes of those meetings and approvals of significant corporate contracts and occurrences.  The Ohio limited liability company statute dispenses with this requirement for LLCs.

Read below two related topics:

Please contact us to learn more about how to protect your assets when forming and operating a business.

 

Rental registration and inspection program in Mt. Healthy defeated

Author By Christopher P. FinneyPosted on

The Finney Law Firm was contacted early this year by a group of landlords owning single family homes in the City of Mt. Healthy.

The City had begun a mandatory rental registration and inspection program for single family homes.  While the City fathers invariably thought the intrusive and expensive program was a good idea, as a matter of law it imposed a scheme of warrantless searches in violation of the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Finney Law Firm filed suit in early April.  Within days, the City of Mt. Healthy announced it was suspending enforcement of the Ordinance and within weeks Council met and formally repealed the offending Ordinance.

Our clients remain concerned with the constitutionality of the replacement legislation, and will continue to pursue that through conclusion, but we are pleased our public interest litigators addressed this unconstitutional action so quickly and decisively.

We are growing to meet your needs

Author By Christopher P. FinneyPosted on

Like your business, the Finney law Firm has a business plan — to grow our services to meet your needs both in volume of service delivery as well as breadth of practice areas.

In March, Chris Ragonisi — an experienced labor and employment attorney — agreed to become “of counsel” to our firm to serve this area of need for our clients.

In April, Brad Gibson, a gifted commercial and public interest litigator signed on as a litigation associate.

Finally, to accommodExpansionate this growth, we had to add two new offices and a wing for more paralegals.  The build-out has begun!

We are excited to bring these professionals along to meet our clients’ needs.

And, we have more announcements coming soon!

Finney Law Firm goes to the U.S. Supreme Court

Author By Christopher P. FinneyPosted on

The below post was made shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court accepted review of Susan B. Anthony List v. Ohio Elections Commission on January 10, 2014.

Since that time, the Supreme Court decided in our favor 9-0 (in an opinion authored by Clarence Thomas) in the Susan B. Anthony List case on June 16, 2014 and in COAST Candidates PAC v. Ohio Elections Commission on June 23, 2014. Read about those wins here, here and here.

The print utilized as our graphic is gratefully PRINTED WITH THE AGREEMENT OF THE KAMIL KUBIK FOUNDATION.

It was a momentous event for our brand new law firm.

Within ten days of our formal launch in January of 2014, the United States Supreme Court granted one of its few writs of certiorari to our client, the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), to review a 2013 decision from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.  COAST and the Susan B. Anthony List are challenging the jurisdiction of the Ohio Elections Commission to judge and punish claimed claimed false statements made during the course of political campaigns.  At the request of the state of Ohio, both the trial court and the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case without considering the merits.

The case has been written about extensively in national publications.  Read here,  here, here, and here.

To illustrate the difficulty of getting before the Court, during its current term, US Supreme Court will grant discretionary review of fewer than 100 of more than 10,000 applications   The vast majority of litigators will spend their entire careers without ever having a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Finney Law Firm is committed to vigorous representation of our clients, including challenging the authority of government actors to enforce laws that violate the U.S. and Ohio Constitutions, or are otherwise illegal.  This important case is an example of that aggressive approach our attorneys undertake with zeal.

We expect to have a decision by the end of June.

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