Category Archives: Miscellaneous

As our clients have noted from six years and a half years of our work to “Make a Difference,” Finney Law Firm  is actively working to assure that our attorneys are constantly up to date on developments in the law, and then impart that information to clients and the public with blog entries, e-newsletters, seminars, webinars and media appearances.

Our performance during the COVID-19 crisis has met and exceeded that standard.  And, because our clients hunger for information to help them to weather this unprecedented storm, the response has been overwhelming.

Here is our performance by the numbers since the beginning of March:

• 28 COVID-related blog entries with critical legal updates for clients, including information on the PPP and EIDL programs from the SBA.
• Those blog entries have had more than 6,300 “reads” since the crisis began.
• 6 major Constant Contact e-mail blasts with important COVID-19 legal developments.
• More than 13,250 “opens” of those emailed newsletters, a record number in one month.  We are seeing that the information is so valuable that there are a record number of “forwards” from clients to their contacts with our information, and those “forwards” are opening and reading the communications as well.
• We have had 8 major TV and radio appearances relating to COVID-19 issues.
• We have gotten calls from all over the nation for help on the PPP program from the SBA.
• We have done or will do 4 webinars on the PPP program. Between the webinar live attendees and those watching the recordings, we will have reached more than 1,000 participants.
• We have retained exclusive relationships with 1 Ohio e-notary and 1 Kentucky e-notary to become one of the first title companies to be able to do entirely electronic, remote closings over the internet through Ivy Pointe Title.

All of this is designed to assure we are as effective as we can be in serving you, by understanding the law, which is developing daily, by developing the contacts to achieve your objectives, and by imparting that knowledge in a usable format so you can implement to win on legal and economic battlefields that are daily emerging.

I congratulate and thank our team — lawyers, paralegals and staff — for contributing to this area of service to our clients.  And thank our clients — existing and new — for recognizing this sophisticated and cutting-edge approach to the practice of law for their benefit.

Let me know personally how the Finney Law Firm can help you to weather this storm.  My email is [email protected] and my phone numbers are 513.943.6655 (o) and 513.720.2996 (c).

Look, the Paycheck Protection Program is enormous, offering help to every small business in America with W-2 employees and the administration and Congress asked them to launch with six days’ lead time. What did you expect?

Yes, there are problems with the launch.  But you are all sitting in lock-down at home anyway.  We counsel patience.  The President and Congress are united in their desire to get this money out where it is needed.

Read more here.

Attorney Rebecca L. Simpson of the Finney Law Firm has carefully studied the PPP and the Emergency Income Disaster Loans (“EIDL”) to help our small business clients access these funds.  Feel free to call her at 513.797.2856 if you have questions about these programs or need help accessing PPP or EIDL funds.

The Payroll Protection Program (“PPP”) is easily the most generous small business support grant/loan program in the history of the nation.  Essentially, it is a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of small businesses (under 500 employees) nationwide in the midst of the economic crisis borne out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It launched Friday, April 3, 2020, and on Sunday April 5, Wells Fargo & Company announced that it has “reached its capacity of $10 billion to lend under the PPP.” According to FastCompany.Com, “the bank has only been focusing on nonprofits or companies with 50 employees or less,” the statement read. From Fast Company and Wells:

“Given the exceptionally high volume of requests we have already received, we will not be able to accept any additional requests for a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program. We will review all expressions of interest submitted by customers via our online form through April 5 and provide updates in the coming days.”

Many of our clients have wanted to apply quickly to be “first in line” for the grants, and successfully completed their on-line application with various banks.  We have helped them to quickly apply, but generally counseled patience inasmuch as the program claims to extend through the end of 2020.  Thus, we did not expect the grant/loan program would be cut off so quickly and callously by one of the nation’s biggest lenders.  48 hours of applications, which really was about eight business hours, and “poof” they are out of the game and leave their regular customers hanging.

To make matters worse, most banks with which we speak say they are limiting PPP applications to existing customers only. So, Wells Fargo customers may need to either wait or flail around for days, weeks or months to find another lender to process their perfectly compliant PPP application.

We continue to work with clients who are continuing to process PPP applications with PNC, US Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Huntington Bank and other major and smaller lenders.  If you are a Wells Fargo customer who is having difficulties applying for a PPP loan, contact us to help identify a cooperative and open lender.

Attorney Rebecca L. Simpson of the Finney Law Firm has carefully studied the PPP and the Emergency Income Disaster Loans (“EIDL”) to help our small business clients access these funds.  Feel free to call her at 513.797.2856 if you have questions about these programs or need help accessing PPP or EIDL funds.

Stay safe, America. We will get through this together.

Two updates this morning on the SBA’s important and potentially very helpful Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses:

1. The SBA’s Final Interim Rule issued Thursday night has this guidance on the difficult question of 1099 contractors:

Q: Do independent contractors count as employees for purposes of PPP loan calculations?

A. No, independent contractors have the ability to apply for a PPP loan on their own so they do not count for purposes of a borrower’s PPP loan calculation

2.  There have been a series of doom and gloom articles about the SBA’s rollout and large Banks’ reaction to that, such as this article from Politico, and this one from Forbes. We counsel patience. The government is rolling out an unprecedented amount of money for small businesses in the coming 30-60 days ad we suspect they will fully fund that generous program now that they have started it.

Finally, Rebecca L. Simpson (513.797.6227) from this office is devoting her practice for the coming weeks to serving clients on the PPP and EIDL programs. If she can be of assistance, please contact her directly.

• Employment attorney Stephen E. Imm of Finney Law Firm who can answer questions of employers and employees relating to workplace legal issues.
• Melissa Knies, Commercial Banking Relationship Manager in the Commercial Banking Department of US Bank, who can answer questions from the banker’s perspective on these programs.

Here is the Ohio Stay-at-Home order.

Read it carefully, as it is not as broad as the reports of today’s press conference might lead you to believe.

For example, as it relates to Finney Law Firm, and Ivy Pointe Title, law firms, title companies, Realtors, insurance companies and lenders are all deemed essential and thus the purchase and sale of real estate can continue unless the closing of auditor’s and Recorder’s office (in Ohio) and Clerk’s offices (in Kentucky) cause title to become uninsurable.

What the order says

The meat of the order is:

All businesses and operations in the State except Essential Businesses and Operations as defined below, are required to cease all business activities within the State except Minimum Basic Operations, as defined below.

Moreover, all Essential Businesses and Operations are encouraged to remain open. In other words, unless you are forced to be closed, they want you to continue operating and presumably at full strength.

But the exceptions are incredibly broad

Then the order goes on to except or define as Essential Businesses and Operations, which is virtually everyone:

• Working from home and home-based businesses
• Food service providers (production, distribution, fulfillment, and storage)
• The construction industry
• Building management and maintenance
• Airport operations
• The entire utility industry
• The oil and gas industry
• Distribution centers
• Garbage collectors
• Computer and internet-related companies
• All governmental functions
• Grocery stores and pharmacies
• Food, beverage and marijuana production (including farming, manufacturing, processing, and cultivating)
• Animal shelters, rescues and kennels
• Religious facilities
• Media and news companies
• Other first amendment speech activities, which would include activities relating to the primary and general elections, protests, and rallies.
• Hardware stores and stores selling HVAC, plumbing or electrical equipment and materials
• tradesmen such as plumbers, electricians, janitors, exterminators, painters and HVAC repairmen
• Everyone involved in the postal or shipping industry
• Schools that already have not been ordered closed as long as 6-feet of distance is maintained
• Laundromats and dry cleaners
• Restaurants for carryout food only
• All means of transportation
• Home-based healthcare
• Professional services such as law, insurance, title and real estate
• Banks and other lending institutions
• Labor union functions
• Hotels and motels
• Funeral services

It also allows for travel:

• To visit healthcare providers;
• To obtain services from Human Service Operations, which include nursing homes, day cares, residential facilities for those with developmental disabilities and substance abuse issues, vocational services, rehabilitation services, adoption agencies, and those providing services to the indigent
• To shop
• To go to and from Essential Businesses and Operations

Enforcement

There is no enforcement mechanism for the Order, and indeed the Governor said as much in today’s press conference that they don’t intend to put anyone in jail for violating the Order. Thus, it is aspirational in nature, or perhaps just intended to get everyone’s attention to stop interacting with others as much as possible.

Conclusion

Certainly, the Governor intended something by the order, but given the incredibly broad exceptions, and the lack of any intent to enforce it, it appears to be an attempt to educate the public on the dangers of work and social interactions more than a heavy hand telling Ohio citizens what they can and cannot do in their work life.

Call our any of attorneys if we can advise you on COVID-19-related developments.

We wanted you to know that Finney Law Firm remains open for business and continues daily to fully serve our clients.  However, the COVID-19 crisis is deadly serious, and without everyone’s cooperation, has the potential to endanger the lives of thousands of those we serve in Ohio and Kentucky and those we love.  Thus, we are taking aggressive and careful steps to protect you and our team in interactions with our office:

• We have expanded our use of teleconferencing, e-signature, and other electronic communications to avoid person-to-person contact where it is not necessary.
• Many of our attorneys and staff are now working from home where possible to limit person-to-person interactions. We have equipped our Team with laptops and other technology to assure the volume and quality of work remains the same.
• We are carefully sanitizing each office daily, and conference rooms before and after each and every use.
• We are asking clients not to bring children and any “extra” parties to the office.  Bring yourselves only.
• If it is necessary to sign documents, we can come to your house or place of business to limit the number of persons with whom you are interacting. Let us know if you prefer this option.

Finney Law Firm wants to “Make a Difference” in your personal life and business for many years to come. In order to do that, we need to protect your health and that of our team.

Thank you for the trust you have placed in us for these many years.

Sincerely,

Christopher P.  Finney