Ayala files lawsuit against American Express and a contractor for damages caused by recalling a processed payment for services already delivered to the contractor-defendant. In the lawsuit, Ayala alleges that American Express, without any verification, or due diligence of any kind, took the side of the contractor-defendant and recalled a payment already approved for Ayala’s client. As stated by Attorney Maura, “we are proud to…
In this part IV of the “how can I protect my small business from lawsuits” articles, I focus on insurance. How can having insurance protect me from lawsuits? It may not, but at least the insurance could pay for the lawsuit—sometimes. When any of the things mentioned in Part I, II, or III of my recommendations to protect your business from lawsuits do not work,…
In this part III of the “how can I protect my small business from lawsuits” articles, I focus on layering. What do I mean by layering? You can have, for example, a Limited Liability Company (LLC) and you, the human, be the owner of 100% of it. That type of ownership structure will give you the least protection possible. The law treats this type of…
By Eduardo A. Maura. Out of the many things I tell small business owners, when they ask me how to protect their businesses, separation is high in my list of recommendations. But what do I mean by separation? What I mean is, separate your business from yourself or your family or your other businesses. It is quite common that small business owners are the managers…
By Eduardo A. Maura. I’ve represented dozens of small businesses throughout the years. The main concern or question I am asked is still: How do I protect my business from lawsuits? The first thing that comes to mind is compliance. It is extremely important that businesses comply with all laws, regulations, and codes. Oftentimes, during litigation, litigants will use any violations of the law, ordinance,…
Ayala defeated the Defendant Corona Seeds’ Motion for Summary Judgement (MSJ). An MSJ is a request to the court in which the party moving argues that there are no factual issues in dispute, and the judge, rather than the jury, should decide the case in its favor. In the case, Ayala’s clients, two Peruvian growers, allege that they were sold defective seeds from the defendant…
There is a myriad of issues that can make an otherwise great contractual relationship go wrong. In this article we discuss the three most important ones we’ve found throughout the years: Lack of, or insufficient paper evidence of the contract: Believe it or not, one of the main problems is that we can’t find the actual contract. Whether it is finding signed version, all the…
Ayala obtained a final Judgment for $63,350 dollars in Attorneys’ fees for its client, after having prevailed in a jury trial earlier this year. The underlying lawsuit alleged that Ayala’s client, the buyer of the Property, interfered in the relationship between the Plaintiff/Realtor and the Seller, not present in the case. After prior attempts to get the case dismissed for failure to join the party…
Shareholder disputes are unfortunately not uncommon. Partners start with plenty of enthusiasm and ideas, but little of these ideas are placed in concrete sentences, in a binding piece of paper. Let’s make this graphic but describing a situation we’ve faced with many clients through out the years. In a normal partnership, let’s say of two that are 50/50 in ownership, there is always one partner…
Ayala filed a lawsuit against GTA advisors and its owner (“Defendants”), alleging that Defendants were negligent in the management and investment of its client’s funds. Ayala’s client main owner, Mr. Ubieto, was 75 years old at the time he started investing with the Defendants. Mr. Ubieto, from Guatemala, had a history of choosing extremely conservative investments, as part or most of the funds where…
