Huntington Beach Law Blog

Throughout your life, you likely have referred to someone as your partner. Whether a romantic partner or an affectionately called partner in crime, you likely used the word because it conveys a sense of importance concerning the relationship you have. The same importance applies to business partners you choose to help run your company.

Because partnerships are so important, you will likely want to think long and hard before coming to a decision about who could best suit this role. You may think that adding the "business partner" label to your spouse or best friend seems like a logical step as you likely trust each of these individuals, but you may also want to remember that forming a business partnership differs greatly from a personal partnership.

City council members and other public officials know that there can be a fine line between public and private. It is necessary for public figures to balance their private communications with the need for public transparency. Sometimes, a seemingly innocuous activity like exchanging private emails or text messages can land you in hot water.

This is what happened to several members of the Cincinnati City Council recently. Five members were found to have privately exchanged texts, emails and phone calls regarding Cincinnati’s mayor and its city manager. A watchdog group is now suing them for violating local transparency laws.

Making sure your California-based company is abiding by all government rules and regulations at all times can be a daunting task. Even though you are doing your best, disgruntled current, former and hopeful employees may still find ways to blame your business for their losses. Age discrimination is a great example right now. Numerous companies have been in the news over the last few years with employees claiming that their age caused them to lose their jobs, not get a job or promotion, or that it forced them to put up with harassment in the workplace. 

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it is not legal for any employer to discriminate based on a person's age or to allow staff members to continually harass fellow staff members because they are considered too old to work there.

No entity, public or private, enjoys being sued. Litigation can be long, tedious and expensive. Even if the city is not fully at fault, it sometimes has no choice but to go to court or settle. This is what happened to our northern neighbors in Portland, Ore., who were sued after a historic building was flooded with human sewage.

Just two days before Christmas of 2015, the Oregon building's basement was overrun by rancid sewage. The leak was so massive that 95 percent of the first floor was affected; even the second floor of the building was contaminated by waste. The cost of cleaning the building and restoring the property damage would be enormously expensive.