Portland Area Law Blog

Starting a business is a big move. It takes guts, hard work and a lot of determination to make it a success. Doing it with a partner certainly has its advantages, but it can also have disadvantages as well, as disputes will most likely arise at some point. Those who own companies in Oregon and who find themselves dealing with a partnership issue would likely benefit from the services of a business law attorney when seeking resolution.

Any business partnership can start out great. Conflicts tend to arise over time. According to a recently published article, there are six main reasons why partnerships fail. Those reasons are:

• Inability to trust one another
• Failure to achieve success
• Personality conflicts
• Different goals/values
• Different levels of commitment to the company
• Partner is a friend, spouse or other relative

Estate planning is something that many Oregon residents fail to do. Why? No one wants to think about dying. The truth is, estate planning is about more than preparing for one's death. It is about protecting oneself and preventing family conflict that may lead to litigation.

One way to prevent conflict that could lead to litigation is by having a power of attorney in place. A POA is a legal document in which an individual designates one or more people to act on his or her behalf in the event that he or she is not present or mentally or physically able to do so on his or her own. There are several different types of POA forms, they are:

• Ordinary
• Durable
• Springing

You do everything you can to make sure your Oregon-based business is successful. You hire people you feel will do quality work and will treat you, your clients and other employees with respect. When someone does not live up to company standards or is frequently engaging in inappropriate behavior, you let them go -- as is your right. Now, because you chose to fire someone, you are being accused of wrongfully terminating that employee. What can you do?

Wrongful termination accusations are to be taken seriously. Not every claim has merit, but it does not stop some former employees from trying to seek compensation after being fired. The best thing you can do to protect yourself and your business starts before the termination even occurs, and that is document, document, document. Having a paper trail of the employee's misdeeds will only serve to help you establish that you were within your rights to let that individual go.

Every piece of property in the state of Oregon is zoned so it can be used for a specific purpose. When a person is interested in real estate that is not zoned for what he or she plans to do with it, the thought of letting the property go rather than fighting for it may be tempting. It is certainly the easier path; however, some things are worth fighting for. There are a few ways in which one might be able to get the zoning changed so that it does work for one's needs; it just takes time, effort and, possibly, litigation.

The three traditional paths to seeking a zoning modification are: filing for a variance, filing for conditional use and filing for complete re-zoning. The first two options would be for individuals who are interested in asking for permission to use the land how they want without changing the official zoning status. A re-zoning request would be for anyone who wants to use the entire property for a specific purpose that is not currently allowed and to have the zoning status changed completely.