New York

Attachment of Property in New York — Provisional Remedies

by Fred Abramson

The attach­ment of prop­erty is a strong weapon when used prop­erly in New York. A busi­ness­man who is hav­ing finan­cial prob­lems decides not to pay for goods that he pur­chased.  If your com­pany is the cred­i­tor, it could take years before he will have to pay. At that time, the funds could be depleted.  One key pro­vi­sional rem­edy that a cred­i­tor can seek is to obtain an attach­ment.  Here, the cred­i­tor can obtain an attach­ment on the bank account and the busi­ness­man would not be able to use the money. Even though the plain­tiff is not able to use or obtain the funds, the busi­ness­man will not have the lux­ury of time and would be more moti­vated to settle.

Attach­ment of prop­erty can have dev­as­tat­ing effects on the busi­ness­man.  Attach­ments can be ordered by the court ex parte, mean­ing that the busi­ness­man will have no notice.  This could cause checks to bounce and dras­ti­cally alter the abil­ity for a small com­pany to con­duct business.

In order to obtain an order of attach­ment, the cred­i­tor would have to show, as per CPLR 6201(a): 1. that \“there is a cause of action\” and that the plain­tiff will prob­a­bly suc­ceed on the mer­its; 2. that at least one of the grounds of attach­ment found in the law exists;  and 3. that the amont asked for in the law­suit exceeds any coun­ter­claims that the cred­i­tor has knowl­edge of.

If an order is granted, it is directed to the sher­riff, not the defen­dant. Some orders are granted with­out notice to the businessman.

If you have a ques­tion about pro­vi­sional reme­dies such as attach­ment of prop­erty in New York, act now and con­tact the Law Office of Fred­eric R. Abram­son at 212–233-0666. Feel free to keep up to date on all New York Busi­ness Law issues by vis­it­ing my blog.

  1. How Can I Help You?
  3. (required)
  4. (required)
  5. (required)
 

cforms con­tact form by delicious:days

Attachment of Property in New York Provisional Remedies

What To Do If An Owner of A Business wants to Transfer its Interests

by Fred Abramson

What To Do If An Owner of A Business wants to Transfer its InterestsNew Yorker\‘s are a mobile bunch. Espe­cially New York busi­ness own­ers. Busi­ness open and close every day.  It is risky to believe that your co-owners will still be with you five years down the line. It is likely that there will come a time when of your co-owners will want to sell his shares or inter­ests in the com­pany to some­one else.  One of the most com­mon ways that a small busi­ness can get dis­rupted is when an owner desires to sell or trans­fer his inter­ests in a com­pany. So, what should you do?  You should cre­ate in advance a method for the own­ers to review and block any that is not in the best inter­ests of the com­pany.  Here are some things you should think about:

  1. Right of First Refusal. This is the most com­mon pro­vi­sion in a buy-sell agree­ment. The owner who wishes to sell his inter­ests first offers it to his co-owners before any­one else.
  2. Decide the Price of the Own­er­ship Inter­ests in Advance. Often the price will be set at the price a pro­posed out­side buyer has bid.  I do not rec­om­mend this option because a fraud­u­lent offer is pos­si­ble. Another method is to set a pre-determined price at the time a buy-sell agree­ment is drafted.  Another option is to set a high down pay­ment price which would show good faith.
  3. Make clear the effect of any sale on Minor­ity Own­ers. Often a right of first refusal pro­vi­sion may freeze out a minor­ity owner from sell­ing his inter­ests.  As a result, it may be impor­tant to include a \“Right to a Forced Sale\” clause.
  4. Decide who can buy the inter­est. Should the com­pany have the right to pur­chase shares or the indi­vid­ual owners?
  5. Should an owner be able to give away his inter­est? Often own­ers wish to grant their inter­ests in a com­pany to a trust for estate plan­ning rea­sons. This could be prob­lem­atic because tech­ni­cally the trust would own the shares of the busi­ness. Often these issues are addressed when draft­ing a buy sell agreement.
  6. No Trans­fer Restric­tions. Refus­ing to trans­fer any own­er­ship inter­est is another pos­si­bil­ity. This can lim­ited in a few dif­fer­ent ways, such a no trans­fers to cer­tain per­sons and no trans­fers with­out writ­ten con­sent of the other owners.

You should decide in advance what to do if an owner of a busi­ness wants to trans­fer its inter­ests through a buy sell agree­ment to avoid unnec­es­sary prob­lems and poten­tial litigation.

  1. How Can I Help You?
  3. (required)
  4. (required)
  5. (required)
 

cforms con­tact form by delicious:days

What To Do If An Owner of A Business wants to Transfer its Interests

What happens if there is an ambiguous term in a contract?

by Fred Abramson

Q:   What hap­pens if you enter into an Agree­ment and there is ambigu­ous language? What happens if there is an ambiguous term in a contract?

A:   If the per­son mak­ing the offer means one thing and the per­son accept­ing the offer rea­son­ably means another, then there is no con­tract.  Be aware that just because you failed to put some­thing into a con­tract or there was a mis­take, does not mean it the con­tract is ambiguous.

The court looks at the con­tract as a whole to deter­mine whether a con­tract is ambiguous.

Remem­ber, courts only enforce con­tracts, they will not re-write them.

  1. How Can I Help You?
  3. (required)
  4. (required)
  5. (required)
 

cforms con­tact form by delicious:days

New York Per Diem Lawyer for Court Appearances in Supreme & Civil Court

by Fred Abramson

PER DIEM SERVICES SINCE 1997

Are you look­ing for an attor­ney to cover your Supreme or Civil court appear­ances in New York, Brook­lyn (Kings), Queens and the Bronx?  You have come to the right place. The Law Office of Fred­eric R. Abram­son has pro­vided Supreme and Civil court appear­ances and depo­si­tion ser­vices for law firms such as yours since 1997.  We cover court appear­ances, depo­si­tions, arbi­tra­tions and tri­als in the fol­low­ing counties:

  • New York
  • Kings
  • Queens
  • Bronx

    • Rates:

    • Pre­lim­i­nary Con­fer­ences:  $125
    • Com­pli­ance Con­fer­ences:  $125
    • Motions: $125
    • Exam­i­na­tions Before Trial: $250
    • each addi­tional party — add $150
    • 50H Hear­ings: $250
    • each addi­tional party — add $150
    • add $25 if a wit­ness requires an interpreter
    • Call for Tri­als and Arbitrations

    HUNDREDS OF LAW FIRMS RELY ON THE LAW OFFICE OF FREDERIC R. ABRAMSON FOR:

    • Emer­gency Court Appearances
    • Accu­rate and prompt report­ing of all results within 2 hours.
    • Free imme­di­ate email report
    • 12 years per diem experience
    • Acces­si­bil­ity
    • Depend­abil­ity
    • Per Diem Experience

    More Read­ing:

    1. Per Diem Order Form
    2. (valid email required)
    3. (required)
    4. (required)
    5. (required)
    12. (required)
    20. Please be aware that all court appear­ances require con­fir­ma­tion by our ofifice
     

    cforms con­tact form by delicious:days

    New York Per Diem Lawyer for Court Appearances in Supreme & Civil Court

    Your small business is a party to a New York Civil Litigation lawsuit. How can you protect yourself?

    by Fred Abramson

    You are sit­ting in your office on the busiest day of the year, and just when you think noth­ing else could go wrong, a per­son walks in and utters the fate­ful words “You’ve been served”, while hand­ing you a stack of papers.   Your busi­ness is a party to a New York civil lit­i­ga­tion law­suit. Your busi­ness has  just been sued.  What is the best course of action you can take, and how can you pro­tect your­self as well as your business?

    Your small business is a party to a New York Civil Litigation lawsuit. How can you protect yourself?

    Who?

    Read the papers that are given to you to find out the party that is suing you and the type of civil lit­i­ga­tion you are involved in.  Is it a cor­po­ra­tion, a part­ner­ship, or an indi­vid­ual?  Are they a cus­tomer or a sup­plier of your busi­ness? Who is the lawyer rep­re­sent­ing the party that is suing you?  This infor­ma­tion will help your attor­ney obtain a more favor­able result for you by research­ing the other party and its coun­sel. (Do they set­tle often?  Are they a big com­pany?  What are their finan­cial resources?  Do they have a rep­u­ta­tion to main­tain and there­fore may want to set­tle quickly?).

    What?

    What exactly are you being sued about?  Is it a breach of con­tract claim? Is it a non-payment claim, or a non-performance claim?  Those are many rea­sons why a busi­ness may be sued.

    When?

    In Civil Lit­i­ga­tion, tim­ing is crit­i­cal in a law­suit.  Responses must be filed within a set period, which in New York is  usu­ally within 30 days.  While an exten­sion can be granted, don’t wait until the last minute to con­tact your attor­ney.  It takes time to pre­pare an appro­pri­ate answer to the papers.  If you do not respond in a timely fash­ion, you will be con­sid­ered in default, and a judg­ment may be taken against you.  This means you may lose the case with­out the oppor­tu­nity to pro­vide a defense.

    Also, don’t assume you are judg­ment proof, because judg­ments can be col­lected from future earn­ings as well as assets.  In addi­tion, do not assume that your insur­ance cov­ers every­thing, although it may be wise to notify your insur­ance car­rier as well as your attorney.

    Where?

    What court are you being sued in?   What county?  State or Fed­eral Court? You may be sued in a state far away if, for instance, you have done busi­ness in that state.  In that case, your New York attor­ney will have to obtain local coun­sel for your small busi­ness in the other state, and this takes time.

    Why?

    Why did the party resort to a law­suit?  Is it some­thing you can fix by hav­ing your attor­ney talk to the other side and nego­ti­ate a set­tle­ment?  Is there a run­ning ani­mos­ity between your com­pany and the other party, in which case set­tle­ment will be dif­fi­cult?  Do you need to file a coun­ter­claim against the other party?

    How?

    Imme­di­ately notify and sup­ply the civil lit­i­ga­tion  law­suit papers to your attor­ney.  Make sure you retain a pho­to­copy for your­self.  Inform your attor­ney of all the facts rel­e­vant to the case.  Your attor­ney will decide what is impor­tant and what is not.


    Orga­nize your doc­u­ments per­tain­ing to the case so that you can min­i­mize the time the attor­ney must spend going through them.  This will save your attor­ney ’s time, and there­fore save you legal fees.  Do not talk to the other party’s attor­ney.  He works for the other party, just as your attor­ney works for you.  Let your attor­ney do this for you.  In addi­tion, remem­ber that in law, just as in any pro­fes­sion or busi­ness, there are rules and pro­ce­dures  your attor­ney knows and you may not.  To stay out of trou­ble, leave the legal work to your attorney.

    A trial can take sev­eral weeks in New York, includ­ing prepa­ra­tion time.  There­fore, it may be in your best inter­est in cer­tain cases to set­tle.  How­ever, be real­is­tic in your set­tle­ment expectations.

    Con­clu­sion

    Hav­ing an ongo­ing attorney-client rela­tion­ship will help pro­tect you in the event of a civil lit­i­ga­tion law­suit.  The more your attor­ney knows about your busi­ness, the bet­ter the attor­ney will be able to help you.  In addi­tion, dis­cussing busi­ness options and prob­lems with your attor­ney ahead of time could help pre­vent a law­suit from ever start­ing.  Either way, it will save you money in the long run.

    Please be advised that the above is for infor­ma­tional pur­poses only. If you have been sued, con­tact me at the Law Office of Fred­eric R. Abram­son at 212–233-0666.

    New York Case Status

    by Fred Abramson

    Won­der­ing if you have ever been sued?  In the alter­na­tive, if you have a case in suit, would you like to know its sta­tus? Amaz­ing enough, this infor­ma­tion can be found for free at the New York Uni­form Sys­tem website.

    Through eCourts you can find free case infor­ma­tion, which includes future and past court appear­ances.   If you sign up for its email noti­fi­ca­tion ser­vice (also gratis), the court will even send you an email any­time there is a change of sta­tus to your case.

    The search fea­ture of the site is also pow­er­ful.  You can search by the name of a plain­tiff, defen­dant, attor­ney, or judge. You can also search by index number.

    This site is also a great tool for per­form­ing com­pet­i­tive intel­li­gence about com­pa­nies.  In addi­tion, if you are con­sid­er­ing doing busi­ness with a com­pany or indi­vid­ual, why not check to see if they have ever been involved in any lit­i­ga­tion. By going to eCourts, you have noth­ing to lose.

    1. How Can I Help You?
    3. (required)
    4. (required)
    5. (required)
     

    cforms con­tact form by delicious:days

    New York Case Status

    Do you have a Default Judgment against you in NY? It may be void.

    by Fred Abramson

    The New York Attor­ney Gen­eral announced today that they are suing 35 law firms for improper ser­vice of default Do you have a Default Judgment against you in NY? It may be void. judg­ments. A party obtains a default judg­ment when the defen­dant does not appear in a law­suit. Amer­i­can Legal Ser­vice, a process server located in Long Island has been named by the Attor­ney Gen­eral as pro­vid­ing improper \“sewer\”  ser­vice.  The 35 law firms have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

    If you wish to re-open a default judg­ment against you due to improper ser­vice based on the Attor­ney General\‘s action today you should:

    1.  Go to the county clerk in the county where the default was filed and obtain the court file.  Check the affi­davit of ser­vice to see if Amer­i­can Legal Ser­vice was the process server.

    2.  If you are unable to ascer­tain the name of the process server, check the law firm who started the law­suit.  If it is one of the 35 law firms listed in the Attor­ney General\‘s com­plaint then:

    3.  File a motion to vacate the default for improper ser­vice of process.

    At this point, it is unclear what the reme­dies would be for insti­tut­ing an action, espe­cially in cases where the statute of lim­i­ta­tions has run for vacat­ing a default.  In New York, the statute of lim­i­ta­tions is one year.  How­ever, the court or some other gov­ern­men­tal body may fash­ion new law based on this mass fraud.

    Do you have a Default Judgment against you in NY? It may be void.