Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: 7 Year business taken over by backstabing friend.

How is this "friend" conected to your business? Is she an employee of your business, or an independent contractor? If she is an employee you might want to fire her and then sue her. If she is an independent contractor, what you can do to get rid of her depends on the contract you have with her. I would also recommend that you either speak directly with your landlord or write him a letter outlining your concerns. You can sue her for intereference with prospective business, or just plain breach of contract. The cause of action you sue under depends upon the agreement you have with her.

If you are interested in a free, no obligation consultation you can contact my office toll free at 877-546-9918, or by email at [email protected]. My main office is in San Luis Obispo, which is half way between LA and San Francisco. I also have satellite offices in the Bay area and Fresno. This allows me to handle cases throughout the State of California.

If you do not take me up on my offer, you should definately consult with an attorney before this woman does anything further to hurt your business that you have spent 7 years building. She needs to be stopped. You should also start gathering any evidence of her misconduct. Get names of witnesses who might be willing to testify on your behalf, and make a list of the clients that she is currently servicing so if she does take them you will know. Depending on the terms of the contract, you may be able to also sue her for loss of future revenues and damages incurred by her taking clients that belong to your business.

If I don't hear from you, I wish you the best of luck.

Sincerely,

John Hayes, Esq.

Re: 7 Year business taken over by backstabing friend.

Your 'friend' may have committed wrongs for which you could sue and collect damages or get a court order stopping her from doing further harm to you and your business.

The problem here is proof. In court, the case is likely to become a 'he said, she said' contest of believability. There probably isn't much written evidence.

My advice would be first talk with your landlord. If you have been a good tenant for seven years, the landlord should be your friend and you should be able to get reassurances--or at least find out more of the truth about what kind of a problem you face. You also might want to confront your 'friend' and see what her story is.

Then, after you have some idea where the other players stand, gather your facts and evidence and see a local lawyer with experience in handling 'business torts' and ask for a free consultation to see whether you have a good case for 'interference with contract' or 'interference with prospective business advantage' or maybe just plain old breach of contract.

Your success may depend on the quality of your relationship with the landlord and the quality of your evidence; written proof of these matters is very useful in court but hard to come by.

Good luck.