Carl Kanowsky, Esq. Sometimes, we forget the basics. For example: The time we got our youngest son all packed and ready to spend the next semester in Europe. We got in the car, all set to go to LAX, when we realized there was no gas. I had to make a quick stop, but fortunately we still made it to the...

Carl Kanowsky, Esq. You have to wonder: Do folks who own restaurants feel they have a target on their back? I’ll explain. Restaurants are big business. As reported in a University of Central Florida study, “sccording to the National Restaurant Association (2009), total revenues for the restaurant...

Carl Kanowsky, Esq. I was sitting in my downtown Los Angeles office, located above the Chinese restaurant. The smells of fried food and MSG wafted up to me, and I was thinking about the waitress with the great set of wheels I saw at lunch when I heard it: RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT. I jumped and reached for my...

Carl Kanowsky, Esq. Craig Murphy, CEO of Propel Inc., a Minnesota company, came in to see me recently. He was thinking of expanding the company’s territory to include California. He had gotten favorable reviews of many of Propel’s products, including Whirl-A-Hurl. You see, Propel makes this great...

Carl Kanowsky, Esq. A few weeks ago, I wrote about some missteps that employers seem to repeat. I’ve got a few more to share. Contrary to what you might expect, these mistakes are made by employers of all sizes, even ones with sophisticated personnel departments. It seems that often, the motivating...

Carl Kanowsky, Esq. First, a disclaimer. I am proud to say I am a founding director of the Bank of Santa Clarita and am fiercely loyal to it. You won’t hear any derogatory comments from me about the bank. Don’t get me started on the megabanks, though. I, like many of you, feel overwhelmed...

Carl Kanowsky, Esq. Some real estate brokers I know like to form new limited liability companies or corporations for each development they represent. The common wisdom is that isolating the assets and liabilities of each discrete project keeps all of their assets in other developments free from creditors. That...

Carl Kanowsky, Esq. Udders ‘R’ Us (“URS”) delivers milk to supermarkets in Southern California. It’s owned and controlled by a Georgia corporation. URS is run by that most dangerous of all professionals — someone who attended law school but never passed the bar. Fred, this manager, had a...

Carl Kanowsky, Esq. Over the past few years, there has been a big push by employers to have employees sign agreements stating that any dispute between them would go to an arbitrator rather than a judge and a jury. Presumably, the logic behind the strategy is to avoid runaway jury verdicts. Some employers...

Carl Kanowsky, Esq. Areg Khachikian owned a 2000 Bentley but still owed the finance company, Los Angeles Federal Credit Union, a ton of money. (As you might know, buying a Bentley is a bit more of a commitment than purchasing a Honda Civic.) Areg bought the luxury mobile in August 2008, with the credit...