Your colleagues and fellow small business owners may be utilizing lawyers in the operation of their business. If you aren’t using a lawyer to assist you in your business, you may be asking yourself what value or benefit do they derive from this relationship?

When describing our incoming Presiding Judge, would you say: Extraordinary Father; Comic; Educator; Evenly Handed Judicial Officer; OR ... Cat Herder? Now I know Judge J. William McLafferty is going to give me a hard time about that because I may have even promised that I wouldn’t include that byline in my story (but I had my fingers crossed).

Many small and growing businesses try to avoid expenses by creating independent contractor agreements with those they hire to assist them in the operation of their business. The anticipated benefits to a business owner seem to be quite obvious at first glance. If a business does not have employees, it does not have to pay social security, medicare, and unemployment taxes. Not to mention the dreaded and enormous worker's compensation insurance premiums crippling many small businesses.