Skilled Operating Agreement Lawyers in Florida

A limited liability company has to be structured correctly to succeed. One of the most important factors in the success of your limited liability company is an operating agreement. This document is essential so that everyone who is involved in the operation of the business knows which responsibilities are assigned to whom. The rules and regulations, and provisions within this document are very helpful for a whole variety of reasons and need to be written correctly.

If you are going to start a limited liability company, you need to be sure that your operating agreement is written properly. This is a process that is best handled by a skilled lawyer. No matter what size your business might be, an operating agreement that is written correctly by a skilled legal professional is a must. The team at Lopez Law Group can ensure that you get a well-drafted and useful operating agreement that can be used to guide your business processes, both big and small.

If you have a new business that you are forming, make sure that you do not skip over the step of creating a well-drafted operating agreement.

Is an Operating Agreement Required by Law in Florida?

No, you don’t actually have to have an operating agreement to operate a business in Florida. However, this document can be so helpful to any company. It helps to eliminate confusion and conflict, and it makes sure that you won’t run into problems with the management of your business in the future. The operating agreement is actually a legally binding document, which can make it enforceable if a conflict should escalate past polite discussion.

This kind of agreement is best created in the early stages of the creation of a business. This agreement can be changed or amended later if need be. Changes and amendments are best handled by a skilled lawyer as well.

Most of the work that needs to be done related to the creation and management of this document is best handled by a legal expert. Care needs to be taken to ensure that the viability of the business is not being impacted. The operating agreement is made to protect your business, not to cause it to suffer struggles and defeats when push comes to shove.

At the end of the day, a poorly written operating agreement is just as bad for your business as having no operating agreement at all. Working with a skilled legal team can make all the difference when it comes to drafting and protecting this document. You should never leave any of the work that needs to be done on your operating agreement up to chance, which is why a skilled lawyer should be involved in your operating agreement creation and maintenance processes.

What is an Operating Agreement?

The operating agreement is often drafted for an LLC, and it is used to make sure that all the members of the company know what their responsibilities are related to the business. Daily operation requirements can be included, and so can taxation information, profits and losses information, and the share that each person owns. This is the document that is used to describe how the business operates and how the members of the business must behave.

You will want to be sure that you are being very thorough when writing your operating agreement.  This is one of the reasons that it is rarely a good idea to try and draft this document on your own. A skilled lawyer will think of the main things that you might forget to include, and they will be able to advise you about the best way to protect your company and its operations with this agreement. These documents can be complicated, and you do not want to miss any of the steps that are needed to make sure that your business is protected well into the future.

What Does the Operating Agreement Include?

A properly drafted operating agreement will include various details. You might not need to have all of the information that is discussed here in your operating agreement, but often it is best to be as clear as possible. You might not be aware of the various kinds of problems that can crop up once your business is operating. Clarity about all of the details of your business’ operating needs can eliminate lots of stress and worry later on.

Some common inclusions for this document are the following:

•         Mission statement for the business
•         Percentage of ownership for each member of the LLC
•         Each member’s responsibilities and voting rights
•         Day-to-day operating rules
•         How company meetings are handled
•         Tax structure of the business and the filing status of the business
•         Profits and losses allocated to each member
•         Transition between members in the event of a sale, a buyout, a retirement, or the death of a member of the LLC.
•         Procedures to dissolve the business

Many people do not realize that this document handles so many of the important aspects of the business. It is never wise to leave the dissolution of your business up to chance or even the process that will need to be completed if someone decides to leave the LLC or passes away. An operating agreement can protect your business from being closed for good due to a variety of different kinds of challenges that are related to disagreements between the members of the LLC.

While you can elect to make an operating agreement that is much more simple than this, it might not actually serve many purposes for your company’s needs. Leaving some of the important aspects of the choices that need to be made related to your business can be a disaster when push comes to shove. Remember that you might not be able to imagine anything going wrong for your business until these events come to pass.

It is always wiser to be over-prepared than underprepared when it comes to business documentation and agreements. This is one of the best reasons to be sure that you have an operating agreement in place and that you keep it up to date as your business changes and grows. You never know when a bad surprise will crop up, but a thorough and well-crafted operating agreement can make it much less likely that your LLC will end up fighting over the company and its operations.

Trouble within your business can be really bad for your business reputation, and you might also end up wasting hundreds or thousands of dollars on legal fees fighting with the other owners of your business when there is no operating agreement in place. The power of a legally binding document that outlines the responsibilities of everyone involved in the business can save you money, time, and heartache down the road.

Amendments to Operating Agreements

It can also be common to need to amend your operating agreement as things change within your business structure. These changes need to be made carefully since this is a legal document, and you will want professional support for this work as well. You might need to change essentials like the mission statement, the LLC members, or the financial obligations related to the LLC. You could also need to alter the business operations as outlined in the original document, or maybe something about the responsibilities within the LLC has changed.

Getting these alterations documented correctly matters. You cannot enforce a document that has not been drafted correctly, and this means that having the help of a skilled lawyer can make a big impact on your operating agreement’s usefulness. Let the team at Lopez Law Group handle alterations to your operating agreement so that you don’t end up with an operating agreement that is of no use to your company.

These changes need to be documented and signed by all of the members of the LLC, and your legal team can help to ensure that this process is completed correctly as well. It doesn’t make sense to take the time to make these changes if you then do not follow them up with the correct signature and acknowledgment process.

Legal Issues That Can be Resolved Via an Operating Agreement

 Some common legal issues that can be resolved through the use of an operating agreement are related to changes to the structure of the LLC. You might want to prevent spouses and family from inheriting a member’s share, or you could want to ensure that members cannot leave their portion of the company to someone that you do not approve of.

Other issues that come up frequently are related to profits and taxation. If there is no written agreement about these parts of the operations of the business, the LLC members might struggle over who is responsible for taxes as well as fighting over the income from the business. This is the kind of dispute that can lead to the business being closed for good which is why an operating agreement is a great idea for any company, even very small businesses.

Profits are always the thing that people think about first when considering owning a business, but there are also losses that must be accounted for. Each LLC member might take a different share of both of these things related to running a business, and you should be sure that there is no guesswork being used in these situations.

Buyouts, retirements, and the death of LLC members can also be really chaotic without an operating agreement. You can easily imagine how hard it can be to figure out who should receive or sell the portion of the business when someone wants to leave the LLC and having this information outlined carefully can make a big impact on the success and the lifespan of your business.

Experience in Business Law and Litigation

Despite having an ironclad operating agreement, it is possible that one or more of the members of an LLC will still take the other members to court over disagreements. The team at Lopez Law Group can help defend you if the other LLC members have taken you to court and can work hard to protect the agreement that was outlined in the operating agreement documents. While a judge can also enforce a clear and succinct operating agreement, it can be very helpful to have a legal team on hand to support your side of the case and make your arguments clear.

Heading to court is not common when you have an operating agreement in place, but it can be necessary to enforce the agreement. While it can be easy to assume that you and the other owners of a business will never have a fight that leads to a visit to a courtroom, the reality is that business ownership can be fraught with these kinds of power struggles or disagreements. Just having an operating agreement in place might not deter some people from trying to get what they want through the force of the law.

You will want to be sure that you are not wasting money having an inexperienced legal team defending your case if your LLC partners should take you to court. Working with the skilled legal team at Lopez Law can make all the difference in the outcome of your case and can help you to protect your operating agreement in a court of law.

Negotiations for Changes to the Operating Agreement

Sometimes it can be hard for the LLC members to agree on changes that are to be made to an operating agreement. This can be an almost impossible situation to find yourself in, especially if some of the members of the LLC will not change their minds or compromise. This is one of the areas where having a skilled lawyer on your side can make a big difference as well. Negotiations can be tough to engage in if you do not have previous experience and a lawyer is an impartial third party who can often handle these kinds of demands more effectively than an LLC member.

The Lopez Law Group team will help you through the negotiations process to help resolve disputes over changes to the operating agreement if they should arise. Trying to fight through these kinds of disagreements with the support of a lawyer can be fruitless and very frustrating. Your lawyer will work hard on your behalf to secure a favorable outcome to the negotiation process and to ensure that your business does not suffer as a result of the changes that are made to the operating agreement.

Always assume that you will be better off with the help of a skilled lawyer when it comes to disputes over the operating agreement and any changes that need to be made to it. There are many legal repercussions that are associated with making these changes, and you should not sign into effect alterations to your business that you do not actually agree with. Changing the legal nature of your business should not be done casually, and you will be grateful not to have to make these kinds of choices without legal guidance and support.

Being bullied by other members of the LLC can lead to all kinds of negative impacts on the business and its well-being. Remember that your operating agreement is intended to help keep your business safe from being dissolved or from going bankrupt, and you will want to be sure that you get the right support for all business negotiation processes from the Lopez Law Group.

Working With a Skilled Legal Team Matters

When it comes to operating law, you do not want to leave the drafting of your agreement that governs these processes to chance. Businesses can change nearly overnight, and situations can crop up that will surprise you. If you have not protected your company with a quality operating agreement document, you might find yourself spending years in court with the other members of your LLC. Fighting over the details of the business and everyone’s responsibilities towards it is very common when it comes to businesses that do not have operating agreements in place.

The team at Lopez Law can help you to protect your business from these kinds of issues and can also ensure that you never have to face losing your share in a business due to internal conflict with the members of the LLC. No matter how unlikely you think it will be that you and the other LLC members might end up fighting over operation decisions, it is always better to be safe rather than sorry. Eliminating confusion and making sure that there are no open-ended discussions about how the LLC should be managed and operated can ensure a more peaceful working arrangement between you and the other members of the LLC as well.

Let the team at Lopez Law Group help you to draft an airtight and thorough operating agreement for your business today! Contact us and meet with us for a consultation so that we can get started working hard on your operating agreement today!