Hinch Law

Ok, after a brief interlude, I'm back to complete the third and final part of my answer to the latest question in the "Ask a Lawyer" series.  The question is, "Why should I hire a lawyer to incorporate my business?"  We have broken this question down into three parts, as follows: How do I know what form of business entity is right for me?  Should every business incorporate? What's the difference between a corporation and a limited liability company?  Which is right for me? Why should I hire a lawyer to help form my corporation/LLC?  Why not do it myself?   Having addressed 1 and 2 in previous posts, this post will answer 3 and complete our response to the overall question.   Allow me to call out the elephant in the room implied in question 3 -- lawyers cost money, perhaps a lot of money. That's money that could be spent investing in the business.  On the other hand, forming a corporation is "easy."  To satisfy the State of Illi

I am honored to have had an article I wrote published in the October 2011 issue of the newsletter for the Illinois State Bar Association 's Construction Law Section, entitled "Must a homeowner establish the contractor's state of mind to state a claim for a violation of the Illinois Home Repair and Remodeling Act?"  I have written extensively about the HRRA on this blog (I believe this will be my 20th post carrying the "home repair and remodeling" tag), both because it is directly related to one of my core practice areas, construction law, and also because it is an area of the law that has been a veritable hornet's nest in recent years, and therefore fascinating.   The statute was amended last summer and the Illinois Supreme Court released an important case opinion at essentially the same time.   Further amendments were enacted this summer and will take effect in January 2012. Before last summer, the controversial question was essentially this - &