William J. Dyer's Answers

Should I file a lawsuit against an insurance company for slander?

I tend doubt that slander is the tool you're actually looking for -- it rarely is in business disputes, for one reason or another -- but there may be other legal theories that actually fit your situation better. When people have chosen to do business together on a regular basis, that alters their respective rights and obligations; some of the communications made with each other or even with third parties may be "privileged," and many of them will be non-actionable subjective statements of...

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Is it legal for someone to imply they are the attorney for a company when they are not?

Under Texas law, the unauthorized practice of law may be a serious crime, but there are many things that non-lawyers can and do say which imply that they have above-average knowledge of the law or their potential legal remedies, yet do not rise to the level of unauthorized practice of law. The Texas Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee, whose website I've linked below, has an important role in investigating complaints, and their FAQ page in particular includes information you may find useful,...

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How to serve process on out of state defendent in Texas small claims court or district court?

I don't mean to be glib, but in order to learn how to be able to give meaningful answers to the questions you've asked, law students typically spend many weeks of study in their constitutional law and civil procedure courses. There are constitutional limitations on the ability of one state to use its courts to hold non-residents liable. Generally speaking, the question comes down to whether the out-of-state defendant has sufficient "minimum contacts" with the forum state such that someone in...

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Can two businesses owned by one person have the same physical address?

With due respect to those who've answered previously: I agree with them that there is no categorical ban against two corporations -- one for-profit and the other not-for-profit -- sharing the same physical address. Your question suggests, however, that you are confronting broader issues, like whether it's permissible for them to share other assets, accounts, employees, etc. There are very good business and legal reasons to keep a very sharp, very distinct, and very impenetrable wall...

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Texas civil suit - how to answer plantiff without admitting guilt

To answer your question confidently, one would need to know for certain what court you've been sued in. There are completely different rules for state and federal court. Most likely, if this is a suit to collect on an alleged unpaid debt, though, it's in one or another of the Texas state courts (typically state district court or county court, or maybe JP/small claims court). Assuming you're in state court, you don't have to give a specific response to every allegation as part of your...

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Can you sue a drs office for advertising on their website "walkins welcome" and when you get there they say it's incorrect

"De minimis non curat lex" means "the law does not concern itself with trifles." You interpret "walk-ins welcome" to mean "instant service." Apparently they interpret it to mean that you get to wait in some sort of queue, perhaps behind patients who made appointments. If you feel that you were deceived, you certainly have grounds to choose a different doctor's office in the future. But a lawsuit? No, a lawsuit over something this trivial would be an abuse of the legal system in my opinion. No...

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How to handle heirs of a deceased partner in a business

If you have a written partnership agreement, then in most instances that will control – if its drafter anticipated this situation. To the extent the partnership agreement is silent, then the question is probably answered by the current version of the Texas Uniform Partnership Act (if this is indeed a general partnership; if not, e.g., if it's an LLP or an LLC or some other type of business organization, there are codes and acts for those too). You need better than theoretical, unpaid...

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My apartment leasing office signed for an insured, trackable package that was for me, but says they "lost" it! What can i do?

You're going to have a hard, and possibly impossible, time getting around that language in the lease in any action against your apartment complex. But it may be worth a try. The argument I'd make is that this was a "bailment," and that the apartment complex became your "bailee," meaning temporary holder of goods belonging to you. You should concede that the contract language is sufficient to immunize the complex from being held responsible if, for example, (a) a stranger broke into their...

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In Texas can you file a civil suit more than once?

The pamphlet from the State Bar of Texas that I've linked below has a lot of useful information about Texas small claims courts. As it says on page 20, "If you want to appeal, you must file a Notice of Appeal in the county court within 10 days after the case was decided in the small claims court." If those 10 days have already passed, then you've forever forfeited your rights to appeal the judgment. But if they haven't passed, you can obtain not only an "appeal," but what's called a "trial de...

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If I am a contractor in a written contract with a business owner can I be terminated from the project verbally (phone call)?

Even though your question is quite short, it raises a whole bunch of potential legal issues. The starting place, as others have noted, is your written contract. It may have provisions about how and when notice must, or may, be given, and if so, those may be enforceable. But disputes over the form that notice is given usually get resolved, or become moot (meaningless), when any error in notice is fixed. You might also be focusing on who gave you the notice. Again, the contract might speak...

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