Baylor & Jackson, PLLC

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Baylor & Jackson

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OUR SERVICES

Practice Areas/ Services


 
In an attempt to avoid strict compartmentalization, Baylor & Jackson seeks to match experience and expertise with the needs of our clients. For convenience, we divide our practice into litigation and transactional areas described below.



LITIGATION 

Our commitment to clients is to address their concerns and goals; and to remove obstacles, exploit opportunities and minimize surprises. However, disputes over business relationships are sometimes unavoidable. Baylor & Jackson's principal litigators have large-firm litigation backgrounds and related practice experience. We have tried cases in state and federal courts. Our areas of practice include:

Business Litigation

Our considerable experience in this area is brought to bear in controversies over purchase and sale contracts, service and supply contracts, disputes between co-owners and a myriad of other business and commercial relationships.

Property and Liability Insurance

The firm specializes in insurance coverage litigation, particularly in matters relating to environmental and toxic torts. We have extensive experience in multi-party complex coverage litigation and have handled numerous cases involving excess coverage and reinsurance issues. We also have an extensive and impressive record in handling insurance bad faith litigation.

Life, Health, and Disability Insurance

Baylor & Jackson's life and health insurance practice focuses particularly on agency relationship disputes, claims-related litigation, real estate, unfair competition, regulatory issues, and general business litigation for life and health insurance companies. We also handle ERISA litigation.

Real Estate

We represent individuals, financial institutions (including life insurance companies and mortgage bankers), developers, residential brokerage firms, agricultural concerns, borrowers, general and limited partners, and other equity owners in all aspects of real property litigation, including foreclosures, workouts, receiverships, actions in purchase and sale contracts, leases, loans and land use matters.

Unfair Competition, Antitrust and Business Torts

Baylor & Jackson has considerable experience in litigation involving claims of unfair competition, interference with business relations, unfair trade practices, trade libel, false advertising, misappropriation of trade secrets and trademark/tradename infringement. We also advise clients on antitrust claims and prevention measures.

Employment and Wrongful Termination

We represent clients in all aspects of the employment relationship, including proactive counseling on employment policies and procedures as well as handling cases of wrongful termination, discrimination and harassment. 

Professional Liability 

We represent clients in all aspects of the employment relationship, including proactive counseling on employment policies and procedures as well as handling cases of wrongful termination, discrimination and harassment.

Personal Injury 

Business clients sometimes find personal injury claims unavoidable. As a part of providing the full range of services, we represent our clients in these actions.

Environment

Baylor & Jackson can represent clients in environmental and toxic torts including multi-party complex litigation involving property owners, developers, contractors, public entities and insurance carriers.

Construction and Development

We are capable of engaging in virtually every kind of construction project and property type, including residential developments, commercial and industrial buildings, local and regional shopping centers. We represent developers, construction contractors and subcontractors, as well as individual homeowners.

CORPORATE AND BUSINESS TRANSACTIONAL SERVICES

Although Baylor & Jackson is well known for its litigation expertise, it has developed and created a corporate and business practice that is cutting-edge. Our role in transactional practice is to help accomplish strategic objectives -- to launch new ventures, structure acquisitions and reorganizations, manage operations and preserve assets for ultimate disposition. We serve as general counsel to a number of small and mid-size companies in a variety of industries, and we provide a full spectrum of advice and counsel, including:


Entity Formation and Structural Planning 

The variety of structures available for new businesses -- "C" and "S" corporations, general and limited partnerships, limited liability companies, joint ventures -- creates both challenge and opportunity. The structural decision has a wide ranging impact on taxes, co-ownership relationships, insurance requirements and landlord-tenant relationships, to name a few. We guide you through the maze to help you make the optimal decision; then we prepare all appropriate documentation to ensure that your decisions are implemented and all applicable laws are observed.

Real Property 

Our clients include developers, owner-operators, financial institutions and brokers. Recently, the firm has handled an increasing number of matters relating to problem loans, workouts, bankruptcies, and refinancings. We have considerable expertise in:
-      Acquisitions, sales and exchanges
-      Real estate closings, negotiations and counseling
-      Formation and operation of partnerships, limited liability companies and joint ventures
-      Retail, commercial, mixed-use, industrial leasing, real estate development and land use


Mergers, Acquisitions, Reorganizations and Sales 

Efficient and effective growth is imperative to business success. Productivity may be enhanced by business combinations and acquisitions. Success is sometimes measured by the timely disposition of assets. We have considerable experience in strategizing and structuring these landmark events.

Employment and Personnel Policies

Staffing is no longer merely a matter of signing a union contract or shaking hands. Employment discrimination, accommodations for persons with disabilities, wage and hour rules, harassment, workplace violence and employee privacy are only a few of the issues employers face. We provide counsel in all aspects of personnel practices, including employee, consultant and independent contractor relationships.

Trade Secrets, Trademarks and Technology

The most valuable assets of a business are often intangible -- confidential information, proprietary technology, trademark/tradename, customer/client lists and goodwill. Baylor & Jackson advises its clients in developing strategies to protect and enhance the value of your intellectual property. We also provide advice and documentation for technology licensing and transfers.

Service and Equipment Contracts

The day-to-day operation of business is sometimes the most vulnerable to dispute. We know your business or we learn it quickly. Your relationships with customers, suppliers, service contractors and others are less likely to end in expensive conflict if contracts are reviewed before signing. We are committed to forging productive long term alliances with our clients, keeping in mind that a brief time spent at the start saves a prolonged or expensive proceeding later.

Estate and Business Succession Planning

Many of our clients are family owned enterprises. Wealth accumulation and business success depend on long range planning. We work in evaluating investment strategies, planning and documenting vehicles (such as living trusts, buy-sell agreements and family limited partnerships), with your team of financial planning and insurance professionals, for retention or sharing of asset control, and ultimately providing for family or beneficiaries.

FORECLOSURE "RESCUE" SCAMS

 
"Scam artists fish where the fish are, and one of the great mother lodes of cold, hard cash these days is literally under many Americans' mattresses -- the homes they sleep in each night."
                           -National Consumer Law Center, 2005



What is a Foreclosure "Rescue" Scam?

It revolves around heavily-promoted deals supposedly designed to save the homes of people facing foreclosures, and those who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments.

The help from the rescuer does one of two things:

                        - Drains the property's built-up equity
                        - Leaves the rescuer owning the house 
                              outright -- and the family evicted from 
                              their home. 


These foreclosure scams can appear in the following forms:

               Phantom Help

                        This involves the rescuer charging 
                        outrageous fees for either phone  alls and 
                        paperwork the homeowner could have 
                        performed themselves, or on a promise of 
                        more robust representation that never 
                        materializes. Essentially, the rescuer 
                        abandons the homeowner to a fate that could 
                        have been prevented with better 
                        intervention. The homeowner has been left 
                        without enough assistance to actually save 
                        their home but with very little to no time left 
                        to prevent by the time they realize what has 
                        happened.

                 Bait-and-Switch

                        In this variant, the homeowner does not 
                        realize they are surrendering ownership of 
                        the house in exchange for a rescue. 
                        Homeowners believe they are signing 
                        documents for a new loan to make their 
                        mortgage current. In this scenario,  
                        homeowners are victims to having their 
                        homes transferred at a ridiculously small 
                        fraction of its actual value when they had
                        made it clear they had no intentions of selling 
                        or giving up their homes to anyone.

                 Bailout

                        This includes various schemes under which t
                        the homeowner surrenders title to the house 
                        believing that they have entered a deal 
                        where they are able to remain a renter and 
                        buy back their home in the next few years. 
                        The homeowner permanently loses possession
                        and the rescuer walks off with most or all of 
                        the home's equity.








Information obtained from:
         Dreams Foreclosed: The Rampant Theft of Americans' Homes Through Equity-Stripping Foreclosure 'Rescue' Scams by The Natinal Consumer Law Center, June 2005.

 

 
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