Corporations Cannot Represent Themselves in Court

July 8, 2011 at 8:14 am | Latest News | No comment | By Chris Cramer

On July 5, 2011, Division One of the Washington State Court of Appeals in Dutch Village Mall v. Raymond Pelletti affirmed the longstanding rule that a corporation must be represented by a lawyer in order to litigate its rights in court.  The facts of the case are familiar to many corporations: Dutch Village Mall (“DVM”) is a single member limited liability company (“LLC”) attempting to collect unpaid rent and other related damages from a former tenant.  DVM’s sole owner, member, and officer Mr. Lei attempted to represent the LLC himself in pursuit of the unpaid rent.  The court rejected Mr. Lei’s representation of DVM because he was not a lawyer.

 Individuals have the legal right of self-representation in Washington courts, but that right only applies if the individual is acting solely on his/her own behalf with respect to his/her  individual legal rights and obligations.  Individuals appearing before the court on behalf of another party must be licensed in the practice of law.  “Because a corporation is an artificial entity, necessarily its interests in a court proceeding must be represented by a person acting on its behalf. Representing another person or entity in court is the practice of law. To practice law, one must be an attorney. Thus Washington, like all federal courts, follows the common law rule that corporations appearing in court proceedings must be represented by an attorney.”   

 The Dutch Village Mall Court provided another reason for prohibiting lay representation of a corporation as the inequity of allowing an individual “to establish the protections of a corporation and then not require that he also face the burdens of incorporation,” finding that the consideration is not a mere technicality.  As Mr. Lei acknowledged, the purpose of forming an LLC is to limit liability.  “If DVM were the defendant in this lawsuit instead of the plaintiff, it is unlikely that Mr. Lei would accept the personal liability that would come with him and his company being one and the same person.”

 If you have a corporation that needs to enforce its legal rights—Beresford Booth can help. 

How Your Online Presence Can Affect Your Legal Position

July 7, 2011 at 7:57 am | Latest News | No comment | By Chris Cramer

In this modern age of almost limitless information available on the internet, it is important for people to understand their online presence may affect their future as well as any future case they may be involved in, and ultimately, their legal position. This is a concept many people find hard to wrap their heads around—despite the internet creating a free, immediate, and surprisingly effective tool to research any opponent, adversary, witness, or party.

From a litigation perspective, attorneys previously were only able to get a glimpse into the lives of opposing parties through traditional methods of gathering information like discovery requests and the occasional deposition.  A deposition conducted under oath will always remain valuable in litigation – but candid comments from a fact witness posted online or photos obtained from social networking sites can sometimes be infinitely more valuable to the pursuit of clients’ legal rights.  Evidence posted online is available to anyone resourceful enough and motivated enough to find it—at costs significantly less than more traditional discovery methods.

Certain legal practice areas are seeing more widespread use of internet gathered evidence than others. For example, information obtained on social networking sites are playing an increasing role in family law matters—where the personal lives of the parties oftentimes are center stage in the larger legal dispute. However, almost any aspect of modern litigation draws upon internet research tools – from district attorneys checking social network sites for information on potential jurors to litigation associates researching debtor assets through varied search engine queries.

The message here is everyone needs to understand the scope of their online presence. While the internet is an amazing resource, people are now required to be aware information available online can and probably will be found by parties adverse to their own interests if such information becomes relevant in a legal dispute.

Should you find yourself in need of resourceful legal representation, please contact me at (425) 776-4100 or chrisc@beresfordlaw.com.  I have litigated matters in both state and federal court for almost a decade, but am still consistently surprised by how information posted online can affect an opposing party’s legal position.