AVVO is not a safe place to describe your alleged crime!

We ask all of our clients to avoid posting details about their alleged crimes on ANY social media site. The internet is completely open to the public, and that includes the prosecutors seeking to put you in jail-- They read everything.

Below is an AVVO posting that appeared on July 8, 2017. This person is shocked that his AVVO questions made it to the criminal file maintained by the prosecutor's office. And if he admitted to bad things in those on-line postings, or perhaps shared details of the alleged crime not generally known to others, then evidence of the posting may well lead to his conviction.

The only safe place to be completely open about criminal accusations is within the sanctity of the attorney-client relationship. But if you have already disclosed details of the alleged crime on the internet before we establish an attorney-client relationship, you may have done great damage to your potential defenses.

My avvo questions and answers have made it to my criminal discovery in my robbery case Location: Washington, DC how did they make it there? can they be used against me? there are some ip logs from my internet service providers and a return of service there. what does that mean?

Dissolve your partnership? It takes more than a little bit of water.

We answer questions posted on AVVO. But space limitations don't always permit a full answer to interesting questions. Here's a very common issue- One business partner is "so over it" and wants to split away from the other partner (or multiple partners). How does he get out of the business relationship?








First, the original AVVO question, as it was posted by a non-lawyer, much as if the prospective client were sitting at our conference room table, over coffee:

Q: What is the exiting/minority owner entitled to when he/she leaves the business?: A partnership where the minority owner decides to leave the business. There is no prior 'record' as to what would happen or a buy/sell agreement in the event the partnership dissolves. If the remaining majority owner of the business wants the exiting partner officially removed from the business what can the remaining partner do with the exiting (minority) partner's percentage of ownership?

A: Thomas’s answer: It must be valued and paid. Absent a written agreement, the code and case law will control. This could drift to a lawsuit for dissolution if folks cannot agree.

Maryland's business code fills in the gaps when business partners don't have their paperwork  in order.  For example, with so much "self help" available to entrepreneurs the documents you think control how your business operates might not adequately address your business relationships and goals. They usually are very deficient in addressing how to dissolve or wind up your business.

Consider the code your default operating agreement.  It may not provide you with a perfect solution, but when coupled with the rules of court, it does provide the mechanisms to separate you from a bad business arrangement.

We most often see broken relationships where partners have stopped effectively communicating with each other, usually after an argument over goals or finances.  It is less often, but just as ordinary that we see one partner complain that the other has committed outright fraud or theft of shared business assets-- like money or opportunities. We have all heard about former business partners competing against each other. That competition might have started even while they were in business together!

Filing a lawsuit to separate partners by dissolving the business entity is costly. It also takes time.  Where partners can no longer communicate the court may appoint a receiver to take control of business assets. There will be depositions, forced mediation in the court, written discovery, document exchanges and expert analysis performed to determine the final accounting between partners.

And there is always the risk that you may owe money, even where you started the case thinking that others would pay money to you. You might even owe a hefty tax bill to Uncle Sam.

But where there is legitimate dispute, the court provides powerful tools to claw back misappropriated assets, and to bar others from profiting from use of partnership opportunities.

After working through contentious partner disputes for almost three decades, I assure it is always less expensive to to tighten up your basic business documents before the first argument, when everyone is still in like with each other. When disputes arise, as they most certainly will, talk, negotiate and settle without court intervention. And if that doesn't work, be ready to take time from your busy schedule to sit for deposition, where only the coffee is free.

Visit our website for more info about Young & Valkenet.

When truth cannot set you free, hire counsel.

We are often asked by potential clients accused of crimes, often referred by former clients, friends of the Firm or through AVVO.com, whether it is better to have private counsel or the public defender. The public defender exists to provide a basic criminal defense to those who cannot otherwise afford a lawyer.  And for the most part, the public defenders in Maryland do a fine job for their clients.

But sometimes, the public defender is just too overworked, as is demonstrated in this story out of Georgia.

As reported by Mother Jones in a story published August 6, 2015, Mr. Wyatt was re-arrested and charged for a crime that had already been prosecuted several years before. In fact, he had already served 179 days for the crime.  Yet, he sat in jail for another 110 days as the Georgia public defenders assigned to his case fumbled around, either ignoring his explanation of the prior case, or not promptly investigating the allegations.

Those who can afford their own defense counsel are truly fortunate- they receive personalized attention and prompt service by lawyers who often take their cause to heart.  But for those who cannot afford private pay counsel, the public defender can be hit-or-miss. Of course, the ordeal of Mr. Wyatt is an extreme outlier, but he could be any one of us.

Common legal questions answered in real time.