What Does A Business Transactional Lawyer Do?

Business transactional lawyers are flexible and knowledgeable problem solvers who help business owners with the legal aspects of complex transactions. Business transactional attorneys have proficiency in corporate and partnership law, commercial law, contract law, securities regulation, financial planning and bankruptcy and are skilled in drafting and negotiating legal agreements. They are expert in communicating clearly with prospective clients and creative in solving their problems.

Business transactional lawyers are engineers of the legal system who help business owners by drafting contracts and building business entities. They help businesses in arranging finances, designing strategies and navigating different business regulations. Business transactional lawyers counsel business organizations on different legal issues generated from different business dealings.

Business transactional lawyers make their clients understand the different problems they are facing currently or problems they might face in the near future. Business transactional attorneys assist businesses in negotiating and drafting business contracts, advising them about the different compliance matters, helping them to file forms required for legal purposes such as tax exemption applications, counseling them on licensing matters, intellectual property, or real estate.

Business Transactional lawyers help business owners with the following issues and problems:

Starting a business:

Businesses face a lot of confusion while choosing between an S Corp, an LLC or other business types. Any wrong decision taken by businesses often becomes incredibly costly to fix. Transactional lawyers help them to make the right decision.

Writing contracts- Business transactional lawyers help businesses in drafting forms or contracts to meet their specific needs.

Disputes in Contracts/Breach in Contracts-

Business transactional lawyers advocate and negotiate on behalf of business owners in different situations such as when a contract is disputed, or when prospective clients are not paying etc.

Resolving business issues and claims-

Businesses can run into serious problems anytime related to discrimination, sexual harassment, workplace safety, disability, sick leaves etc. Business transactional lawyers help businesses by educating them about the different laws and practices applicable during those situations and represent them when such situation arises.

Compliance and Risk Management-

Business transactional lawyers advise businesses about the different compliance issues and develop different systems that monitor such issues and minimize risk.

Property and Real Estate Disputes

Business owners need the assistance of business transactional lawyers during owning a new property or leasing it. Business transactional attorneys help them in negotiating lease and sales by navigating confusing and complex real estate laws.

Understanding The Basics Of The Different Food Safety Laws And Its Requirements

In an efficient food control system, national legal frameworks are the key pillar. Food is governed in all nations by a number of laws and regulations that set out the demands of the governing body to be met by food chain operators to ensure that the food produced is of adequate quality and is safe and secure for consumption.

"Food law" applies to legislation regulating the manufacturing, trade and handling of food and therefore includes the regulation of food control, food safety and appropriate aspects of trade in food. Few quality requirements are incorporated in the food law to ensure that the food produced is unadulterated and is not subjected to fraudulent practices aimed at deceiving the consumer. Food safety laws cover the entire process starting with provisions for animal feed and on farm controls, food production and processing, final distribution and consumption by the consumers.

As per the food safety laws, food manufacturers must essentially ensure that their products are safe for consumption and will not make people ill. In order to safeguard consumer health, food manufacturing companies must incorporate a food safety plan to meet the different foodsafety laws and regulations. They need to formulate a food safety plan in line with HACCP which stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point with which they can carry out necessary measures concerning:

·      Personal hygiene of their staff

·      Maintaining hygiene during the transportation and distribution of raw materials such as milk packets or containers.

·      Method by which the food products are processed or treated such as using clean equipments to cut bread.

·      Ways by which food products are packaged and labeled.

·      Ways by which the food products manufactured are stored.

The different food safety responsibilities every business should take:

·      All food manufacturing businesses must ensure that the foods manufactured are safe and secure to eat.

·      They should ensure that the food items they produce are not treated in a way that could make them harmful for consumption.

·      They should ensure that fish and other livestock are safely harvested, contain safe ingredients and are free of harmful pathogens.

·      Every food manufacturing business or company should display the food hygiene rating.

·      They should inform the higher authority in case they discover traces of undesirable substances such as pesticide residues, toxic moulds, or harmful bacteria like listeria in the food items.

·      They should withdraw or destroy any unsafe food immediately and report people why the food has been withdrawn through a poster or leaflet.

·      It is very important for the different food manufacturing units to include information about the different additives being added to the food products and should ensure that the additive must not exceed the maximum permitted limit.

·      It is extremely important for all food manufacturing units to maintain accurate records of what they do on a daily basis including ordering histories, task checklists, temperature logs etc.

The vital role played by a food lawyer in case of food borne illnesses

The habit of home cooked food is becoming a myth now as in today’s fast paced world people are getting more and more used to fast foods or processed foods. Preparing a meal is time consuming and people nowadays are so busy that cooking has taken a back seat. It is far easier to pick up something or the other from the supermarket shelf and pour a little hot water into it, or oven-heat it and have a ready lunch or dinner in two minutes flat. In today’s world everyone is running around to meet their deadlines and therefore these processed food or fast food has become the ideal solution for the time crunched population. Ready made food both tastes good and is easy to procure. They are also cheap and tasty so no doubt more and more families or even single people are getting into the habit of consuming fast food or preserved food.  There are stores all over the world that are selling a variety of ready-made pastes, bread spreads, mixes, jellies, jams and or simply eat out at cafes, restaurants, pubs, bars, or even roadside stalls having n array of tasty spreads. But all that is easy has some or other drawbacks. There are no shortcuts to good health and there are a number of drawbacks and health hazards that becomes apparent with continuous fast food eating.  

People place all their trust on the people who manufacture these food products without having any real knowledge about the ingredients that are put in such items and hence might as well be consuming harmful substances which do more harm than good to an individual’s health. The direct result of these can be seen in the various foodborne illnesses. “Food safety” is a word that has been coined for controlling the different stages of food production, manufacturing and processing so that when the end consumer actually consumes this food they are eating things which are free from harmful chemicals, man-made tampering, and other substances that enhance the color and look of the food products. But there are loopholes in the system despite the various stringent checking methods and therefore there is no guarantee when a food product or a finished food becomes contaminated and pose a health hazard to the consumer. There are various stages where a food can become contaminated, like when a raw food is developed in contaminated soil or water. There can be different kinds of viruses, animal or human waste, bacteria, and other chemical components that can contaminate the soil or the water, and these can be passed into the produce. These foods when cooked can cause illness to the person who is consuming it and that is the classic example of food borne sickness. This is where a food lawyer can help the consumer to sue the seller or the eatery for the damages caused by food poisoning.

Many people are unaware of the fact that they can claim compensation for the suffering that has been caused to them by a contaminated food product, whether cooked or uncooked. A food lawyer will help the victim of the food poisoning to gather evidence that a particular food or restaurant is responsible for the food borne illness and prepare the case accordingly so that the victim receives the adequate compensation for all the hospital and treatment bills. Thus, next time you have an upset stomach, think hard and you will most probably find that it is the result of food poisoning rather than stomach flu. There are various other symptoms of food poisoning and they can be pretty serious. You can suffer from symptoms like vomiting, abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea because chances are that the food you ate at that corner eatery served you food which had different viruses, parasites, and bacteria. There are many different types of bacteria like Campylobacter, Salmonella, Botulism, E.Coli, which can cause food borne sickness. There is serious food poisoning which includes noroviruses rotaviruses and hepatitis A. Harsh food poisoning can cause you to visit the hospital to help you recover and miss work and pay. The other side effects are lost wages as well as high medical bills which cannot be ignored. Hence the guilty party should pay and a lawyer will help in precisely preparing the case which proves your case in the court of law.