Shockingly, many restaurant leases fail to account for parking. More often, the landlord considers whether there is enough parking before entering into the restaurant lease negotiations, but they don’t account for it in their leases. Still, few, if any, restaurant leases actually guaranty parking or even address it. This article establishes the pros and cons… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Liability
Subscribe to Liability RSS FeedWhen To Use Letters of Intent In Buying a Restaurant
Posted in Acquisitions, Contracts, Liability, NegotiationLetters of intent can be confusing. Are they contracts? Are they binding? When should they be used? It’s important to know when to use letters of intent because they can be valuable tools that can save time and money. We receive these questions all the time, so here are some concepts that will help. What… Continue Reading
Confusing Expiration Labels Cost Texas Restaurants
Posted in Legislation, Liability, News, Recent Law TrendsAll restaurants have to deal with the issue of throwing away food at the end of the day. According to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a powerful environmental action group and the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, confusing and inconsistent food date labeling causes restaurants to throw out significantly more food than is… Continue Reading
All Press Is Good Press For Texas Restaurants
Posted in Commentary, Intellectual Property, Liability, NewsSome of you may have heard the latest uproar caused by Pizza Patrón. Known for its undaunted ability to generate press from clever, edgy marketing campaigns, Pizza Patrón’s latest endeavor was to name a pizza, La Chingona. While the name really just means “badass” in Spanish, it is derived from such an offensive root word… Continue Reading
South By Southwest Deaths Highlight Alcohol Issues For Texas Restaurants
Posted in Alcohol, Asset Protection, Commentary, Employees & Waitstaff, Legislation, Liability, Litigation, News, Recent Law TrendsThree people are now confirmed dead in the recent car crash tragedy at South By Southwest. (Click here for the article by Quita Culpepper from KVUE.com.) According to the article, these people were “injured on Thursday, March 13 outside The Mohawk when Rashad Owens, 21, is said to have barreled into a crowd of festival-goers… Continue Reading
Can Texas Restaurant Owners Deduct the Costs of Repairs From Lease Rental Payments?
Posted in Contracts, Legislation, Liability, Litigation, Negotiation, Real EstateNearly all restaurant tenants face challenges with their lease at some point. Often these challenges come in the form of needed repairs to the property caused by the landlord’s substandard maintenance of the property. The landlord may delay making necessary repairs, make inadequate repairs, or even refuse to make some repairs. After haggling with the… Continue Reading
How To Compensate Key Restaurant Employees
Posted in Employees & Waitstaff, Employment, Liability, LitigationMany, if not all, restaurants have extremely valuable employees, and it is often important to find a way to compensate these employees in such a way as to make sure they stick around long-term. But what is the best way to compensate those invaluable employees? This post shows how profit sharing can be a solution… Continue Reading
Five Tips On Transitioning A Restaurant
Posted in Acquisitions, Alcohol, Contracts, Liability, Negotiation, Real EstateYou may have just acquired a restaurant or perhaps you are days away. What are the main things to consider in the transition? This week, we decided to answer this question, to focus on restaurant transitions, what makes them go well and what makes them go badly. Assuming that the sale of the restaurant was… Continue Reading
The Top 7 Things To Consider Before Buying A Restaurant
Posted in Acquisitions, Alcohol, Contracts, Corporate Entity, Employment, Intellectual Property, Liability, Litigation, Real EstateThere are so many things to consider when buying a restaurant that we decided to break that list down to just seven issues. If you only look at these issues, you should avoid most of the big hazards when you buy your next restaurant. Now, this assumes that you have some idea of the restaurant… Continue Reading
Top Ten Tax Mistakes for Restaurant Owners
Posted in Corporate Entity, Employees & Waitstaff, Franchises, Liability, Litigation, Real Estate, Recent Law TrendsWe all know how important restaurant taxes are to restaurant owners. Last week, our own tax counsel, David Gair, outlined his Top Ten Tax Mistakes for Restaurant Owner on TexasTaxTalk.com, so TexasRestaurantLaw.com decided to share it as well. Here is the list in its entirety: Employee Classification – Misclassifying workers as independent contractors and not… Continue Reading
What Is Restaurant Intellectual Property?
Posted in Acquisitions, Competition, Contracts, Employees & Waitstaff, Intellectual Property, Liability, Litigation, Negotiation, VendorsAt TexasRestaurantLaw.com, we have covered “Who Owns Your Restaurant Name?” and “Is Your Restaurant Recipe Safe?” However, we have not previously discussed the many parts of restaurant intellectual property. This post shows some of the most critical pieces that encompass restaurant intellectual property. Your Name & Brand We all hear that branding is everything. Likewise,… Continue Reading
How To Deal With Restaurant Partner Disputes
Posted in Commentary, Contracts, Corporate Entity, Franchises, Franchising, Liability, Litigation, NegotiationThere are many motivations for restaurant creation and investment. However, these different desires can lead to conflict, so how are restaurant operators, owners, and investors supposed to resolve these conflicts? This post answers that question, and it gives a game plan to operators, owners, and investors to deal with these inevitable conflicts. Step One: Avoid… Continue Reading
Sugar And Horses: How To Deal With Restaurant Supply Issues?
Posted in Commentary, Liability, Litigation, Negotiation, News, Recent Law Trends, VendorsTwo recent news stories present the issue of how restaurants should deal with supply issues. The first story is the infamous horse meat scandal that has plagued Burger King in the United Kingdom since January. Click here for that story. The second story appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal. It deals with the fact that… Continue Reading
When To Terminate A Restaurant Transaction
Posted in Acquisitions, Commentary, Competition, Contracts, Franchises, Franchising, Liability, Litigation, NegotiationRestaurant transactions are similar to the old Kenny Rogers song, The Gambler – “You’ve got to know when to walk away, and know when to run!” Perspective is so important in general, and in restaurant transactions, you must know when to move forward on deals and when to kill them. But how do you determine… Continue Reading
What Makes Restaurant Litigation So Darn Expensive?
Posted in Liability, Litigation, NegotiationWe get this question quite a bit. There’s a dispute. Our restaurant client knows they are right. The restaurant wants a quick result and wants it done inexpensively. What in the world is takes so long or costs so much? Shown below are some answers to this question and some ways to reduce your litigation… Continue Reading
Biggest Legal Causes Of Restaurant Failures
Posted in Acquisitions, Commentary, Franchises, Franchising, Liability, Litigation, Negotiation, Real Estate, Recent Law TrendsJust this week, two of my favorite restaurants in Dallas closed operations. This led me to consider the biggest issues I have seen that factored into a troubled restaurant. A few of these may not be a surprise, but you may be shocked at others. Consider this list of top legal reasons why restaurants fail:… Continue Reading
The Absolutely Essential Issues In A Restaurant Lease
Posted in Acquisitions, Contracts, Corporate Entity, Franchises, Franchising, Liability, Litigation, Negotiation, Real EstateLeasing is a big issue for restaurants. Almost all restaurants at least start out leasing their space. Often, restaurants are required to lease their space to capture the prime locations of a given area. For these reasons and many more, it is vital for restaurant owners to pay close attention to leasing terms. The following… Continue Reading
Can An Email Bind Your Restaurant Like A Contract?
Posted in Acquisitions, Commentary, Contracts, Employees & Waitstaff, Liability, Litigation, Negotiation, Recent Law Trends, VendorsWe all think of email as a convenience. The same is true for text messages. These are just easy ways to communicate. They don’t really mean anything. Right? Wrong! Email and text messages are some of the most dangerous tools created. They are powerful. They are permanent. And in Texas, they are binding. Don’t believe… Continue Reading
How To Handle Alcohol Liability Claims
Posted in Alcohol, Liability, Litigation, Recent Law TrendsWith the tragic death of Dallas Cowboy’s player Jerry Brown, Jr. still fresh in our minds, it is more important than ever to be wary of potential liability from alcohol distribution. (For the latest on that story, see this link from an article written by Elissa Repko and Selwyn Crawford at the Dallas Morning News)…. Continue Reading
The Top Five Consumer Myths About Restaurant Law
Posted in Employees & Waitstaff, Legislation, Liability, Recent Law TrendsOne of the more entertaining aspects of restaurant law is dealing with consumer myths. We are consistently challenged by consumers over seemingly insignificant issues. However, for these restaurant customers, these issues are indeed significant, so we thought we would share their concerns. Whether you have dealt with these issues or not, this post should let… Continue Reading
The Single Biggest Mistake Made When Selling A Restaurant
Posted in Acquisitions, Contracts, Liability, Litigation, NegotiationNow that we’re all stuffed and overweight after Thanksgiving, I thought that I would mention another type of over-doing it: your representations to a potential buyer when you decide to sell a restaurant. These representations are critical to the success of a sale, both before negotiations begin and after you close on the sale. With… Continue Reading
Loan Documents: 3 Top Issues For Restaurant Borrowers
Posted in Contracts, Lending, Liability, NegotiationAs much as we wanted to tie in Thanksgiving to this post (think puns on words like “gobble”, “pilgrim” or “stuffing”), we thought that you might want to know more about loan issues this week. The economy is still not in full recovery mode, and as such, we are still dealing with some bank work-outs…. Continue Reading
Restaurant Non-Competes: Are They Worth It?
Posted in Contracts, Employees & Waitstaff, Employment, Liability, Litigation, Recent Law TrendsA funny thing happened recently. When Lauren Drewes Daniels at The Dallas Observer featured TexasRestaurantLaw.com last week at this link, a controversy ensued between folks that commented on the article. The dispute involved whether non-competes were valid and enforceable in Texas. Apparently, it is a common myth that non-compete agreements are not enforceable in Texas,… Continue Reading
Is Franchising The Only Key To Restaurant Success?
Posted in Contracts, Franchises, Franchising, Legislation, Liability, Litigation, NegotiationWe talk a lot here about franchising and for good reason. After all, many restaurant owners make great money by developing or buying into a great franchise concept. However, some restaurant owners take a different approach: they develop their own brand and remain the key figure in each additional restaurant. Stephen Pyles is one such… Continue Reading