Blogs & Resources

Each year, children are injured or killed as a result of playground hazards, such as sharp edges, hot surfaces and surfacing, hard surfacing material, impacts from protrusions, poorly maintained equipment, or from head entrapments and entanglements. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that more than 200,000 children each year are injured severely enough on playgrounds to necessitate a trip to a hospital. Also the Commission estimates that between 5 and 15 children die each year as a result of dangerous or defective playgrounds.

Generally, the ability to serve on a condominium association’s board of directors is overlooked and not raised as an issue. While this may seem like good news for the association, it could create issues in the future. This blog will discuss the limitations on who may serve on the board of directors for a condominium association.

Determining the correct forum for any given dispute involving a Florida condo association or HOA can be confusing. Often times the board members, licensed managers and unit owners are unsure of where a dispute will be resolved if a party initiates formal legal action. Florida’s Condominium Act and HOA Act govern the procedures for community association disputes, and both Acts include arbitration, mediation and state court for resolving various issues. This blog post will provide an overview of the appropriate forum for both condo associations and HOAs to resolve certain disputes in Florida.

When a real estate transaction fails to close, there are a multitude of legal issues that arise for the buyer, seller, and real estate broker. Often times the buyer’s earnest money binder or “deposit” is being held by a third party escrow agent. Both the buyer and seller are making conflicting claims to the binder. Section 475.25(1)(d)1., Florida Statutes, sets for the statutory procedure that real estate professionals should follow in the event of conflicting binder claims. Remember that real estate agents and brokers are regulated by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation so they must follow some specific procedures in the event of a binder dispute. These procedure are outlined generally by Florida Realtors® and include seeking an Escrow Disbursement Order, Arbitration, Mediation or Interpleader. This blog will focus on the use of Interpleader Actions for escrow binder disputes in Florida.

Quite often a creditor discovers that one of its debtors has avoided satisfying a liability by fraudulently transferring assets to another individual or entity. This is a frustrating discovery, but the creditor is not without remedies. Under Florida Statutes fraudulent transfers can be attacked and unwound through two methods. The popular method is filing a lawsuit to include a statutory cause of action to invalidate the fraudulent transfer under Chapter 726, Florida Statutes. A lesser used approach is through a post-judgment procedure known as proceedings supplementary under Section 56.29, Florida Statutes. This blog post discusses these two differing approaches for unwinding fraudulent transfers, when proceedings supplementary is the preferable approach, and a related doctrine of Florida common law known as the Diligent Creditor Rule.

Featured in the December 2015 Issue Partner’s Perspective: How Can You Serve? J&C Partner Selected to ABC National Board of Directors New Law Blogs Curiosities, Ruminations and Various Eccentricities of Firm Biz Click to read.

When deciding whether to pursue legal action, a condominium association board of directors may ask “can we recover the attorneys’ fees?” The good news for associations is that Florida Statutes and the governing documents of the community provide entitlement to the recovery of attorneys’ fees in many legal actions. The bad news is that this recovery is not without limitation. This blog will explore limitations on the recovery of attorneys’ fees and the provisions that may be important to include in the governing documents for the community.

When the Florida Supreme Court wrote the Tiara Condominium opinion the legal community was unsure what the opinion meant. Tiara Condominium Association, Inc. v. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc,., 110 So.3d 399 (Fla. 2013). The opinion clearly states that the economic loss doctrine is applicable only in the context of premises liability cases. However, did Tiara Condominium also eliminate the contractual privity economic loss rule, which was sometimes referred to as the independent tort doctrine? There still is not absolute clarity on this topic but the reasoned decision is that the independent tort doctrine preceded the economic loss rule and is not abolished by Tiara Condominium.

Whether due to economic hardships, mismanagement, unforeseen circumstances, or even fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, a condo or homeowners association may find itself in desperate need of help.  Additionally, properties that have been neglected may also be running afoul of local code compliance regulations or may be so far […]

Featured in the November 2015 Issue Partner’s Perspective: A Time to Give Thanks J&C Partner Elected Vice-Chair of CILB J&C Construction Law Seminar New Law Blogs Curiosities, Ruminations and Various Eccentricities of Firm Biz Click to read.