My business partner and I helped build a company from scratch. As an independent sales organization, we brought in numerous corparate accounts. Within 6 month, finanancials were strong and the endorsements we won provided much needed credibility. Along with our reoccuring commissions, ownership voted us 2% ownership for our work. Life was grand. We were cruising, making significant REOCCURRING monthly income!! And that 2% ownership sure look like it would help fund our retirement down the road. However (yup, here it comes) we never got a straight answer when we inquired where our ownership papers were. Months turned into years, so we had no choice but to get our lawyers involved. Once our lawyers got involved, things turned ugly real fast. Our reoccurring commissions were revoked (for some lame reason) and we were forced to sue. Did we have a strong case?? Well, to start, we had two of the four owners testifying on OUR behalf. Slam dunk, right? Not on your life. The ONLY thing you can be assured of in litigation are lawyer bills. They come hard and fast. To the tune of 50K over the first 10 months... and we weren't even close to trial yet!!!! The Reader's Digest version is that we ended up settling for several hundred thousand dollars. After paying off our lawyers, my partner and I walked away with about 90K each. So you tell me, who won? Not hard to figure out.
The lawyers.
GLTAL!
Yaz
