Insights
What the courts and regulators are doing, and how the law works.
Latest
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Title insurance, and what the exceptions mean
The policy is defined by what it excludes. The exceptions page is the one to read.
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Title endorsements worth requesting
Coverage beyond the basic policy, and what each addresses.
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Making a title insurance claim
The policy is a contract with notice conditions and a duty to defend.
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Curing title defects
The routine problems found in a search, and how each is fixed.
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Reading a title commitment
Schedule B is the part that matters, and it is the part most buyers skip.
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Subpoenas to non-parties
Getting documents from people who are not in the case, without making them an opponent.
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Diligence on agents and intermediaries
Third parties are the source of most corruption exposure, and the controls are well established.
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Third-party beneficiaries
Someone who never signed can sometimes sue on the contract, if the parties meant them to benefit.
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The business judgment rule, and how claims get past it
It protects the process, not the outcome. That is why viable claims are about who was in the room rather than about the decision.
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Text messages as evidence
Collection, authentication and the phone that was replaced.
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Online terms and enforceability
Whether the user agreed, which decides arbitration and everything else.
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Termination rights and break fees
Walking away from a signed deal, and what it costs to do so.
Archive
Guides and explainers
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Books and records: the demand that comes before the lawsuit
Owners have a statutory right to inspect company records. Used properly it is the cheapest fact-finding tool available, and often decides whether there is a case at all.
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Breach of contract: what you actually have to prove
Four elements, and the one that decides most cases is not the breach.
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Claims against a municipality: the deadlines that end cases early
Governmental immunity and short statutory notice periods dispose of more municipal claims than the merits do.
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Commercial lease disputes: where they usually start
Most commercial lease fights are not about rent. They are about notice, condition, and what the lease says happens when one side stops performing.
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Employee or independent contractor: why the label does not decide
The agreement can say contractor. Whether it is one depends on the working relationship, and different agencies apply different tests to the same facts.
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Fair value in a buyout: why the number moves so much
Two experts valuing the same company on the same date can be far apart, and most of the gap comes from three decisions made before anyone opens a spreadsheet.
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How an appeal actually works
An appeal is not a second trial. Understanding what an appellate court will and will not do is the difference between a viable appeal and an expensive one.
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Internal investigations: what one actually looks like
A complaint arrives. What happens next, in what order, and the decisions that determine whether the investigation is worth anything.
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Litigation holds: when the duty starts and what it covers
The obligation to preserve begins before a lawsuit is filed. Getting the timing wrong is one of the few mistakes that can lose a case you would otherwise win.
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Non-compete agreements: what makes one enforceable
Courts do not ask whether an employee signed. They ask whether the restriction protects something the employer is entitled to protect, and whether it goes further than it needs to.
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What is shareholder oppression?
Minority owners in a closely held company can be squeezed out without anyone ever breaching the operating agreement. Oppression is the name the law gives that problem.
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What to do when your company receives a subpoena
The first week matters more than the rest. Preserve, scope, and do not let anyone start deleting.
By practice area
Also on this site
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In the News
Where the firm’s work has been covered, including the Detroit News and Bloomberg Law on Michigan ballot-access litigation.
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Michigan Cases
Representative matters our lawyers have handled, from constitutional litigation to shareholder disputes and appellate argument.
Written by the Esshaki Legal Media Team. Questions, corrections or inaccuracies: media@esshakilegal.com.