Working With a Franchise Lawyer
Although franchises and dealerships are universal throughout our country, franchise and dealership law is surprisingly difficult and obscure. You may be asking yourself, do I need a franchise lawyer? We’re here to help you navigate this intricate business and protect your rights and investments.
Michael Garner is fond of telling the story that he won one of his first cases because the other side’s lawyer – a well-respected general practitioner — did not know about the franchise law in his own state and failed to take action that could have changed the result!
Franchise law is taught in only a handful of law schools, and the special laws that protect franchisees and dealers are different from state to state. California’s franchise law is completely different from New Jersey’s. Some states protect all types of franchisees, while others protect only farm equipment dealers or beer distributors or office equipment dealers. Franchise lawyers need a specialized law library at their fingertips to do their job right! Michael Garner’s books are usually in those libraries.
But knowing the specialized laws is not enough – a good franchise attorney needs to also have thorough training and knowledge of all the other special laws that affect franchises and dealerships: the law of contracts; antitrust and trade regulation; fraud; trademarks; bankruptcy; and other fields.
First, you can expect a prompt response and assessment of your legal situation. In most cases, we will provide a free preliminary consultation, in which we will assess your rights and liabilities and give you a preliminary view of what can be done, how we will do it and the approximate range of what it will cost.
In most cases, if you need help right away, we will immediately turn to your situation and give you help.
Michael Garner will be directly responsible for your case. In some cases, he will be assisted by other lawyers working under his direct supervision.
Michael is a member of the bars of Minnesota, New Jersey and New York. In other states, temporary admission is usually available for purposes of a particular case.
Every case is different, so we can’t generalize about costs. But we can say that every client deserves a fair budget, and no surprises when the bill comes.