M&K Attorneys, APC

If you have a matter of civil litigation that you need handled in a professional manner and quickly, trust in M&K Attorneys, APC. We know how important it is to have a positive outcome, whether you are a defendant or plaintiff. Here at M&K Attorneys, APC, we deal with matters of contract law, as well as of misappropriation of your image, name and likeness. As these can sometimes be quite complicated, you need to have someone on your side who knows exactly what they are doing and specializes in this area. Our fully qualified legal team is dedicated to assisting clients with these matters to achieve the best outcome possible.

Contract Law

Contracts are an extremely important part of the world today. Nearly everyone has been a party to a contract at some point or another. When the terms that are written into a contract or orally agreed upon are perfectly carried out, it is beneficial to all parties involved. It offers them a form of protection and helps to make people feel more comfortable with conducting business and other types of transactions, especially with individuals and companies or other organizations they are not familiar with.

There are several types of contracts which are invalid by their very nature, in the state of California. They may be valid if they are written and subscribed by the party or party’s agent to be charged. These include, but are not exclusive to, those agreements that may not be performed within a year of drafting the contract, leases of more than one year, agreements that may not be performed within a year by the promisor, and matters of grants or loan money for more than $100,000.

Although it is possible to find basic contract forms online to create for your own use, you may want to go through a professional for matters that are a bit more complicated. For instance, employment contracts can contain many elements that someone who is not familiar with employment law likely will not understand. For this reason, you should speak to an attorney who is well-versed in contract law prior to signing any such document. You do not want to end up in a situation that is not what you expected and is more than what you bargained for.

We also are proficient at putting together contracts. If you want assistance with drafting a contract, then all you have to do is give us the details which you would like to have included in the document. If there need to be any changes made to the terms afterwards or you need an entirely new contract, we can take care of that for you, as well. We want to make our clients happy with high quality services and documents that you can trust.

Misappropriation

In many states, it is possible to be sued for using someone else’s name, image, or his or her likeness, if this is for the purpose of exploiting the person in some way. This is the case in California. You must have the individual’s permission in order to use any image depicting the person, and you cannot impersonate him or her, whether it is in written form or in person.

One typical way in which people get into trouble for this is the use of photographs for commercial purposes. Also, the misappropriation of images that are used for personal reasons can get someone into legal trouble. This also applies to using someone’s name in either of these manners.

Two different legal claims exist when it comes to misappropriation. They each involve different legal remedies.

 
It is only possible for individuals to file a legal claim in regards to misappropriation. Corporations or other types of organizations are not able to do so. This is due to the fact that only individual people have a right to privacy under the law. This means that only individuals can sue, unless a person has transferred his or her rights to an organization. However, corporations may sue under unfair competition and trademark infringement if their brand names are used for unauthorized purposes.

Some states do not allow for celebrities to sue on the grounds of invasion of privacy, because they do not have any private interests to protect. At the same time, individuals who are not celebrities sometimes are not able to sue on the grounds of violation of the right of publicity, since this has to do with the commercial value of their names and likenesses. Also, people who are deceased cannot be considered to be victims of misappropriation, so no one can sue on a deceased person’s behalf. The right of privacy may still exist after death in many states, especially in the case of celebrities.

There are three elements that must be proven in order to have a solid claim. They are as follows:

 
Back to Top of Page