California’s sales rep protection statute, among the nation’s strongest, mandates an award of treble damages to a rep who does not receive commissions as provided in the contract.
“They will be surprised to learn that, under the default rule the Court adopts today, an at-will salesperson is entitled to commissions for any sale – here, perhaps hundreds of thousands of sales – a jury determines the salesperson ‘set in motion.’ And they will be stunned to learn that, under the default rule, the entitlement to commissions may extend years after their employment relationship ended.”
Some sales rep cases turn on persnickety contract language or ambiguous terms. Other rep cases involve arcane questions of law. Then there’s the case brought by sales rep Lindsie Williamson that worked its way up to the Supreme Court of Utah in November 2022.
The ownership of life insurance is a much-needed component of business succession and personal financial plans. Life insurance needs vary from funding needed to purchase the ownership interest of a business partner upon death, creating liquidity for the family of a decedent for the payment of estate taxes or providing cash for surviving family members.
“Effective sales reps are the lifeblood of this market.”
U.S. District Judge R. Brooks Jackson was describing how medical implants manufacturers deploy sales reps with not only the character traits to develop relationships with surgeons, but also the medical knowledge necessary to help the surgeons use their products in the operating room.
For many small business owners, the key retirement plan decision is not what type of plan to adopt, but where the 401(k) plan funds should be invested. While 401(k) plans are the overwhelmingly popular plan of choice for employers, consider that alternative plan design options are available to maximize benefits for company owners with both 401(k) plans and other types of qualified retirement plans.
Like other businesses, sales representative organizations are purchased and sold for a variety of reasons. What distinguishes sales representative organizations in the purchase and sale context is that the owners generally do not sell their businesses to unrelated third parties.
In the last week of February 2022, the Electronics Representatives Association (“ERA”) held its much anticipated, long-awaited, first in-person industry event since COVID at the AT&T Center on the University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas.
Akstrom Imports Inc. raised several interesting arguments in defense of the claims brought by Minnesota sales representative Kinneberg Management Group (KMG), including that, as a Canadian distributor, it was not subject to the jurisdiction of a Minnesota federal court. Even if it was, Akstrom continued, Canadian law still controlled, not Minnesota’s pesky sales rep statute.
A sales rep legal column that doesn’t speak of terminations or commissions? That doesn’t mention succession planning or tax issues? Not even a state sales rep statute?
What’s left to discuss?
Well, there’s Walter Blockmon III. Or more precisely, the late Walter Blockmon III.