Years ago, oppressed minority shareholders in New Jersey corporations had more protection than oppressed members of a New Jersey LLC. When the statute was revised in 2014, that changed, and LLC members now have similar remedies available to them. But there is one little-known section of the New Jersey LLC statute that makes it a more powerful tool for the majority owners than the corporate statute – the ability to “dissociate” a member. » Read More

As many of you have read here before, the New Jersey Limited Liability Company Act now includes recovery for minority member oppression. Those remedies cannot be waived, as a matter of law. However, the parties to an LLC’s operating agreement (or a corporation’s shareholder agreement) can agree to an alternate dispute resolution (“ADR”) mechanism in advance, impacting the forum in which these issues will be decided. » Read More

Recently, a defendant testified in a deposition that I was conducting that there was no reason that he could not fire my client, who was a 28% minority shareholder in a New Jersey corporation.  Since the defendant was the majority (51%) owner, he believed he could fire whomever he wanted. » Read More

I have written extensively about the difference between the law in New Jersey protecting a minority shareholder in a corporation, and the law protecting a minority member in a limited liability company (LLC).  Most lawyers practicing extensively in this area of law have long argued, and believed, that the statute protecting minority shareholders in a corporation from what is considered “shareholder oppression” does not apply to LLC’s (much as we may want it to).  » Read More