What's the biggest legal hassle you've faced?

One time, a child climbed up on a display fixture and it toppled over on top of her. It was very scary. The fixtures are sturdy, but they're not made for climbing on. The people did put in an insurance claim, but fortunately our security camera happened to catch the young girl four feet up on the thing, and because we had that photographic evidence, the claim just went away. Another time was when we negotiated our lease for our mall store. I was out of my league negotiating with these people. We hired someone to negotiate for us, and he was worth every penny. He negotiated common charges down several dollars a square foot. He also introduced us to the concept of leasehold improvements where we got paid almost $100,000 to open the mall store. We took the concept back to the landlord of our original location to add a tile floor at his expense.

The biggest legal question we had to deal with was when we separated the stores. We used to have two, but the Grove Homescapes and Homescapes Carmel went their own ways. The names are so similar that there's a lot of confusion, both in billing and in the consumer's mind. Even the garbage man from one store would end up calling the other. It actually took several years to sort out, but it's done now. I've learned that if you are going to separate your businesses, make sure you have an agreement that both parties change their store names. When you're incorporated, which we both are, you have to go through a legal process. It cost us more than a fair amount of money, but it was well worth it. I am a big believer that even if it's a kind of vague legal question, I don't mind paying a lawyer. I'd rather pay whatever now than a lot more later.

We had an issue when we moved our store. Our five-year lease was ending at the old location, and we were planning to move into new construction at the normal termination of the original lease. But of course construction got delayed. We had to stay in the old space another two months, and had to work with the landlord to be able to do it. The issue wasn't covered in the original lease, and we had to renegotiate. We had to pay some extra rent but it worked out. We've even been fortunate with bounced checks. We did hire a collection agency in one case for a wedding invitation order where the amount was considerable, and the money was eventually collected. In most cases, though, we've been able to call the customer and get our money.

Our biggest hassle was a result of a neighbor. We are located in a historic district in which there are still some vacant buildings. One is located across the street from our store. The owner displayed some extremely offensive, inappropriate signage in the window of his store, right before the [2002] Olympics were held. The signage immediately began affecting business up and down the entire district. Customers were offended. Pleas were made to the owner, but to no avail. We collected a petition from the merchants on the street, contacted the mayor, and went in front of the City Council to instigate a change to the historic district vacant building ordinance. An ordinance was passed banning signage in the windows of vacant buildings other than a "For Sale" sign. It is still an ongoing concern, as the owner is claiming that his right to free speech has been violated.