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Consider this nightmare situation: You join your partner's business, help it flourish and grow, then get left with next to nothing after you and your partner decide to end your personal relationship. Were you an employee? A business partner? A co-owner?
Or, because of your same-sex relationship, were you nothing at all as far as the law is concerned?
Turns out that without the proper legal agreements, life partners who are also business partners are likely to receive scant consideration from the courts in the event of a dispute.
That's what happened to Virginia Corsini, a Georgia lesbian who had only a verbal agreement to split all assets 50-50 with her then-partner Judy Alexander, who had previously begun the couple's business as a sole proprietorship. When the relationship went sour and Corsini sued for her half of the business in 2000, Alexander argued that nothing in the company was in Corsini's name.
Adding insult to injury, Alexander also used anti-gay elements of a Georgia law against Corsini, arguing—successfully—that the state considered their relationship "illegal and immoral" when it came to property rights.
Legal Inequities Affect Gay Businesses
All this seems to be a textbook case of how not to go into business if you're gay or lesbian.
"There are no marriage rules that apply to our relationships," says Jill Metz, a Chicago attorney who specializes in LGBT law. "We don't have any protections of the court that say assets are relationship property."
Or, because of your same-sex relationship, were you nothing at all as far as the law is concerned?
Turns out that without the proper legal agreements, life partners who are also business partners are likely to receive scant consideration from the courts in the event of a dispute.
That's what happened to Virginia Corsini, a Georgia lesbian who had only a verbal agreement to split all assets 50-50 with her then-partner Judy Alexander, who had previously begun the couple's business as a sole proprietorship. When the relationship went sour and Corsini sued for her half of the business in 2000, Alexander argued that nothing in the company was in Corsini's name.
Adding insult to injury, Alexander also used anti-gay elements of a Georgia law against Corsini, arguing—successfully—that the state considered their relationship "illegal and immoral" when it came to property rights.
Legal Inequities Affect Gay Businesses
All this seems to be a textbook case of how not to go into business if you're gay or lesbian.
"There are no marriage rules that apply to our relationships," says Jill Metz, a Chicago attorney who specializes in LGBT law. "We don't have any protections of the court that say assets are relationship property."
