As 2014 comes to a close, we thought it would be interesting to “recap” a few of the top celebrity legal stories of 2014. There were countless lawsuits, but some were more talked about in the media than others. As one of the top Los Angeles business entertainment law firms in LA, we wanted to share some of these stories with readers, just in case you missed it.

Celebrities are often individuals of excess – excess money, excessive exposure, lavish lifestyles. Scandalous stories and litigation are common in the entertainment industry, and the average person often finds the situations celebrities find themselves in intriguing. So, for 2014 some of the hottest legal stories are shared below.

Teresa Guidice of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” fame sued her bankruptcy lawyer for $5 million after she was found guilty of bankruptcy fraud and sentenced to one year and three months in federal prison.

The company behind Slim Spray, a weight loss spray advertised on Shark Tank, was sued by Jennifer Love Hewitt for advertising the product with her image, but without her permission.

Led Zeppelin was accused of stealing their biggest hit, Stairway to Heaven, from a group call Spirit. The obscure band claimed the British super legends plagiarized Spirit’s “hit” song.

No tweeting her “Dance Moms” co-star was what one cast member was ordered to refrain from by a judge. Kelly Hyland had been arrested for harassment and assault of Dance Coach Abby Lee Miller; Hyland was ordered not to tweet at (@) or about Miller.

Two stars of “Hardcore Pawn,” Karl Bell and Jeremy Jackson, were charged with felony theft after allegedly stealing goods from the show’s pawn shop and “repawning” the stolen goods.

Johnny Depp’s “butt exposure” lawsuit. Robin Eckert claimed that while attending an Iggy Pop concert, she was dragged by Depp’s bodyguard through the VIP section; in the course of being dragged, her buttocks were exposed to the crowd as her pants slipped down. Eckert, a self-proclaimed professor of medicine at U.C. Irvine, received a settlement from Depp and other defendants, although the amount she got was undisclosed.

Of course perhaps none of the stories above are as well-known as all of the allegations against comedian and actor Bill Cosby, who reportedly has sexually assaulted countless women over the past few decades. As CNN put it in a recent article, Cosby is facing a litany of allegations. Maybe we will learn more about how truthful these allegations are in 2015, and see how long he remains under fire in the media.

At Spotora & Associates, our LA entertainment attorneys have successfully represented countless celebrities in matters including litigation and transactional. We recognize that celebrities are constantly under a microscope, and that you may need assistance with contracts, agreements, copyrights, trademarks, or other legal issues. Give us a call for unsurpassed legal guidance and representation!

Many people believe investing in a franchise that is a big national chain is a fairly safe bet. As experienced Los Angeles franchise attorneys, the team at Spotora & Associates knows all too well that the “big boys” can find themselves in financial trouble as easily as a small business owner. There are a variety of reasons some of the most well-known franchises get into financial trouble, from excessive debt to overexpansion.

Earlier this year, Radio Shack announced that it would be closing 20% of its stores; 900 of those stores were operated as franchises. Quiznos Sub filed for bankruptcy protection the same month that Radio Shack made its announcement. With franchises, there are no guarantees of success. We have four tips to help you ensure to the greatest extent possible that you are making the right decision.

First of all, know the financial status of the franchisor. You can get this information by reading the franchise disclosure document, required by the Federal Trade Commission, all the way through. Because these documents are fairly long, many potential franchisees fail to read the financial disclosure section. This section includes audited financial statements, so you can determine if the franchisors’ financial situation is solid.

Check out the SBA loan default rate. Generally, when a franchise has a substantial number of franchisees whose SBA loans go into default, it is a sign that the franchise is high risk, and that the system is not working as it should. Think long and hard before going into a franchise system that appears to be high risk.

What obligations are in the franchise agreement? Many franchisors are not obligated to do anything, other than grant the right to the franchisee to use its system and marks. You may think that should the franchise run into problems that lead to bankruptcy, they can go it on their own. The fact is, if the parent franchise has problems such as a shortage of funds to purchase supplies or provide training/marketing, it will trickle down to you. Many franchisees have little or even no recourse, so read every word of the franchise agreement carefully.

Has the franchise been involved in a lawsuit or two? It isn’t unusual for a franchise to be involved in a lawsuit, however if you see a long history of litigation involving a franchisor and franchisees, it is a sign you shouldn’t ignore. While the Franchise Disclosure document should mention any lawsuits, you can also find information regarding litigation at Pacer.gov.

Before you make a final decision on purchasing a franchise, have a qualified LA business attorney look over all agreements and documents to make certain it is a smart move. Having a second opinion and a second “set of eyes” often helps make you feel more confident in your decision.

A recent breach or “hack” of Sony Corporation’s security safeguards has been widely in the news in recent weeks, however the real impact of this hack may not yet be completely realized. The breach of the company’s security safeguards has affected not only celebrities, but employees as well. Now, it seems that the thousands of leaked documents are in regards to breach of contract, health privacy, employment, and more. The private information of both celebrities and employees is at risk, but it seems to go much further according to recent news articles.

U.S. government officials feel certain that North Korea was behind the Sony hack. Whoever it was, it has certainly caused an uproar among celebrities, film makers, and the company’s own employees. In fact, intimate details about employees that never would have been made public now have. Some of the information that has been exposed due to the breach include employee social security numbers, disciplinary files, medical records, and according to one source, one of Sony’s senior executives breastfeeding diet. Not only frustrating, but embarrassing for some.

Once source claims that out of 17 employees in the U.S. who earn $1 million per year working for Sony, one is a woman. What may be upsetting to Hannah Minghella, a co-president of production at the company’s Columbia Pictures division, is that Michael DeLuca, her male counterpart, is making nearly one million dollars more for doing the same job.

Following the November 24th attack on Sony’s entertainment division, employees were advised not to connect to the company’s email system and corporate network, as it had become apparent its security system had been infiltrated. Although Sony took quick action and did everything in its power, the infiltration occurred regardless.

Sony is likely to face an untold number of lawsuits in the coming weeks and months, as much of the information leaked is reportedly in regards to salary negotiations, internal communications about specific employees, discussion of termination decisions, performance reviews, and other data that could support claims of discrimination, sexual harassment, unfair termination, and more.

As Los Angeles employment lawyers, we can only imagine the issues Sony has already and will face in the coming days and weeks. Our firm represents clients in a wide array of employee-related matters including harassment, wrongful termination, age, race, sexual preference, or religious discrimination, wage and hour law, ERISA, and more. While taking preventive measures initially in a business setting to protect against these types of claims, it is still common for employees to file claims against employers. Contact our skilled team of professionals for unsurpassed legal guidance and representation.

Recently, Zillow, a prominent online real estate company, has become the subject of numerous lawsuits alleging a hostile working environment. The most recent lawsuit was filed by 41-year-old Jennifer Young, a former employee and single mother of two children. Employed as a real estate agent at the Irvine office, she has filed a lawsuit against Zillow claiming harassment and a “pervasive culture of retaliation.” Young says that the real estate company lacked in the areas of basic employment rights and human decency, while focusing primarily on sales.

Young’s claim focuses primarily on age discrimination. In the complaint filed, Young says that she was admonished to “try and keep up with us,” and asked at one point in time by a sales manager if she may be too old to close a deal. Young, who was involved in an auto accident that left her with injuries, says that her problems in the real estate office were compounded after she was involved in the car accident, and that she was made o stand for hours at a time without permission to sit. She was forced to seek hospitalization due to ongoing injuries in October of this year. Although Young reached out to the human resources department in an effort to obtain accommodation for the injuries she sustained, her sales book was assigned to another agent. The agent who took over her sales was significantly younger than Young. Also alleged in the lawsuit was the fact that when Young’s physicians were unable to provide Zillow with a note explaining her absence upon her request, she was terminated unlawfully for job abandonment.

In addition to the lawsuit filed by Young, Zillow is facing litigation regarding claims of sexual harassment made by two individuals in one of the suits. Employment practices of the real estate firm seem to be a common thread in the claims filed by three former employees. In one of the five lawsuits that have recently been filed against Zillow, a former employee, Rachel Kremer, described the company’s Irvine office as having an “adult frat house” culture.

As Los Angeles business litigation attorneys, we know that age discrimination and sexual harassment are serious issues in the workplace. In addition, when discrimination or harassment forces an employee to resign because of intolerable conditions, an employer may be liable for constructive discharge, which is a form of wrongful termination.

Employees, under the law, are not required to put up with discrimination of any type, or sexual harassment. Time will reveal the outcome of the lawsuits against Zillow. In the meantime, if you have been discriminated against in the workplace, contact our dedicated Los Angeles business attorneys at Spotora & Associates.

Recently, it was announced that Irving Azoff, a music industry heavyweight who has represented the Eagles, John Lennon, Foreigner, Pharrell Williams, and others is threatening to remove tens of thousands of tunes from YouTube, because he believes the new YouTube Music Key subscription service is not prepared in regards to fair royalties for songwriters.

YouTube Music Key will compete with Pandora and Spotify, two highly popular subscription music services.  Azoff, who is the former chairman of Live Nation, now has a new venture in the works with the focus being to collect increased performance rights royalties for songwriters.  The new venture is called GMR (Global Music Rights).  Azoff reportedly told a Hollywood news magazine that he was prepared to remove about 20,000 copyrighted works of 42 of his clients including George and Ira Gershwin, Chris Cornell, Boston, Smokey Robinson, and others from YouTube and the new Music Key.

Azoff believes strongly that because of the ever-evolving methods consumers use to listen to music, many listening to streaming services rather than purchasing CDs, songwriters should be compensated more by the services that stream music.  Azoff said that writers’ rights were being “trampled on” in the digital marketplace, and that GMR would give both songwriters and publishers an opportunity to work together in order for artists’ creative works to have meaningful license for their intellectual property.

Recently, Taylor Swift made the decision to take her songs off of Spotify because of concerns about royalties.  Pandora is currently in a dispute regarding performance licenses with big music publishers who a judge determined had to be either “all in” or “all out” when it comes to digital rights.  In the meantime, perhaps YouTube and Google were hoping that big music publishers would forget about them, at least for a while – but not Irving Azoff, who is said to be working with Randy Grimmett and providing more leverage when it comes to negotiating higher royalties with their new rights management services than BMI and ASCAP.

It is certainly understandable that songwriters and musicians would be concerned about how streaming online music services could impact their profits, considering that with the direction consumers are moving, less music will be purchased both on- and offline.

At Spotora & Associates, our Los Angeles copyright attorneys understand how difficult it is for songwriters and others with creative works to not only protect those works, but collect the royalties they deserve.  We invite those from all avenues of entertainment to contact us concerning your issue regarding copyrights, trademarks, business contracts and agreements, and more.