For those of you with North Carolina corporations and limited liability companies, remember to file your annual reports with the NC Secretary of State.

A business acquaintance emailed me the other day: “I am seriously contemplating the plunge….hanging out my own shingle. If you were me, what is the first thing I should do? After emailing you.”

Businesses and their lawyers across North Carolina are buzzing over reports being sent by the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office to corporations and limited liability companies who are late filing annual reports.

I got a panicked call the other day from a new client &endash; another company was using her company’s name and neither the North Carolina Secretary of State nor the state Attorney General would help her.

The North Carolina Secretary of State’s web site has posted an alert about a company called “Compliance Services” that is mailing official-looking notices to North Carolina corporations offering to prepare their annual minutes for a $125 fee.

North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall has notified business lawyers in the state of a suspect mailing from an outfit called “Corporate Services, Inc.” This company is sending out official-looking notices to North Carolina corporations that quote North Carolina statutes concerning the requirement to maintain minutes and threaten dissolution of the corporation for failure [...]