What is a Registered Agent?

A Registered Agent is an individual or entity which is designated to receive legal documents on behalf of your business. These legal documents include service of process documents, and other documents deriving from a lawsuit. Therefore, if any entity tries to sue your business, the registered agent will be the first party notified. In Florida, most companies utilize law firms, or trusted third party organizations as registered agents.

How Does a Registered Agent Work?
Registered Agents ensure that their respective companies are afforded the due process rights granted to them by the Constitution. More specifically, registered agents ensure that you are notified of any legal matter against you or your business. Registered agents also ensure that a business entity complies with the jurisdictional requirements set forth by the respective state.

Can You Serve As Your Own Registered Agent?
The simple answer is yes, however, serving as your own registered agent will force you to remain available to receive any governmental notice, legal document, or lawsuit at any given time. Therefore, a registered agent is essentially anchored to their office desk. As a business owner, it may be difficult to make yourself available at any given time, and therefore, difficult to be your own registered agent. Additionally, as your own personal agent, you may be served with a lawsuit in front of employees, business partners and prospective business partners.
Ultimately, it is in your best interest to use a third party as a registered agent. More importantly, a registered agent must be reliable, trustworthy, and more importantly, available.

Why Use a Law Firm As a Registered Agent?
Many companies in Miami use law firms as the registered agent for many reasons. For starters, law firms have an entire office staff dedicated to receiving and reviewing legal documents. Upon granting notice to the respective company, a trusted law firm may then be immediately retained to provide consultation on how to proceed with the legal matter.

Having a law firm as a registered agent provides incentives to both parties. For the company owner will have peace of mind, knowing that any lawsuit filed against them will received by a reputable law firm. For the law firm, they may notify the company of the legal matter, and may be retained to handle the situation.

Here at PereGonza, we offer business entities the option of using our firm as your registered agent. We will ensure that you are notified of any impending lawsuits, and if requested, we will provide you the nature of the lawsuit, the severity, and a road map on how to proceed.