Posts

On Monday, the Lower Merion School District released the much anticipated report aimed at answering some of the questions surrounding the suit for invasion of privacy and numerous investigations over the school district’s use of webcams on school issued laptops to take photos of students and their families in their homes. The most basic question can of course be summed up as: “what were you thinking?” According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the 69 page report found that despite the huge number of improperly acquired images of students in their homes, the school district staff did not intentionally use the technology to spy on the students....

Is there formaldehyde in your Brazilian Blowout? Apparently there is – which may come as a surprise to some consumers. The product has been marketed as “formaldehyde free” in the past. Those days are no longer. GIB, the company that makes the popular Brazilian Blowout products has agreed to label their products as potentially carcinogenic. They have also agreed to pay $600,000 in fines. The settlement comes after it was sued by California for violating state laws including statutes against deceptive advertising....

The current refugee crisis in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe has left many wondering how to help. Syrian refugees especially have been fleeing their homeland and making dangerous treks to Italy, Greece, and beyond. Many efforts to help have been focused on adopting Syrian children, and while some adoption agencies have urged prospective parents to slow down, a lot of people want to go through with adopting a refugee child....

When you and other workers decide to go on strike to protest working conditions, you may be worried about being fired. Typically employers cannot fire employees for striking, but workers shouldn’t take this protection as absolute. Employers can still terminate employees for a variety of reasons, even if that employee belongs to a union. So should you worry about being fired for going on strike? The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) governs how employers may treat employees who are involved in protected labor activities....

When parents divorce or separate, child custody is often the most hotly contested issue. However, child custody does not have to be determined by a judge. If the parents can work out a custody agreement on their own, courts generally will make the agreements part of a larger divorce decree or order, or just make the agreements part of an official child custody order. In fact, courts favor parents working out custody and co-parenting agreements on their own....

Is your business on social media? Do you have a customer service team? If so, it might be a good (read: great) idea to combine forces and think about incorporating a social media customer service team into your business rubric. Let’s face it: Even if you don’t quite understand the purpose of social media or find it to be a waste of time, social media is increasingly crucial for businesses. The point is, if you’re not on it, you’re behind the times....

While it is possible that the internet contains the exact specific answer to your legal question, it is also possible that someone will try to murder you and your unborn child when you respond to a classified ad online for baby clothes. In the digital wild wild west, business owners need to be extraordinarily careful when relying on legal advice they find online, even from blog posts, and especially from Q&A sources like Reddit....

A former Team USA doctors for the Olympic gymnastics team, along with the USA Gymnastics organization, and Michigan State University, are currently facing a civil lawsuit as a result of decades of alleged sexual abuse by the one doctor against minor athletes. Nearly 20 former and current athletes have alleged that Dr. Lawrence Nassar sexually abused them while he was conducting medical examinations on them. The allegations stem back to the 1990s, and include claims that the doctor would grope and molest athletes during medical examinations, and would even digitally penetrate them as part of bogus procedures....

It legal to post business video-surveillance footage online? Many businesses employ video surveillance systems, and the footage can often result in useful – or humorous – clips that somehow find their way onto YouTube, Facebook, or other websites. While it is likely legal for businesses to use security footage for the purpose of preventing theft, or even to track down criminals, murkier legal waters await businesses who are posting security cam footage just for laughs....

The city of Los Angeles is moving forward with its plan to shut down hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries. Collectives across the city were informed that they must close their businesses in order to comply with a recently approved city medical marijuana ordinance, the Associated Press reports. More than 500 letters were mailed out to medical pot shops. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also recently signed an ordinance that sets fees for the pot clinics allowed to remain open if they meet stricter guidelines, as previously discussed....

A Navy fighter jet crashed into a Virginia apartment complex Friday, sending two pilots and five civilians to the hospital, WWBT-TV reports. There are no reports of deaths or missing people, rescuers said. The F/A-18 fighter jet slammed into a cluster of apartment buildings in Virginia Beach about 12:05 p.m., shortly after it took off from a naval air station nearby, MSNBC reports. Both crew members ejected before impact. A volunteer rescuer said he found one of the Navy crew members still strapped to his ejection seat....

Help is on the way for small business, according to President Obama. In a speech delivered at a small business in Landon, Maryland this week, the President outlined new initiatives for small business to ease up lending and to make critical capital available at affordable rates. Here are a few notable points President Obama mentioned in his speech: The President also outlined his proposals to support small businesses and small business loans: Increasing the size of SBA’s 7(a) loan from $2 million to $5 million....

A father has settled a lawsuit with his daughter’s Connecticut school district after she was barred from attending class over fears she may have contracted Ebola. Stephen Opayemi and his 7-year-old daughter had attended a wedding in Nigeria and returned to find that her school, Meadowside Elementary in MIlford, wouldn’t let her rejoin her class for another 21 days. Opayemi filed suit in federal court in Connecticut, hoping a judge would order the school to let his daughter return....

School is full of tests – multiple choice tests, English tests, AP tests and so on. Well, at one school, you can now add alcohol tests to the list. A Catholic high school in a Chicago suburb will begin randomly testing all students for alcohol consumption starting this fall by analyzing hair samples, officials said. But is the new alcohol policy legal? St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois, has administered drugs tests to all of its 1,000 students at the beginning of the school year since 2007, according to the Chicago Tribune....

Late last week, the United States Senate overwhelmingly passed an amendment to the in-progress bank reform bill which could change the rules of the road for credit card swipe fees. The amendment would gives the Federal Reserve the ability to monitor and regulate the fees that credit card companies charge merchants and the power to ensure that the rates are “reasonable and proportional to the actual cost incurred.” MasterCard fights for card fee revenues (Reuters) Senate Bill to Curb Credit Card Swipe Fees Passes (Consumerist) Senate May Break “Price Fixing” On Credit Card Swipe Fees (Consumerist) Small Business Credit Card Rates Hiked and Limits Slashed; Prospects for Reform?...

If you’re running any business and you’re not using arbitration whenever possible, you’re making a mistake. Arbitration agreements should not just be used for customers, but also for employees and even vendors if possible. As a startup, you need to run as lean as you can, even if you are flush with venture capital money. And that means cutting costs at every opportunity. While certain unorthodox expenses are absolutely necessary (how are you going to attract good talent without a foosball table in the breakroom?...

The Senate voted to extend small business stimulus for SBA loans this week. Specifically, it extended two small business stimulus programs that cut fees and provided guarantees for SBA loans. The Wall Street Journal reports that the funding for these two programs was running the risk of having no stimulus to fund them back in November, as we previously discussed. The new extension grants a maximum guarantee of 90% for SBA loans....

It looks like there will be an increase in student loan rates this coming July, The Huffington Post reports. If there is no action by Congress before June 30, the rates are likely to double. So, before the commencing of many a celebratory graduation this year, next year, and the years to come, it may be helpful to consider a few options to ensure that you and your child’s financial situation is as painless as it can be....

Brithdays are the best. So here’s to wishing the 19th Amendment (yes, of the Constitution) a very happy 90th birthday. Hopefully this celebration will result in lots of ladies nights throughout the country, as it was the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote. The United States was built on the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Just not in that order, or all at once for most groups....

Perhaps that’s the point of incarceration, but jails and prisons are not nice places to be. These houses of detention, designed to keep the public safe, don’t always keep the inmates safe. From overcrowding and unsafe conditions to violence and prisoner abuse, injuries happen in prison, but are these injuries treated like those on the outside? Do inmates have any legal recourse for injuries or abuse in prison? Here are some of the biggest questions (and answers) concerning prison injuries, from our archives....