The results are in, and the winner can be announced. In a tally of the amount of loans that banks made to small businesses in the past year, Wells Fargo came in far ahead of its competition. Wells Fargo upped its loaning from $583.4 million in 2008 to $605 million in 2009– a 4% increase. In fact, it was the only bank to post an increase in lending to small business....
Toxic mold. It’s been getting a significant amount of media attention in recent years, especially as people become more aware of the associated health risks. It can show up in homes, businesses and schools. It’s quite difficult and costly to remove. But exactly what is toxic mold? Is it the same stuff growing on that old food in your fridge? Unfortunately, no. It’s actually much more dangerous. Toxic mold is not toxic unto itself....
After James Holmes massacred 12 people in a Colorado movie theater in 2012, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, along with families of some of the victims, sued several online gun shops for supplying Holmes with the ammunition and supplies he used in the shooting. The lawsuit claimed retailers negligently supplied the murderer with tear gas, laser sights, and thousands of rounds of ammunition without ever running a background check....
A Florida woman is suing the West Memphis Police Department after officers shot her husband and 16-year-old stepson during a shootout in a Walmart parking lot. Besides the fact that the father and teen caused the shootout, this lawsuit is notable for one reason and one reason only: She wants the department to pay her in gold. The lawsuit, filed by Donna Lee Wray-Kane, stems from an incident last year during which Jerry Kane and his son Joseph were killed by Memphis police....
Johnson & Johnson has been inundated with lawsuits concerning its baby powder and the link to ovarian cancer. One Alabama firm said it had 867 cases pending against the health products giant, and over 1,400 plaintiffs had collectively filed 20 lawsuits in St. Louis alone. It was a St. Louis jury that awarded Lois Slemp over $110 million after connecting her use of Johnson & Johnson’s Shower-to-Shower and Baby Powder products to her ovarian cancer....
The ‘beauty bias,’ where attractive people appear to have an advantage, isn’t just a rumor. There is evidence that it exists and that it leads to discrimination against less attractive people in a variety of areas, including hiring. Not only is it unfair, in some cases it’s illegal discrimination. Attractiveness isn’t in the same category as gender, race, religion, or nationality but that doesn’t mean hiring based on looks is ok under the law....
Two New York Occupy protestors have started a lawsuit against the NYPD. Heather Carpenter and her fiance Julio Jose Jimenez-Artunduaga claim that the police violated their civil rights when they unlawfully detained them and used excessive force during their arrest on October 15. Carpenter and Jimenez-Artunduaga were demonstrating against Citibank. The protest moved indoors at a local branch in Greenwich Village. Carpenter was a Citibank account holder, but had decided to close her account after she found out the bank would soon be charging her a $17 monthly fee unless she maintained an account balance of $6,000 or more....
The way small business gets things done is changing. Social media, online marketing, and e-newsletters have allowed businesses big and small connect to their customers in new and innovative ways. Best of all, using the right combination of online and traditional media can help level the playing field between small biz and big biz, and all within budget. Is your small business ready to go 2.0? Here are some tips of ways to spruce up your business’s image through design and tech innovation....
When you want to move into a condo or housing development, you typically have to sign off on an HOA agreement specifying the rules of the development. With so many other things to worry about when it comes to buying a home, the homeowners association agreement is often an afterthought. It’s usually not until you’re comfortably settled in to your new home when you come to realize that your HOA agreement is actually quite restrictive, and may set some “house rules” that you wish you hadn’t agreed to....
An elderly woman from Chevy Chase, Maryland, has sued celebrity chef Bobby Flay, filing a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court on Monday that seeks $5 million in compensation for a tumble she took at his southwestern-inspired Mesa Grill. Barbara Sandler, 77, the woman behind the Bobby Flay lawsuit, claims to have fallen down a short flight of stairs leading to an elevated dining area near the front of the restaurant, causing bleeding in the brain, permanent left brain damage, and a two-month stint in the hospital....
A Los Angeles County judge ruled Tuesday that California’s teacher tenure laws are unconstitutional. The decision could spark similar lawsuits nationwide. As reported by Reuters, the ruling in Vergara v. California strikes down five laws that education reformers claim make it difficult to fire teachers who do a poor job. Teachers unions and state educational officials opposed the suit, calling it an attack on teachers. Here are five things you need to know about the suit, the ruling, and what’s next in this ongoing legal battle:...
You always hated your crooked teeth when you were a kid, so the first thing you did as a grown up was see an orthodontist. The relationship started out great but now you believe your orthodontist did a terrible job on your mouth. What can you do? You can sue an orthodontist as you would any other medical care practitioner, but your suit will only succeed if you can prove medical negligence....
Hopefully you have a written will, especially if you have children, but after a divorce you need to think about changing what your will says. What does your will say exactly? Most include provisions for what to do with your assets and possessions and specifies a guardian for your children. A will might also include your wishes with respect to a funeral or your final medical care. After a divorce there’s a lot of paperwork that needs to be done and changes that need to be made so each person can be legally independent....
Amari Broughton-Fleming had a difficult entry into the world. Doctors induced his delivery, then found his shoulder was trapped behind his mother’s pelvis. A doctor was able to dislodge the arm, tugging on Amari’s head in a swift downward motion, and he was born healthy at 8 pounds, 13 ounces. Except for his right arm. It was paralyzed at birth and a pediatric neurologist diagnosed permanent nerve damage in Amari’s shoulder, nerve damage his mother’s lawsuit claimed was due to the doctor’s negligence....
Disneyland’s theme parks in Anaheim, Calif., have been hit with nearly 140 lawsuits alleging personal injuries over the past five years, a newspaper’s review has found. Meantime, Knott’s Berry Farm in nearby Buena Park has been named in 50 personal injury suits since 2007, The Orange County Register reports. The paper’s analysis of lawsuits reveals some of the major causes of visitor injuries at Disneyland, Disney’s California Adventure, and Knott’s Berry Farm, and shows that most cases reached out-of-court settlements or were dismissed....
With summer in full swing, the hot weather may have you tempted to put in a swimming pool. Before you dive into constructing one, there may be one pesky issue you’ll have to take care of first – a permit. Do you need a permit to build a swimming pool? Permit requirements vary from state to state and city to city. Here is a sampling of different pool permit requirements and procedures:...
Be careful of breaking wage laws if you require your servers to do side work. A federal district court recently decided that Joe’s Crab Shack improperly compensated its workers for non-tip producing duties, or side work. Joe’s Crab Shack pays its tipped servers below minimum wage. This is ok, because it applied a tip credit. However, its servers were also required to spend an excessive amount of time doing non-tipped work, without getting paid minimum wage....
With Father’s Day coming up this weekend (get to the store, kids!), it’s time to focus on the dads. More specifically, fathers’ rights in child rearing and family planning. The Fathers’ Rights Movement has aimed to guarantee more legal protections for fathers in family law, child support, and custody decisions, so let’s take a look at where those protections are today. Paternity The first step in establishing any rights as a father is establishing paternity....
Law enforcement agents are now joining social network sites like MySpace, Twitter and Facebook to plan covert operations and catch criminals. According the Associated Press, FBI agents have created online profiles that allow them to go undercover to exchange information with suspects and gather information from popular social networking sites. An example of this was seen with a New York teenager’s Facebook Status alibi that saved him from facing criminal charges....
Soft tissue injuries are like feelings – they’re real and they hurt but they can be invisible and not everyone believes in them. For these reasons, proving this kind of injury can be difficult, or more difficult than a more obvious type of harm, like a broken leg. Still, people do recover legal remedies for soft tissue injuries every day, so it is not at all impossible to get compensation for your damages after an accident....
