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If you want to come to the US or sponsor someone else’s presence here, you should be aware of certain issues that can affect visa receipt. But you should also know from the start that for many rules there are limited exceptions, so depending on individual circumstances what might normally be a bar to receiving a visa could be overcome. Every immigration case is unique and relies on specifics. Although there are general rules, don’t assume you have no options....

It is common in this country to dream of owning a home, whatever our class or politics, identity or education. Whether it is a cabin or mansion, from the modest home of Henry David Thoreau to the lavish casinos of Donald Trump, building property is a longtime national preoccupation. Now you’re living the dream too and wondering what to do. Is there any need for a lawyer when building a home?...

California attorneys have approved a $20 million settlement to Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was kidnapped and held for almost 20 years by a Philip Garrido, a convicted sex offender who had been paroled by he state. The compensation is waiting final approval by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. A bill that approves the compensation has already made it through the Senate and California’s State Assembly. Typically California’s corrections department would have immunity from such a claim, but the State approved liability due to the extreme and unique circumstances....

Getting injured on the job might affect how you feel about doing that job. But if you decide to quit, will you lose your workers’ comp benefits? Obtaining workers’ compensation benefits for a work-related injury is generally based on whether the injury occurred while you were working, and not on whether you are still working for the same employer. But filing a claim after you quit could complicate matters. State employment laws can vary, but most states require every business to carry some form of workers’ compensation insurance to cover employees’ work-related injuries....

Electronic cigarettes are getting some serious attention, and not just from smokers. The holders of trademarks for iconic brands like Tootsie Rolls and Girl Scout cookies are pressuring the makers of e-cig liquid to stop using their names on flavored nicotine labels. Why aren’t these candy and cookie makers sweet on the smoking-hot e-cig market? According to The Associated Press, General Mills Inc., Girl Scouts of the USA, and Tootsie Roll Industries Inc....

One teenage student was killed, and four others hurt, in a shooting at Chardon High School in Ohio this morning. As with other school shootings, civil lawsuits are likely to follow. A juvenile alleged gunman is in custody in connection with the Chardon High School shooting, but police have not identified the boy, ABC News reports. The shooting happened about 7:30 a.m., when students were eating breakfast in the cafeteria, The Plain Dealer reports....

A deployed sailor can breathe a bit easier, now that his child-custody hearing has been delayed until October. Navy service member Matthew Hindes was ordered last week by a Michigan judge to appear in person in her courtroom for a hearing about custody of his 6-year-old daughter Kaylee. Though Hindes is currently deployed in the Pacific Ocean, he was threatened with contempt of court. As we explained last week, Hindes was ordered by Judge Margaret Noe to appear in her Michigan family court by Monday, despite the fact that the sailor is on a submarine in an undisclosed location in the Pacific....

You might want to settle a case for over a quarter billion dollars, like Pennsylvania landscaper David Williams did in a recent injury case. But you definitely don’t want to go through what he did to get it, or to live the way Williams will have to live for the remainder of his days. He is confined to a wheelchair and will never walk again, according to the Total Landscape Care blog....

Facebook may not be good for your marriage, but it might be good for your divorce. For users of Facebook, divorce is all the rage. Between news feed updates that notify friends when you go from married to single, and groups proclaiming that the social network ruined its members’ marriages, Facebookers can’t escape it. And some of them may not want to. On Facebook, divorce evidence is robust. With reportedly 20% of all divorces being tied to Facebook, wall posts, photographs and messages can help turn a divorce case (and related custody cases) in your favor....

In another example of “now you can do it through Facebook,” a Tennessee woman might face repercussions including jail time for Facebook “poking” someone in violation of a protective order. Typically, when we hear about protective orders we think about protection from physical violence, like forbidding someone from coming within 100 yards of another person. Courts, however, can and do include many other forms of protection in protective orders. They routinely forbid contact in all forms, whether it’s carrier pigeon, mail, fax, telephone, email, or a Facebook “poke....

The Center for Science in the Public Interest released a new report today on the “Top Ten Riskiest Foods Regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration”. The report details ten common foods that account for 40 percent of all food-based illness outbreaks. So, what makes a food risky in the eyes of the CSPI? More than 1,500 separate outbreaks were associated with the top ten riskiest foods, causing nearly 50,000 reported illnesses....

Virginia first-grader Ammaria Johnson’s allergy killed her. Her unfortunate death has now sparked renewed scrutiny and questions about whether or not EpiPen should be stocked by schools. The EpiPen is a small device that injects epinephrine. It’s prescription-only. It reverses severe symptoms of allergies. And it might have saved Johnson’s life. The first-grader suffered a severe allergic reaction during recess. She went to the school clinic with hives and was suffering from a shortness of breath....

Our medical data is some of the most personal information that we entrust to third parties. Our medical records are sacred and their privacy is paramount. Which is why we have federal laws protecting the privacy of our medical records and requiring hospitals, clinics, and other health care providers to report hacked, lost, or otherwise exposed medical records. And those reports aren’t good. Since 2009, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has identified 1,634 breaches of patient medical information, and those are just the cases affecting 500 or more individuals....

When a person is injured while engaging in a recreational activity, the rights to sue another person for their injuries can be limited. Normally, when a person is injured due to the carelessness of someone else, the injured person will have a claim for negligence. In a situation where someone is injured while ice-skating, there may be additional considerations and limitations that apply. Before considering some of the specific limitations that apply to the ice-skating, there are two general legal principles that could be used as legal defenses to an ice-skating injury:...

Last week, President Donald Trump outlined the full scope of his presidential power to pardon. “As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself,” Trump tweeted, “but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?” Why, indeed? It was a broad assertion of the scope of the pardoning power, leaving many to wonder if Trump was right, specifically, and what the limits of presidential pardons are, generally....

As the specialized language used by those in the legal profession, legalese includes a number of complicated, curious, and occasionally confounding legal terms and phrases. Over the last six months, our series examining this specialized language, Legalese from A to Z, has made it nearly all the way through the alphabet, one letter at a time. In this final installment, we take a look at some interesting bits of legalese from each of the last three letters of the alphabet, “X,” “Y,” and “Z”:...

Fair-goers at the Cleveland County Fair in North Carolina took home something more sinister than new pet goldfish and candy apples this weekend, many of them came home with E. coli. The bacteria is a leading cause of food poisoning and so far has affected 46 people, including one little boy who died of the infection. Two-year-old Gage Lafevers passed away from the infection on Friday, reports Charlotte WBTV-TV. Despite the large number of people who have become ill so far, authorities are still unsure what caused the outbreak....

A new chapter in the continuing story of whether written tests for firefighter and police officer positions discriminate against minority applicants comes with reports that a federal judge believes that in New York, they do. On Wednesday, Federal District Court Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis found not only a pattern and practice of racial discrimination against African Americans sitting for firefighter tests in New York, but actual “intentional discrimination.” The finding of intentional discrimination is unusual, NYU Law professor Elise C....

Presidents Day, officially known as Washington’s Birthday under federal law, is a time to honor our nation’s chief executives. There have been 44 presidents to date, and many have faced lawsuits before, during, and after their terms of office. Here are five notable lawsuits involving U.S. presidents: Marbury v. Madison (1803) – President James Madison, our nation’s fourth chief executive and widely known as the “Father of the Constitution,” was named in a landmark lawsuit....

As you are (hopefully) aware, federal law prohibits hiring undocumented workers. In addition, many state laws can punish employers for not complying with verification requirements. But many unscrupulous employers disregard these strictures and flip immigration law against their employees. One company, which actually went through the legal process to hire an immigrant employee, allegedly turned around and forced the employee to pay his own salary, and threatened him with deportation if he didn’t comply, violating federal human trafficking laws....