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When considering how to hire an independent contractor, it’s important to understand how the law evaluates the difference between full time employee and independent contractors. In practice independent contractors can seem like full time employees because they do similar tasks. But legally it’s not enough to hire someone using the title ‘independent contractor’ and call it a day. There is a multi-factor test that’s part of their consideration. No single factor controls the decision but the combination of all these factors will help courts reach a decision....

Many workers look forward to closing out the year at an office party. But what happens when an office party mishap results in a serious injury? A Utah man was recently hospitalized following an egg nog chugging contest at his office holiday party, reports The Associated Press. The man reportedly downed an entire quart of non-alcoholic eggnog in 12 seconds. In the process, however, the man inhaled a portion of the egg nog and suffered a lung infection....

There are times that it is illegal to misrepresent yourself online, and doing so will face you hefty fines, and possibly even prison time. Though there was an era when merely opting into an app by accepting their terms of service was used as a way to press criminal charges, those days are waning. But going long and strong are the intent cases – the cases in which you misrepresent yourself with the intent of committing a criminal act, by you or someone else....

Upon termination, an employer may offer you a severance agreement. The intent of these agreements is to compensate a laid off employee in exchange for a promise not to sue the employer in the future. Because severance agreements are not mandatory, employers may choose to offer laid off employees a severance agreement with the terms of its choice. The list doesn’t end here. In addition to making sure the offered terms of a severance agreement are favorable, you may want to consider making them more favorable....

A former guest at the Las Vegas Luxor hotel-casino died from Legionnaires’ disease, and the resort’s water system may have been the source of the infection, Nevada health officials reported Monday. The unidentified guest stayed at the Luxor in December and fell ill shortly thereafter, the Las Vegas Sun reports. Tests found Legionella bacteria in the Luxor’s water system, which was immediately treated to kill the bacteria. The Luxor Legionnaires’ death may lead to a lawsuit by the victim’s relatives against the hotel’s owner, MGM Resorts....

The Obama Administration is at work on re-evaluating and overhauling the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, more often known as No Child Left Behind. With some bi-partisan support in Congress, the Administration is looking at changing several key provisions of the education law. According to the Post, the new law aims to replace the AYP measurement with a broader picture of student and school progress which would take into consideration moving all subgroups of students toward “college and career readiness” (CCR), each school’s progress toward closing subgroup achievement gaps, graduation rates (at the high school level) and other measures as appropriate....

A 200-pound boy was removed from his home last month by Children and Family Services in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. At 8-years-old, the third grader should only weigh about 60 pounds. Officials were made aware of the child’s weight last year when he was diagnosed with sleep apnea at a local hospital. They spent 20 months working with the family before the boy’s removal, but stepped in when he began to gain weight at a rapid pace....

All eyes are on San Francisco today as the high-profile Prop. 8 appeal beings with an interesting legal question: Do these particular parties even have the right to argue this case? Arguments in the Prop. 8 appeal begin with two one-hour sessions devoted to standing and the constitutionality of the voter-approved proposition that defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The latest Proposition 8 arguments represent an appeal of the highly-publicized August ruling by Vaughn Walker that found Prop....

After more than a year of delay, the Securities and Exchange Commission has unanimously approved a proposal of crowdfunding rules to the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. The 538-page proposal marks a significant step toward regulating businesses that fund their ventures online. The public has 90 days to comment on the proposed rules. It could be at least another six months before the agency issues final rules. Here’s a summary of the most significant proposed rules:...

As we have discussed in previous posts on Free Enterprise, online social media outlets can be a powerful marketing tool for you. They can help you gain word of mouth buzz that you would not ordinarily be able to get. And the best part? It’s typically free. The problem is when small business owners start sending their products out to bloggers or online reviewers, or paying them a fee in order to acheive that word of mouth buzz....

You have a great new idea for a business and you meet a potential investor. This person, unlike most people you meet, seems exceptionally eager to part with money. Your investor wants to put cash into your legitimate business, which is great … maybe, if this investor isn’t shady. Watching TV you’ve seen money laundering schemes dramatized. But how do you spot such crimes in real life? Placement, Layering, Integration There are three stages to a money laundering scheme, according to Entrepreneur, and startups are particularly susceptible targets....

Stepparents get a bad rap. From the very start, even in childhood fairy tales, we hear about strangers taking over families and torturing kids that are not their own. In fact, many step-parents are nice people – or as nice as anyone else – who show genuine love when caring for their partner’s child. It is reasonable then for stepparents to wonder what rights, if any, they may have with respect to these children they live with … and what rights they might have if the family splits up again....

An explosion rocked the UC Berkeley campus on Monday night, causing students to be evacuated and leaving at least five people injured. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the blast left one person hospitalized and at least four others with minor injuries. University of California, Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof speculated that the explosion was caused by “a copper theft in Berkeley last week.” What kind of liability could the university potentially face from the explosion?...

Normally, when you trip and fall, it’s because you’re unsteady on your feet or stepped onto or into something you shouldn’t have. When your shoes are implicated in that fall, it’s usually a matter of untied laces or worn out soles. Sound about right? Well, here’s a new one: According to a Chicago suburbanite, her new Adidas Midiru shoes stuck together and tripped her. She’s suing. Anna Bourtseva purchased a pair of Midiru shoes from an Adidas outlet in June 2010....

Class action lawsuits provide similarly aggrieved parties to file legal claims together. When it comes to businesses and their customers, class action lawsuits often address defective products, widespread billing fraud, or illegal business practices. Any lawsuit can be scary for a small business, but a class action suit can be catastrophic. But businesses might be getting a little help from an increasingly corporate-friendly Congress. The House yesterday passed legislation that would place new restrictions on class-action lawsuits....

The goal of the medical profession is generally to make us feel better when we’re sick and heal us when we’re injured. Occasionally, however, medical care can actually be the cause of injuries, both physical and emotional. The job of medical malpractice attorneys is to help those who are injured by medical treatment gone wrong recover for the harm caused by negligent or reckless medical care. So when do you need to call a medical malpractice attorney?...

What should your independent contractor agreements contain? While hiring an independent contractor (as opposed to an employee) may seem like an easier option, drafting a binding agreement is still necessary and can provide you, the employer, with legal protection. Independent contractors can be very beneficial for a small business owner, and can often save you money when it comes to certain tasks. But unless those tasks (and other terms) are spelled out in an agreement, using contractors can potentially lead to legal headaches....

The Internet can be a big, scary place, and you’ve got to worry about everything from who your kids might be chatting with to who might have access to your credit card information. While being online can make communication and commerce easier, it can make protecting your personal information and even personal safety harder. Here are seven tips for staying safe online: 1. 7 Simple Steps to Protect Your Online Privacy Just because we want access to information online doesn’t mean we want to give other people access to our information online....

Most adults are quite used to buckling up when they get into a car. But teaching our kids to do the same is not only important, it is the law. Each state has its own child seat laws that require various safety restraint systems for children depending often on age and weight. Here are a few examples of some of the most common. All state car seat laws require a child restraint system, most up to the age of seven, a few up to the age of eight....

A young boy drowned while aboard a Carnival Cruise, reportedly the first time a child has drowned aboard one of the company’s ships. Qwentyn Hunter, 6, of Winter Garden, Florida, was a passenger aboard the Carnival Victory. He was with his older brother in one of the pool areas when the incident occurred Sunday. Hunter was pronounced dead at the scene despite attempts to perform CPR once he was pulled from the water, according to CBS News....