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According to a new study, you may want to think twice before heading for the hills. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that that the rural injury rate is significantly higher than in cities. Using a federal database that collected death certificate information from across the country, the study analyzed nearly 1.3 million deaths from injuries between 1999 and 2006. The conclusion: Life as a country bumpkin may be more dangerous than you’d think....

For casual observers, it’s been fun watching the Twitter hacking that’s happened to several businesses over the past few days. First, hackers got into Burger King’s Twitter account to say the company had been sold to McDonald’s. (Not true.) Then someone used the Jeep account to say that business had been sold to Cadillac. (Also not true.) A day later, it appeared that similar hackers had gotten into the MTV and BET Twitter accounts, although that was later confirmed to be a PR stunt....

The Supreme Court will decide on the constitutionality of releasing names off of an anti gay marriage petition. Business Week reports that the Supreme Court will be reviewing the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision that allowed Washington state officials to reveal the identities of 138,000 signers of a petition that was against gay marriage. The names were blocked from publication by the Supreme Court until the case could be heard....

Move over, Yellow Pages and word-of-mouth referrals. The most popular way to find a lawyer nowadays is to do what you’re doing right now: Go online. It may be no surprise that in the digital age, the Internet is now the No. 1 option that comes to mind when consumers need to find an attorney, according to a new FindLaw survey. That’s actually quite different from how Americans looked for a lawyer in 2005, when FindLaw asked respondents the same question....

So you’re a new grad, and you’ve just finished walking across the stage to “Pomp and Circumstance”… or swaying to Vitamin C’s “Graduation.” Congrats! But after the joys and festoonery of graduating have faded and been swept away, it’s time to get down to business. Here are 10 legal tips can help you deal with life’s difficulties: Know your rights as a renter. As you move out of your parents’ house or your dorm and into your fabulous new digs, remember that you have certain rights as a tenant, including, in many cases, having your landlord repair your A/C or heater....

It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for a permanent employee, an independent contractor, or a freelancer – chances are you’re going to find your next hire on Craigslist. Potential hires love using it because it’s free and easily searchable. And if the candidates are there, your small business needs to be there, too. The classified ads website gets over 1 million new job listings every month, so here’s how to make your ad stand out, and how to make sure you make the right Craigslist hire....

If you’re coupling your latest tax filing with a little spring cleaning, you may be tempted to put the whole year behind you and toss everything. After all, your return is filed and you don’t need all these receipts and forms cluttering your home or office for another 365 days, right? Well, as nice as it would be to ditch it all and rely on electronic records, there may be some hard copy documents you’ll want to keep around, just in case....

Happy families make happy employees, and happy employees are good for business. But long employee absences from the office can be bad for business. As a country, the United States lags far behind other Western, industrialized nations in providing paid family leave, which has state legislators and presidential candidates looking to increase employee protections and pay when taking family time off. You want to take care of your employees, but not at the cost of your small business....

Your best worker just left the business and you are sad to see her go. But when she posts up across the street from your shop and starts selling the same products to your customers, your disappointment turns to rage. Do you have any recourse? Can you sue her? You should consider suing an employee if they breach an employment agreement. So if you have a non-compete clause in the employee’s contract and it covers a few years and a 100-mile radius but now she’s waving at you from her window, it’s time to make a move....

Office holiday parties can be a blast for you and your workers. But employers shouldn’t end up on a lawyer’s “naughty” list by throwing them without considering some potential legal consequences first. To keep your festive fete above board, here are five legal dos and don’ts for your small business’ holiday bash: Yes, it’s no coincidence that office holiday parties tend to kick off around December, as many employees are in eager anticipation of Christmas....

If you have any tax skeletons in your closet, beware of the IRS rat. They’re everywhere, scurrying about our small and large business in search of fodder; running rampant in our accounting departments, our social circles and yes, even our homes. Indeed, a family law attorney once told me, spurned ex-wives sing their songs of bittersweet vengeance to the IRS. It’s true. The Internal Revenue Service actually pays people to turn in tax cheats....

You’re online and your social network serves up a profile. It’s someone you know and loathe: that person who also has a restraining order against you. Can you tag or comment or contact them in any way? No. It is far better to be safe than sorry when it come to no-contact orders. Contact via social media is most definitely contact. A judge in New York last week ruled that commenting on a Facebook page can violate a protective order even if the post has no profanity or threats, the American Bar Association reports....

Anyone who’s been in a car accident, and many people who haven’t, know that whiplash injuries are scary and painful. Neck muscle and ligament damage from sudden head and neck movements can take some time to manifest, and even longer to heal. Whiplash might be the most common car accident injury, and it may be possible to get compensation if you’ve suffered whiplash in a car accident. But compensation can be a complicated procedure....

Stress at work is so ubiquitous that many of us accept it as a way of life. However, if your stress is caused by the conditions at your work, you may have a workers’ compensation claim. How to Get Workers’ Compensation For Stress Since workers’ compensation laws vary from state to state, we will discuss California’s workers’ comp law as a general guide. Work related As with any other workers’ comp claim, you have to prove your stress was job related....

One point for email marketing. And another against litigation factories. In a ruling by a Ninth Circuit federal appellate three-judge panel last week, the court dismissed a suit filed against an email marketing company for sending an alleged 13,000+ unsolicited emails to the plaintiff– who himself happened to be a ‘professional plaintiff’ who profited from filing anti-spam lawsuits against online marketers. The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) of 2003 sets forth requirements regarding who can send commercial email and establishes penalties for spammers and companies whose products are advertised if they violate the law, and gives individuals the right to opt out of email spam lists....

It seems like everyone has taken up rock climbing in the past few years, and gyms, recreational supply stores, and even college campuses nationwide are adding climbing walls to their facilities. While climbing wall injuries may be rare, they can have severe consequences. So who’s liable if you’re injured on an indoor climbing wall? And can you sue? Premises Liability Property owners can be held liable for injuries that occur on their property, and business owners like gyms and climbing facilities must take reasonable steps to assure the safety of the premises....

Think the BP oil spill is the Gulf States’ problem? Think again. Last week New York began considering a lawsuit against BP. Not for oil contaminating its beaches, but for the huge hit its state and city of New York pension funds have taken since the price of BP stock dove after the spill. According to the New York Daily News the state pension funds lost $30 million due to the loss in value of BP shares since the explosion that created the spill on April 20....

Former Attorney General and Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer is facing allegations of libel for the first time since he took to the airwaves and launched his career in political commentary. The Spitzer libel suits, filed by two former executives at Marsh & McLennan, a global insurance brokerage firm, are asking for a combined total of $90 million, pointing to negative statements Spitzer made in an article written for the Washington Post’s Slate....

City of Bozeman, MT, Pushes Privacy Boundaries with Background Check Form It might be getting to the point where people are starting to tune out the countless warnings and tales of workplace woe involving regrettable pictures or posts put up on Facebook, MySpace, or other Web social networking sites. By now, most people probably understand that they could very well get looked up online (whether via Google or elsewhere), and that they need to watch what they post on the Web....

A pregnant woman who was hogtied by California Highway Patrol officers after a traffic stop will receive a $250,000 settlement from the state. Tamara Gaglione was reportedly weaving between lanes while talking on her cell phone when she was stopped by the CHP, reports the ABA Journal. After the stop, officers claim that Gaglione behaved menacingly, and so they took “appropriate” action by kneeing and hog-tying her. Gaglione claimed that she had simply exited her vehicle without any threatening gestures, and that the CHP response was inappropriate....