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Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who entered the United States as young children no longer face deportation, and will soon be able to apply for work permits under new rules announced Friday. “These are people who study in our schools, play in our neighborhoods, … pledge allegiance to our flag,” President Barack Obama said at a White House event trumpeting the rule changes. “They are Americans in their hearts, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper....

Are you looking to grow your business? (Who isn’t?) Have you considered exporting? If not, you probably should, as 95% of your potential customers live outside the United States, USA Today reports. As the American economy has struggled over the past few years, small business exporting is increasing as companies go global in order to compete. Looking to the future, small business and exporting world trade is almost certain to become increasingly important to the health and strength of the US economy and businesses....

The deals, the crowds, the lines, the inventory, the staff, the website, and even the credit card swipers. Every small business owner wants that Black Friday bump, but is your store ready for the rush? If you’re planning a big sale, whether online or at your store, you should also do your best to avoid any customer lawsuits this holiday season. Here are a few tips on prepping your small business for Black Friday:...

Starting a franchise may be a great way to become a small business owner, without going through a lot of the growing pains that small business owners typically go through. However, franchising also has a lot of unique legal issues that other small business owners don’t face. With a franchise, the advantage for a business owner is that he or she is not starting from scratch. Instead, the business owner (franchisee) is able to start with the brand, name recognition, and customer loyalty of a much larger chain (the franchisor)....

Student loan debt in America is exploding, growing by an estimated $2,726.27 every second and totaling over $1.38 trillion dollars (as of this morning). Not only are students being buried in debt, parents are now, too. And with so many shady debt servicing companies and for-profit colleges out there, it’s more difficult to repay that debt and separate fact from fiction while doing it. So here are some of our best legal tips for dealing with student loan debt, from our archives....

When combined with divorce, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter don’t simply give us anecdotes about the seemingly least human ways to communicate intimate information. They also give attorneys a treasure trove of information that could affect the outcome of divorce proceedings. Stories like the supposed first “Facebook divorce,” don’t really show us anything new. In that one, a woman in the UK first found out her husband intended to divorce her by reading his Facebook wall....

Social media platform Twitter is updating the tools it provides users to report and block cyberabuse. The new features will roll out to all Twitter users over the next several weeks, reports Ars Technica. They come amid increasing reports of abusive and threatening behavior online. A recent survey by research firm YouGov found that more than 1 in 4 Americans admitted to engaging in malicious online activity known as “trolling.”...

As previously discussed in the Law and Daily Life post, Friday Furloughs: Judge Allows Hawaii to Cut Class, the Hawaii Department of Education (HDOE) was facing legal challenges to its planned Friday furlough program for Hawaii public schools. In a bid to save the state’s crippled budget money, the HDOE proposed to dismiss school every Friday. In a surprising turn of events, angered parents sued. Governor Lingle will need not only the cooperation of Seitz and his clients, but of others as well....

You start hearing it when you’re a kid: “That will go on your permanent record.” But how permanent is that record? You may have heard about someone getting their criminal record sealed or expunged, presumably wiping the slate clean. But how does that process work, what kinds of crimes can be expunged, and do you have to tell anyone once it’s done? And, most importantly, when is it too late to get your criminal record expunged?...

Everyone with a driver’s license started out as a novice at some point, so it’s easy to have sympathy for student drivers – even if they are, by definition, threats to the safety of our roadways. But even if we sympathize with student drivers, do we hold them accountable for accidents? Most car accidents come down to everyone’s insurance policy. But if insurance doesn’t step in, then what? Class Coverage Most private driving schools will carry an insurance policy that covers all of the vehicles and drivers taking the course....

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle put a new law on the books when he signed a bill to toughen state drunk driving laws. According to the Associated Press, the new law makes a fourth offense drunken driving a felony if it occurs within five years of the previous offense. A first offense will be a misdemeanor if someone younger than 16 is in the car. In addition, repeat offenders and first-timers with high blood alcohol contents must get ignition interlocks....

A woman has sued a barbecue brush manufacturer after she swallowed a broken brush bristle while eating a hamburger, landing her in the hospital. Deborah Lamont of Presque Isle, Maine, is suing Precision Brush Co. and M2M LLC, alleging negligence, strict liability, and breach of warranty. What led up to this case, and what will Lamont need to prove in order to win? Mushroom Burger With a Side of Bristle Lamont received a free grill brush made by Precision Brush and sold by M2M LLC with the purchase of a ManGrate barbecue grill in 2011....

Settlements are the most common way for injury lawsuits to be resolved, yet sometimes a well-planned settlement is rejected by the court. Take for example the NFL’s proposed concussion settlement to compensate some 4,500 former players. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the $760 million proposal may not be enough to pay all of the injured ex-players who were part of the class action. The judge in the NFL case is now asking for more financial details, so the settlement may still be salvaged....

California passed SB 826 this month, which requires publicly traded companies headquartered in the state to have at least one woman on their board by the end of 2019, and even more phased in by 2021, depending on the size of the board. This is the first of its kind in the US, and people have many questions. We have a few answers. If you answer “yes” to all of the following questions, then this law applies to your company:...

A deposition can be a stressful process, but what happens afterwards? To put your minds a bit more at ease, here are a few things that commonly take place after a deposition concludes: A Transcript Is Prepared During your deposition, you may have noticed the court reporter diligently typing away at something that looked similar to a QWERTY keyboard. This was actually a stenography device that allows the court reporter to quickly type everything that was said in a deposition in a form of shorthand....

Most antidepressant medications come with FDA-ordered “black box” warning labels on their packaging, advising patients and care providers of the potentially deadly side effects of the drugs’ use – specifically, the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior, especially in young patients. These warnings, while necessary, may also raise a barrier of fear and apprehension that’s keeping adults and children from getting help for serious mental health problems, according to a study released this week....

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is probing Google and Apple regarding their respective boards of directors. In particular, the FTC is examining shared members of the two boards. Though rarely invoked, US antitrust laws forbid “interlocking directorates” - the sharing of officers and/or directors between competing corporations. As reported by Reuters, the FTC is concerned about Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Arthur Levinson, the former chief executive of Genentech Inc. They both sit on the boards of both Google and Apple....

Research In Motion has officially changed its business name to BlackBerry, after its once-ubiquitous product. Will this corporate name change help save the struggling company and revive BlackBerry sales? That’s yet to be seen. After all, how many people even realized that Research In Motion was the name of the BlackBerry maker in the first place? As many in the business world have ditched their BlackBerry devices in droves, it’s unclear who even cares at this point....

When you go into business, you think a lot about risks and return on investment, but have you seriously considered personal injury? Whether or not you are ever sued, you are strongly advised to prepare for the worst. Of course you cannot guarantee that you will prevent all injuries, and as a result suits from injured customers. But you can put in place some policies that will minimize the likelihood of a lawsuit....

California lawmakers approved a groundbreaking “Yes Means Yes” bill on Thursday, in an attempt to fight the growing problem of sexual assault on college campuses. The bill must be signed by Governor Jerry Brown before it becomes law, but if/when it becomes effective, all California colleges and universities will have to change their standards. The Los Angeles Times reports that the bill would require “affirmative consent” between college students hoping to have sex – removing silence or lack of resistance as signs of consent....