Unemployed men are faring worse than women as the nation struggles to recover from the recession. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women have gained back the jobs they lost during the financial crisis while men have only gained back about 70 percent of them, CNN reports. Why is this? There are a variety of reasons. First, because men lost more jobs than women, there are more to gain back....
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, an employer is required to make reasonable accommodations to assist a deaf or hearing-impaired employee in performing his or her job. Failing to do so may lead to legal action, fines, and penalties. A recent, somewhat ironic example: the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against a non-profit whose mission was supposedly to help disabled individuals. Instead, according to the EEOC, the company denied a deaf employee reasonable accommodations before firing him....
You may have heard the term Comparative Negligence before, particularly when talking about car accidents, but do you know what it means? First, let’s start with negligence itself. Negligence is the failure to act with the prudence and care that a reasonable person would exercise under the same circumstances. Legally, negligence has five elements: duty, breach, legal causation, factual causation and damages. One could write a book about each element of negligence, so for the sake of brevity, remember this: you generally have a duty toward everyone to exercise “reasonable care” for their safety and property....
On Thanksgiving, many families go around the table and say what they’re thankful for. But few ever mention the legal rights that we are lucky to have in the United States. It’s easy to take for granted the freedoms we all have. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we asked fans of our FindLaw for Consumers Facebook page to tell us which Constitutional rights they’re most grateful for. While you get to enjoy many of these freedoms every day, the Facebook comments we received are a good reminder of how much we have to be thankful for when it comes to the legal system....
A press conference was held today, September 29, by controversial attorney Gloria Allred who is representing the former housekeeper of California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman. According to the statement released by Allred, the Whitman housekeeper, Nicky Santillan, suffered emotional and financial abuse and will file claims with the California Labor Commission for back wages and mileage. Closer to the heart of the matter, reports TMZ, are claims by Santillan that Whitman knew about her status as an undocumented worker and ignored it until her candidacy for governor was announced....
Employment is a relationship. When you hire an employee, you probably expect them to be at their best and show you what they can do. But if you hire someone who doesn’t try to prove their worth, do you need to worry that you made a mistake? How long do you wait before deciding the new guy’s not a good fit? Only you can answer those questions based on what you and your business will tolerate....
At this point, there have been so many lawsuits filed against Johnson & Johnson over its talc and baby powder products, and judgments against the company based on cancer caused by those products, it’s becoming hard to keep track of them all. Luckily, Bloomberg did the work for us: J&J is facing “5,500 claims in U.S. courts, [and] has lost four previous jury verdicts in St. Louis for a total of $300 million....
A couple has brought a lawsuit against the Fox game show Million Dollar Money Drop for “tricking” them out of a $580,000 prize, reports TMZ. Back in 2011, Andrew and Patricia Murray appeared on the game show and were asked the question: “According to the data security firm IMPERVA, what is the most common computer password?” The answer choices were: A) Password B) 123456 C) I Love You Based on personal knowledge and things they’ve read, the couple incorrectly guessed B: 123456....
Pennsylvania was one of the original 13 colonies, and if you’re in the Keystone State, you should be familiar with its rich history of laws. While learning about the life of the Founding Fathers is a great way to enjoy the history of Pennsylvania, you may also want to focus on the present laws that will have a slightly more pressing effect. Get ready for an updated page of Poor Richard’s Almanac, with 10 laws you should know if you’re in present-day Pennsylvania:...
Broadcast network NBC has agreed to settle claims filed by former interns who claimed the network’s unpaid internship program violated federal and state labor laws. A group of interns led by ex-“Saturday Night Live” intern Monet Eliastam filed the class action lawsuit last year alleging that unpaid interns were being used in place of normal workers at NBC. The suit also alleged that NBC’s internship program failed to provide academic or vocational training....
In the wake of the Aurora movie theater shooting, there were many lawsuits filed. Several survivors and relatives of those killed sued the theater, owned by Cinemark USA. But it looks like certain claims in those lawsuits may not go forward. A federal judge recommended Thursday that some of the most serious claims be thrown out. The recommendations aren’t binding; the final decision rests with the judge overseeing the cases. But it raises questions about what suits the victims will be able to pursue....
You woke up before dawn and posted up in front of the store. But you were not alone. When the doors opened, you and thousands of eager shoppers rushed to get inside. In the crush, you were hurt. What can you do? You can sue for an injury that occurs on Black Friday, just like any other day. All the same rules apply to this frenzied occasion, meaning you will have to prove that injury was caused by someone’s negligence....
Despite the best intentions of business partners when a new venture gets going, unfortunately, sometimes partners do more than just drift apart. Sometimes a partner may intentionally or inadvertently sabotage a business for their own gain. Even though business partners have the right to control the business, absent specific contractual terms, they will also have fiduciary and other legal obligations to each other. As such, if one partner is found to have sabotaged a jointly owned business, they can be liable to the other joint owners for the harms caused and can be sued....
Imagine having your passport revoked for failing to pay your federal income taxes. As surprising as it sounds, Congress granted the IRS the right to do just that in 2015. Did the IRS Hit the Right Pressure Point? So far, this method has proven to be somewhat successful. According to the Wall Street Journal, at least one person has paid $1 million in overdue taxes to avoid this penalty, and at least 220 people have paid a total of $11....
Elizabeth Edwards’ will and testament has been made public, and John Edwards’ wasn’t left a dime. The will was signed just six days before Edwards’ died, The Huffington Post reports. Instead, Edwards left everything to her four children, Cate, Emma Claire and Jack. A will can be changed, amended or revoked at any time prior to death as long as the person is physically and mentally competent to make the change....
Time Warner Cable has been hit with another discrimination lawsuit, this time by a former employee in New York. Keith Reid worked in the company’s New York City maintenance department for about 9 years before he was fired earlier this year. He says he was terminated because of his religion. He was allegedly dismissed for complaining to human resources about a number of co-workers who were watching porn at work....
There are quite a few ways to get kicked off a plane, some as whimsical as playing a game on your phone, some as serious as having cancer. But you don’t expect to get booted from a flight for being hungry. An Oregon mom claims that’s what happened after she requested a hot meal for her autistic daughter. Dr. Donna Beegle said, the next thing she knew, pilots scheduled an emergency landing and she and her family were removed from a United flight last week....
Investigators are at the scene of a Hoover Dam helicopter crash that killed everyone on board. Four passengers and the pilot were killed when the helicopter crashed into a mountainside just after sunset Wednesday, KSNV-TV reports. Authorities have not released the victims’ identities. But a relative identified the deceased pilot as Landon Nield, an employee of Sundance Helicopters. Sundance offers helicopter tours of Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, and the Grand Canyon....
If it hasn’t already happened, there will come a day when you receive a phone call requesting an employment reference for a fired employee. The request will undoubtedly put you in a difficult position. You’re probably aware that a bad reference can turn into a defamation or tortious interference lawsuit. But did you know that not telling the truth can also get you in a little bit of legal trouble?...
For many years it has been an employer’s market. The economic downturn of the last decade put people out of work at worst and on a tortuously slow career track at best. These have been the years of making do for employees as corporate America has slashed jobs and replaced them with contract gigs, all of which is good news for you, the small business owner, according to The Daily Herald....
