From blogs to Facebook posts, Twitter to text messages, a lot of information is flying around these days, from more sources than ever before – not all of them reputable. And many stories spread incredibly quickly (they don’t call it “viral” technology for nothing). So it’s important to understand when gossip and rants can cross the legal line and become “defamation”, the legal word for a statement that causes damage to someone’s reputation....
Class action settlement offers tend to be disappointing. Five dollars is not adequate compensation for that $80 power cord. But what are you going to do about it? Opt-out of the class action? Heather Peters did, and then she filed a lawsuit in small claims court. If she wins, she’ll likely be awarded more than the $100 and rebate offer that form the Honda Civic hybrid settlement. Her plan can be applied to almost any class action settlement out there....
Recent outbreaks of deadly, destructive tornadoes raise questions about insurance coverage: How does tornado insurance work, and why do homeowners often get stuck paying most of their tornado repair bills? Most homeowner, business, and auto insurance policies include tornadoes as part of standard coverage for wind damage and severe weather, according to the Insurance Information Institute. In general, homeowner’s and renter’s insurance covers property damage from tornadoes. The type of insurance policy, and the amount of insurance purchased, affect how much an insurance company will pay for tornado damage....
An 83-year-old woman smacked her face into a see-through door at an Apple store and broke her nose. Now she’s suing Apple for $1 million, claiming the tech giant’s clear-glass door was clearly negligent. Evelyn Paswall, 83, of Queens, N.Y., walked straight into a glass door at an Apple store on Long Island in December, the New York Post reports. Unimpressed by the store’s sleek design, Paswall’s Apple lawsuit claims the company failed to senior-proof its see-through facade....
Last week, the US Senate approved a military policy bill that would require young women to register for the draft at age 18, just like young men. Americans have not been drafted into the military since 1973, but passage of the bill reignited a national debate about women, fighting, and equality, most notably among the many men in government. That debate has been going on for decades. In 1981, the US Supreme Court ruled that women did not need to sign up for Selective Service because at that point they were not active in all aspects of military service....
Woodlawn Cemetery in New York might be facing a lawsuit soon. The cemetery allegedly lost the ashes of Elisabeth Delfini, and her son, Ferdinando Delfini, is considering his legal options. Ferdinando, 60, says that his mother was supposed to be interred next to his father. He says the cemetery told him it would take 6-8 weeks for everything to be completed. But when he visited he didn’t find a tablet marking his mother’s final resting place....
Johnson & Johnson faces claims it developed a metal hip replacement that had several design defects. In a major hip replacement lawsuit, a plaintiff (one of 10,000) accuses top-level officials in J&J’s DePuy Orthopaedics unit of hiding the defects from doctors and patients. The gist of this product liability lawsuit is that DePuy created a hip replacement with stability issues and that also leaked toxic debris into patients’ bloodstreams. But instead of notifying doctors and patients, the company allegedly kept silent....
More than 1 in 4 young adults have posted things on social media that they fear may be used against them when it comes to employment, a new FindLaw survey reveals. Among 18- to 34-year-old social media users, 29 percent say they feared that their photos, comments, or other personal information could come back to bite them – either by causing a prospective employer to turn them down for a job, or by giving a current employer a reason to fire them....
It was meant to be a parade honoring veterans in Midland, Texas. But the celebration was cut short after four veterans were killed and many others were injured when a train crashed into the procession. The parade was supposed to take veterans through city streets to a banquet. Service members traveled from all over to take part in the celebration, which included a weekend of deer hunting for the veterans. But as a flatbed truck carrying vets crossed a set of railroad tracks, a train barrelled right through the parade route....
Business owners shouldn’t tolerate racial slurs or jokes in the office, but microaggressions may be sliding past their radars – and costing their businesses. Microaggressions are seemingly slight forms of non-physical aggression using bias or stereotypes to call attention to a person’s (usually racial) differences. Writing for The Huffington Post, John Fitzgerald Gates notes that “[m]icroagressions are the negative assumptions we make about people that limit their humanity and value.”...
Bankruptcy can be a frightening event, but one that is becoming all too common. In fact, the rate of bankruptcy has risen lately to its highest levels since 2005. One of the ideas that may make bankruptcy so forbidding, is the thought that everything a person owns will be sold to pay off creditors. While it is true that many assets may have to be given up to pay outstanding debts, not everything is always on the auction block....
When someone slaps you, you don’t have to take it. No no, we don’t mean that you go all “Dynasty” on your attacker; you have legal options. Part of the problem with being a slap victim, though, is that you have to prove that you actually suffered damages. And the hot sting of your cheek may not be enough. So can you sue someone for slapping you? The law generally frowns on the idea of one person hitting the other when there is no imminent threat or legal cause to restrain that person....
Apple’s iPhones appear to be getting more secure: they’ve moved from passcodes to fingerprints, and again from fingerprints to facial recognition. But while this may keep your iPhone safer from hackers, it may not keep it safer from law enforcement. As we noted earlier this week, police officers and federal agents are increasingly using suspects’ Face ID function to unlock their iPhones during criminal investigations. Thus far, there’s been no case of someone refusing such a request, but could law enforcement force you to use your face to unlock your phone, or, worse, could they trick you into unlocking it just by looking at it?...
With the recent rash of calorie laws passed, people have been wondering if the laws do any good. Do the laws really help people take food calorie count into consideration? Do they really reduce the caloric intake for consumers? We wrote about the calorie law passed in New Jersey in FindLaw’s Common Law blog. The calorie law would require chain restaurants in New Jersey to post the number of calories in a product right on the menu....
So, when does bad behavior warrant a six-figure settlement, spark an FBI investigation, constitute criminal stalking, and lead to a three-year prison sentence, but not rise to the level sexual harassment at work? When your employer is United Airlines, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC sued the airline last week on behalf of a female flight attendant who claims a male pilot posted nude and sexually suggestive photos (some including her work uniform) of her online for over a decade without her permission....
A Fourth of July accident sent 28 people to the hospital when the planned fireworks display detonated on the ground. The explosion occurred about 9:30 p.m. at a park in Simi Valley, California. Witnesses recounted that “bits and pieces of the fireworks rained down on the people who were in the front,” reports Los Angeles’ KABC-TV. Fireworks injuries are common, but not usually of this magnitude. As a result, the fireworks show’s coordinators could be facing major liability if the injured spectators decide to sue....
The recent Yosemite Half Dome death marks the 17th death in the national park this year. Ryan Leeder, 23, fell thousands of feet to his death at around 6:30 p.m. on Monday. Leeder was a native of Bonny Doon, located close to Santa Cruz, California. He was currently residing in San Jose, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Fellow hikers heard Leeder scream and watched him fall Monday night. Authorities were not able to search for his body until the following day due to darkening conditions....
Zachary Alt played football at Pittsburgh’s Highlands High School until three successive concussions knocked him out the game. Four years later, still suffering from the effects of those injuries, Alt has filed suit against Highlands High. He is alleging that the school violated his constitutional rights by failing to protect him from further injuries and subsequently inflating his grades so he could graduate. Within a one month period, high school sophomore Zachary Alt suffered from three concussions–none of which were properly evaluated by staff....
Every entrepreneur dreams of the day they’ll be able to expand their business to beyond just them. But hiring in this economy can be tricky. Applicants are getting desperate and fudging on resumes is a common way for them to tip the scales in their favor. While it goes without saying that slight exaggerations are to be expected in all resumes, sometimes people go overboard. So if you don’t want to end up with an illiterate IT manager, be sure to watch out for the following five common resume lies:...
Last month, in response to President Trump’s executive order on immigration, protests spontaneously broke out at many of the nation’s largest international airports. Those protests subsided as opponents won injunctions in court, barring federal authorities from enforcing the order. But that doesn’t mean the end. Those court cases are still ongoing, and Trump has indicated his administration will redraft the travel ban in an attempt to make it more Constitution-friendly, which leaves open the possibility of future airport protests....
