Posts

In what some viewers described as a violent attack, an experienced animal trainer was dragged into the pool in a fatal accident at Orlando SeaWorld on Wednesday, as horrified spectators looked on. The trainer was a veteran animal trainer at Orlando SeaWorld. She had just finished explaining the prospective demonstration to the audience when a whale came up from the water and grabbed her, pulling her into the water. According to spectators, the whale was “thrashing her around pretty good....

We want our kids to get the best education possible, and to be nurtured and safe while they’re in school. So how do schools balance the educational, interpersonal, and safety concerns of their students, while also taking into account their legal rights and Constitutional protections? Here’s what you need to know about a student’s rights in school, and what to do when legal issues arise on campus. 1. Student Rights: Can I Get Searched at School?...

In light of the sour economy and high rate of distressed homeowners marching to bankruptcy court, many see a serious need for some decisive legislative action. Well, action that accomplishes something, instead of proposed legislation that keeps dying in Congress. But in the current political climate, is the prospect of bankruptcy law reform dead? Will bankruptcy judges ever be given more power to help the masses of distressed homeowners flooding their courtrooms?...

So you’ve decided to sue your doctor. What did he do? Leave a clamp in you after a surgery? Misdiagnose you with the wrong illness? Botch your vasectomy? Whatever the issue, to win your case, you’ll need proof, proof, and more proof. Help your attorney by giving him as much documentation of your injury as possible. Here is a checklist of documents you should have for a medical malpractice case:...

For some small business owners, trouble on the home front (as in home mortgage front) threatens already precarious business conditions. Home mortgages that once seemed a good source of money for the business now could result in the need to lay off workers or even close. Homeowners with trouble making mortgage payments often hear that their best bet is to contact their lender about a loan modification. They should be well prepared when they do so....

Small business owners are always trying to get the most out of their employees. Advances in the type of work we do, and the technology with which we do it, have given bosses more options than ever for squeezing every last idea and project out of their staff. We’re no longer tethered to our desks or out-dated tech, so why are we still tethered to a standardized amount of time for work?...

If you have a business in one of 25 states with right-to-work laws, you may need to adhere to certain state labor statutes. What is the right-to-work? Do you have to give a job to anybody who asks for it because they have a right to work? Right-to-Work Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming all have right to work statutes, though the name of the law is somewhat misleading....

These days, most small businesses would have their Internet domains reserved before they even signed the incorporation papers. In fact, I’m sure many companies failed to even launch because a url or Twitter handle was already taken. But that wasn’t always the case. Back in the old days, folks would just start a business, give it the name they wanted, and wait a few decades until Al Gore invented the Internet....

If there were a contest for the most deadbeat of deadbeat dads, Robert Sand with his $1.2 million in owed child support would be a serious contender. Prosecutors have even called him the government’s “most wanted” deadbeat parent. Sand has owed money for a long time to three children whom he fathered from two previous marriages. On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to pay child support. The child support orders have been “in arrears,” meaning overdue, since 2002....

Credit cards can be a small business owner’s best friend, but only if you don’t make too many financial mistakes with them. It can be easier to get a credit card than a loan in today’s economy for a new or struggling business, but both financing options have risks. When it comes to a loan, the lender wants you to pay on time so they make an effort to help you understand the risks and benefits....

Ever heard of adverse possession? It’s a seemingly odd area of law that provides a path for a person to take possession of property that is legally owned by someone else. Under adverse possession, you can become the legal owner of someone else’s property if you take possession of it for several years. States’ laws on adverse possession vary, but we have a complete list available at Findlaw. Guerette is making use of an 1869 Florida statute that says the bundle of properties he has seized will belong to him if the owners do not claim them within seven years....

Perhaps in honor of Banned Books Week (Sept. 24 - Oct. 1), a school district in southwest Missouri has chosen to partially remove two novels from its list of banned books. Slaughterhouse-Five and Twenty Boy Summer will now be available in the school library. However, only parents may check them out, and they cannot be assigned as mandatory reading. Isn’t it unconstitutional for schools to ban books? Yes, and no....

Today marks the 60th anniversary of a court decision that changed American history: Brown v. Board of Education. The landmark decision put an end to the doctrine of “separate but equal” in education and the legal segregation of public schools. It also paved the way for 1964’s Civil Rights Act and remains a much-discussed decision, as well as the most popular U.S. Supreme Court case on FindLaw.com. So why are we still talking about it, 60 years later?...

In recent weeks, Minnesota and Texas joined the growing chorus of states that are strengthening laws on the use of child safety restraint devices in cars, by raising the minimum age at which young passengers must be secured in special safety seats. On May 15, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty signed a law that will require kids age 7 and younger (or less than 4'9" tall) to be in a child safety seat when they ride in cars, as of July 1st....

A child support lawsuit seeks to provide free legal representation for poor parents facing enforcement actions in Georgia. It also seeks to stop Georgia’s practice of throwing thousands of deadbeat parents behind bars. A judge in Atlanta has cleared the way for a class-action child support lawsuit, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Five parents filed the suit after they were thrown in jail for unpaid child support. Because the parents were in jail, they had no way to pay their child-support debts, the lawsuit asserts....

If you’ve been injured and had your disability insurance claim denied, you may be wondering what to do next. Being denied benefits on top of being unable to work may seem like the end of the road, but it may not be. In many cases, there are still options for people who have received a disability claim denial, and you may still be able to receive benefits – it may just take a bit more work....

The Better Business Bureau has issued an alert to business owners about a new scam targeting business vendor payments. This scam is particularly easy to miss, reports the BBB, because unlike many other business scams which rely on selling business owners fake or useless products and services, this latest scam uses the names of real vendors that the targeted companies already do business with. How does the scam work, and how can you avoid being taken for a costly ride?...

The Environmental Protection Agency says it may completely take over the job of air regulation in Texas if the state fails to clean up its act. EPA chief Al Armendariz made the statement about Texas air pollution after the federal government announced it would issue an operating permit for a single refinery in that state while taking over 39 other permits. “Do we also think the deficiencies are serious enough to go that route?...

Employers shouldn’t retaliate against their workers. It’s bad for business. In many contexts, it’s also illegal. For example, employers cannot retaliate when workers complain about protected activity. Proving that you were penalized for making a complaint (or for whistleblowing) can be difficult because you must show a connection between your actions and your boss’s reaction. You must have actual evidence that the employer retaliated as a consequence of you speaking out....

Video evidence of your injury may be the smoking gun that wins your case. However, just because a video recording exists of your lawsuit-worthy incident doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll always have access to it for your case. Video recordings can be taken by cell phones, police dashcams, and even private businesses’ security cameras. But you’ll likely need legal help in order to get access to them. Here’s a brief rundown on how to collect video evidence for your injury case:...