Posts

At the tail end of an already busy first week in office, President Trump on Friday issued an executive order banning the entry of all foreign refugees into the country along with nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including those with immigrant visas and possibly green card holders as well. The response – from protestors and civil rights attorneys – was immediate, and by Saturday night a federal judge in New York issued a “stay,” prohibiting the government from enforcing certain parts of the order....

In a personal injury case, a successful plaintiff is compensated financially according to the amount of his damages by what are called compensatory or actual damages. But these damages may not be the only type of damages available to a plaintiff in an injury lawsuit. In some cases, a plaintiff may also receive punitive damages – known in some jurisdictions as exemplary damages – in addition to an award of compensatory damages....

Prison is no picnic. Despite what you might have seen in movies or TV series, or when you’ve heard from friends of friends about their cousin’s time behind bars, losing your freedom, perhaps your job and future employment possibilities, and contact with your loved ones can have lasting psychological and financial consequences. And, let’s face it – you’re probably not going to country club prison. So rather than get your answers about incarceration from the entertainment industry, here is some info you can rely on concerning the biggest legal issues surrounding jail and prison....

One first-grader in Philadelphia who suffered second-degree burns from his school lunch may be bringing his own lunch to school from now on. When Ja-Kye Robinson couldn’t get his bag of taco meat open, he did what any 7-year-old would do out of frustration: He punched it open. The extremely hot meat ended up splattering all over his face, causing him second-degree burns. But what potential legal recourse does his family have?...

A Facebook crime blogger in Texas writing under the handle ‘Gordiloca’ (crazy fat lady) had a pair of third-degree felony charges against her dropped this week, based on a little-known legal doctrine. Priscilla Villarreal had been charged with “misuse of official information” for publishing the names of a suicide victim and a car accident fatality before police had released the information to the public. But a district judge dismissed both counts, deeming the state statute under which Gordiloca (or Priscilla Villareal) was charged unconstitutionally vague....

Chipotle has made a change to its receipts, after a calculating customer caught the quick-service chain allegedly short-changing patrons out of pennies. It may not sound like much, but with 1,300 locations nationwide, it potentially adds up to a huge chunk of pilfered change. Chipotle admits that in some markets, cash registers had been programmed to round a customer’s bill up to the nearest nickel, New Jersey’s Star-Ledger newspaper reports....

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has settled yet another HIV discrimination action. Gregory Packing, the manufacturer and distributor of Suncup juice products, agreed to pay $125,000 to settle charges that it illegally terminated a machine operator after learning he was HIV positive. The settlement also requires the manufacturer to institute equal opportunity training and reporting measures. Over the past few years, the EEOC has increased its enforcement actions against HIV discrimination....

If you’re an employer that is unsure about what the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) law is, or what OSHA guidelines you should be following, a quick introduction may be necessary. OSHA mandates that all employers engaged in business affecting commerce need to provide safe working conditions for their employees. This means that employers need to be sure to remove hazardous or dangerous conditions, amongst other things. Do you know what your obligations are under OSHA?...

Legal problems homeless people face are often exacerbated by their inability to travel to court. So, why not bring a new homeless court to them? That’s exactly what Pinellas County Florida judges have done by rolling out a new system to bring the courts to homeless defendants. According to the Maco County News, the county’s new homeless court is modeled after the one in San Diego in an effort to quickly resolve petty crimes....

Getting an unruly tenant to leave is complicated, but be careful how you do it. Your actions could be considered harassment. There’s a legal process for eviction that landlords are supposed to follow. Trying to get a tenant to leave without following that process can result in a lawsuit. But how do you know where to draw the line between trying to get rid of a terrible tenant and actually breaking the law?...

According to a new FindLaw.com survey, nearly 1 in 10 workers have decided not to report a workplace injury for fear of retaliation. This new data suggests that 9 percent of Americans are afraid to report when they are ill or injured on the job because they are afraid of being fired, passed over for promotions, or harassed. Are that many workers too afraid to say when they’re hurt? Not only do 9 percent of workers with an injury fear negative workplace consequences if they report an injury, but about one-third of those workers have had more than one workplace injury....

In Congress, a fight over food stamps reached its latest peak after the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday to cut $40 billion from the program over the next 10 years. In justifying the cut, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor declared it was “wrong for working, middle-class people to pay” for abuse of the increasingly costly food stamp program, Reuters reports. The vote was 217-210, mostly along party lines....

You have locks on your doors, and probably an alarm on your building. But do you have the same kind of protections on your business’ data? The debilitating hack of Sony Pictures earlier this month provides the most recent evidence that shoring up cybersecurity safeguards should be a priority for businesses of any size. And with the growing amount of data being stored in the cloud, the ability of hackers to access sensitive customer or financial data may be increased if proper security procedures are not followed....

Mine officials confirmed that two Kentucky coal mine workers have been found dead in Hopkins County, Kentucky. Just weeks after the West Virginia mine disaster, two miners were trapped in a coal mine collapse last night. Over 30 rescuers worked through the night to try to recover the miners, but Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear confirmed this afternoon that both miners have been found dead. “Today has been a terrible day for Kentucky and for our coal-mining families,” the governor said in a statement....

Is it legal to use the phrase “Super Bowl” – an aggressively protected trademark – in ads for your business? What about using the words “Super Bowl” in your social media status updates? The Super Bowl is the biggest television blitz of the year and boasts some of the best ads in the biz. This Sunday, as the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos face off in Super Bowl XLVIII, you may be tempted to get in on the intense advertising action....

It’s pretty cold outside, which means it’s time to turn on the heat. But alas, it doesn’t work. You’ve asked your landlord to fix it, but he hasn’t. What do you do? Must landlords provide heat? They don’t have to pay for it, but they must usually provide a way for you to heat the unit. Tenants are generally entitled to heat under the implied warranty of habitability – an unwritten promise that requires residential landlords to maintain the premises....

$35. That’s how much one person in Las Vegas thought someone else’s life was worth. A nail salon patron who tried to ditch out on paying for her $35 manicure killed her salon manicurist while trying to flee, and now is a wanted fugitive. Odds are, this death won’t be the only crime for which she will be charged. According to police, a salon customer received a $35 manicure at a nail salon about a mile and a half off the Las Vegas strip....

Credit cards are convenient, but processing payments can be costly for small businesses. Enter mobile credit-card readers, which seem to be swiping more and more business from banks and third-party payment processors. One mobile credit-card reader, made by Square, is now used by more than 1 million merchants nationwide – that’s one in eight U.S. merchants, Daily Deal Media reports. Square’s market share could grow, as it recently announced its reader will soon be sold at OfficeMax and The UPS Store locations....

After the holiday rush is over, small business owners should take advantage of the brief lull to get started on some New Year’s resolutions. While personal resolutions are generally focused on improving one’s health, home life, or work/life balance, small business owners could benefit from making some resolutions for their businesses. Just getting the ball rolling on some of the following can help keep you and your small business out of legal trouble in 2017....

As more and more Americans at or above retirement age continue to work, age discrimination is a growing concern. Despite age discrimination laws, many workers are concerned that employers will not want to hire them if they know how old they are. Ruth Lyons, 59, went two and a half years without a job interview, before deciding to start listing her birthdate as 18 years earlier to see if it made a difference....