Car accident investigations can be tough. Imagine sifting through twisted metal and shards of glass. It’s not always easy to uncover what exactly happened. That’s why “black boxes” in cars may soon become a reality. Most Americans know what “black boxes” are. Authorities scrounge the ocean and ground for the device after planes crash. The device tracks and records what happened on the aircraft. It illuminates possible reasons the accident occurred....
Small business owners: Need some holiday advertising tips for Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, or the rest of the shopping season? With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, it’s time to prepare for the onslaught of holiday shoppers. In fact, retail giant Walmart has already rolled out its Black Friday ad, Cincinnati’s WCPO-TV reports. You should be thinking ahead too, especially when it comes to spreading the word about your holiday sales....
Whether it’s about patents, trademarks, or copyrights, an intellectual property lawyer can guide your business through the legal process. But what types of questions do clients typically ask IP lawyers? Here are five initial questions you may want to jot down before your consultation: What are your fees? Make sure to ask about fees, including the consultation. Get a breakdown of projected costs for different phases of the work. You’ll want to balance the attorney’s rate against his or her expertise....
The attack on the @AP Twitter account, which led to a stock market “flash crash” Tuesday, was the latest in a series of hacks called “spear-phishing.” A number of Associated Press employees received an email that appeared to be from a co-worker, but in fact was generated by hackers to fool them into clicking on a malicious link within the email, Slate reports. As a host of major organizations join the ever-growing list of spear-phishing victims, small businesses will want to be on alert for similar attacks....
Your kids are great but they sometimes do foolish things and lately you’ve been wondering just how far your responsibility extends. You know you must feed, clothe, and shelter your children, provide them with care and an education. But are you also liable for their acts? What about if a minor child enters into a contract? These are difficult questions that are best answered in the specific rather than the abstract....
An Arizona voter law requiring proof of citizenship has been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 7-2 vote, justices ruled Monday that Proposition 200, an Arizona voter-registration provision enacted in 2004, was pre-empted by federal law – namely, the 1993 National Voter Registration Act. The Arizona law required voters to prove their citizenship by providing documentation, The New York Times reports. But that went far beyond what the federal law requires, the Court explained....
Chicago’s first speed camera will begin issuing tickets today, not just warnings, as a 30-day “grace period” has now expired. The Windy City’s first speed camera to issue traffic tickets is in the Mayfair neighborhood, where drivers caught going 10 mph over the posted speed limit will be fined $100, Chicago’s WLS-TV reports. Another 50 speed cameras are also set to get the green light to issue tickets by year’s end....
Thanksgiving is for gratitude and good food. But it can be hard to get in the holiday mood when celebration creates stress, as it often does in split families. Sharing the kids can be difficult for divorced and separated parents. And feeling split between parents is tough on kids too. Children observe their parents and pick up on all kinds of behaviors. Send positive messages that will help them manage the stresses of adulthood by handling custody on the holidays cheerfully … and like a grown-up....
You may have heard the infuriating story about a Texas dad who paid his child support in full but was still sentenced to six months in jail. What really happened in his case? By the time Clifford Hall was haled into a Houston court, he had already paid off his child support obligations, including $3,000 in back pay that was not withheld from his paychecks, Hall and his attorney told Houston’s KRIV-TV....
As self-published e-books top best-seller lists, writer-entrepreneurs may be wondering: Should e-book authors who self-publish submit their books for a legal review? If an author expects her book to get a decent amount of exposure, and the book contains material that isn’t in the public domain, then consulting an attorney who knows a bit about publishing laws isn’t a bad idea. Here are five legal tips for those writing an e-book, self-published or otherwise:...
Boy meets girl. Girl overstays visa (or never had a visa). Boy marries girl. Green Card for illegal wife? The above is a common scenario that many couples face. For a variety of reasons, many foreign nationals enter the U.S. and end up marrying a U.S. citizen. But contrary to popular belief, simply being married to a U.S. citizen does not confer a general right for the non-citizen spouse to remain in the U....
If you’ve been paying attention, you’re probably aware that texting while driving is against the law in almost every state. But you might be wondering whether laws that prohibit texting while driving also apply to times when you might be behind the wheel, but not actually going anywhere, such as when you’re stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Is it legal to text while stuck in traffic? Though each of the 49 states with some form of prohibition on texting while driving have their own version of the law, in most of these states, any time you are behind the wheel of a running vehicle on a public street, you are likely prohibited from texting....
Your average teen is on social media constantly, and according to a new study, she may be publicly sharing on Facebook and Twitter with little regard for the consequences. At any instant, your child may be sharing her thoughts, her GPS location, and even her phone number to “friends” and followers, researchers at Harvard University found in a study conducted for the Pew Research Center. But while teens may tend to share too much, they’re also tweaking their social media habits just a bit, the study found....
Welcome to the second installment of our new Sunday blog series, Legalese From A to Z. As part of this continuing series, we’ll be taking a closer look at legal terminology that may be unfamiliar to non-lawyers. We started last week with the letter “A,” so today we take on five legal terms that begin with the letter “B”: BFOQ. BFOQ is short for “bona fide occupational qualification” which, in the workplace-discrimination context, may allow an employer to discriminate when there is a legitimate reason for the discrimination....
As you may have noticed, quite a few states have been legalizing weed lately. And as you should be aware, marijuana remains a Schedule I controlled substance, illegal under federal drug laws. So how does that work? For the most part, federal law enforcement decided to take a hands-off approach to state weed regulation. That was until Donald Trump was elected and his new attorney general Jeff Sessions blew all that up....
The hit-and-run car crash that killed California Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart and three others this morning highlights the importance of following certain steps after a car accident. In today’s early morning accident in Fullerton, California, the driver of a minivan is alleged to have run a red light and struck a Mitsubishi sports car carrying Adenhart and three others, according to the Los Angeles Times. The minivan driver then apparently fled on foot and was taken into custody on suspicion of hit-and-run about a mile from the accident scene, the Times reports....
Those opposing gay marriage in the state of New Hampshire are seeking the repeal of a three week old law that would permit it. According to the Washington Post, opponents of gay marriage in New Hampshire asked the state House Committee to repeal the law. Those opposing gay marriage claim that it is a matter of defying nature. The Washington Post quotes state Rep. Jordan Ulery, a Republican from Hudson as saying: “A man and a woman together create a family where individuals of the same gender cannot create a family....
Are You Doing “Work” You Should get Paid For? The RadarOnline Web site has been nailed by California authorities with a bunch of child labor law violations involving the videotaping of two of the now-infamous “Octomom” Nadya Suleman’s octuplets. This comes on the relative heels of similar reports about the Jon and Kate Plus 8 “crew”, involving investigations of child labor law violations with their reality series. Now, it might not even cross some people’s minds that a child, who might simply be living their daily life, could actually be “working” in the ordinary sense of the word....
Peaster school district outside Fort Worth Texas forced a student to shower at school, according to charges filed by the boy’s parents. The eight-year-old student was allegedly taken out of his third grade class and brought to the nurses’ office. He was forced to remove his clothes in front of school officials and take a shower. Michael and Amber Tilley, the boy’s parents, are suing Peaster school district for what they view as completely unwarranted and inappropriate actions by school officials....
Catching up on news over the weekend that controvertial late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was murdered over the weekend while ushering at church, the case has raised questions about the suspect Scott P. Roeder, such as whether this possibly was a foreseeable act by a “homegrown terrorist”, and whether other groups foster or even encourage such assassinations. FindLaw’s Common Law blog had previously looked at Tiller’s misdemeanor trial where he had been accused of breaking Kansas law by allegedly failing to get an independent doctor’s second opinion for late-term abortions....
