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Businesses routinely run employee background checks. The type of background check tools used often depends on the business, but all tools are used for the same function: to determine if employees have any history that might impact their ability to perform job duties. The best way to avoid negligent hiring lawsuits is to use background check tools. CheckToHire is one of the newest tools out there and offers a flexible pay-as-needed option with no monthly fees....

If you’re going to have a warranty that covers your product, you’d like to be reasonably sure that some third party hasn’t been messing with it. For example, if a customer is claiming that your product is malfunctioning and trying to invoke your warranty, you want to be sure the malfunction isn’t occurring because some repair shop has been monkeying with the product. So, you might have included some language in your warranty, voiding it if the customer used an unauthorized repair service, or you could’ve added a “Warranty Is Void If Broken” sticker or seal on a device....

If you run a business that is open to the public, one of your main concerns may be shoplifting, which costs retailers millions of dollars in lost revenue every year. While detaining a suspected shoplifter can open you up to legal liability, you are not without recourse. Your actions may actually be covered by the shopkeeper’s privilege. Generally speaking, when a person is wrongfully detained by a private individual, that individual may be liable for the tort of false imprisonment....

Are you thinking about entering into a surrogacy contract? Do you know if such a contract is legally enforceable in your state? In a typical surrogacy agreement, a couple or individual enters into a private contract with a fertile woman to carry a baby through pregnancy. After the pregnancy is completed and the baby is delivered, the surrogate will hand the baby over to the couple or individual who’s a party to the contract....

Swimming pool chemicals cause thousands of injuries and illnesses each year, but such accidents can largely be prevented, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pool chemicals are estimated to have caused more than 28,000 cases of injury and illness between 2002 and 2008, according to a CDC report. Those estimates are based on data from nationally representative samples. Most pool chemical accidents occurred at private homes, according to U....

A New York federal court complaint, filed last week, alleges that Jay Z’s company, Tidal, discriminated against an employee who was returning from maternity leave. The complaint alleges that the day after the new mother explained to her boss that she needed a private room to pump milk in, she was terminated. The terminated employee had only returned to work for one week before being terminated. During that week, she did use a private office to pump....

If you own a small business, you want the best of the best working for you. And most entrepreneurs don’t care where someone is from, so long as they can make the business the best it can be. But if you’re looking at hiring non-U.S. citizens, federal and state immigration statutes can make that fairly difficult. Here’s what small business owners need to know about immigration laws, from our archives:...

Not all personal injury cases make it in front of a jury. Some are dismissed outright, but the vast majority are settled before the need for a trial. These settlements can happen after negotiation between the parties or through some means of alternative dispute resolution like arbitration or mediation. Whether an injury case goes to trial or arbitration can have an enormous impact on the outcome, so why do certain claims go to arbitration?...

There might be fewer cooks in the kitchen at a startup, but that doesn’t mean divvying up the equity pie is any easier. Sure, you could say everyone in the room gets an equal share, but did everyone really contribute equally up to now? And will they in the future? So how do you allocate equity based on a team member’s actual contributions, rather than their anticipated ones? Luckily, some smart folks have been after this question for a while, and come up with a dynamic equity split system....

Beware Obamacare scams targeting small businesses. With open enrollment officially starting today, the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, is now in full effect. But so too are Obamacare scams hoping to target unsuspecting business owners, The Washington Post reports. With the new health care law comes new opportunities for many scammers seeking to take advantage of those who are confused by Obamacare. Here’s a general breakdown of what you, as a small business owner, should be wary of:...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has agreed to expedite an appeal concerning the controversial Alabama immigration law. On September 28, a lower court declined to grant the Department of Justice an injunction blocking the law’s enforcement. The government had requested that it be put on hold until the court could decide on its constitutionality. The lower court’s denial is at odds with decisions blocking similar immigration laws in Arizona and Georgia....

We all know that you need to register in order to vote. But did you know that you also need to vote in order to vote? At least according to Ohio election officials you do. Since 1994, the Ohio secretary of state’s office has had a voter purge process whereby it compiles a list of registered voters who have gone two years without casting ballot and mails them a confirmation notice....

After having their $1.8 million Chicago house on the market for over two years, one would think that homeowners Daniel and Adrienne Sabbia would jump at the chance to finally sell their home to a local comedian and radio personality for close to their asking price. When George Willborn and his wife Peytyn agreed to purchase the Bridgeport neighborhood property for $1.7 million, the owners wouldn’t sign the sales contract – claiming that they changed their minds, and were taking the house off the market....

Although “Constitution Day and Citizenship Day” has only been in existence since 2004, the United States Constitution has been around for 223 years, so let’s celebrate! Today, September 17, is Constitution Day. Constitution Day, not to be confused with 4th of July, does enjoy some educational perks. According to the Law Library of Congress, Constitution Day marks the anniversary of a bill by Senator Robert Byrd requiring schools and federal agencies to teach students and employees about the Constitution....

An Unexpected Result? Here’s something to break up the apparent string of bad news seeming to flow forth from the Blotter. The FBI says that both property and violent crime is down across the country for 2008. This marks the second year in a row of dropping crime rates, to boot. The findings are from the FBI’s Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report which tracks statistics submitted voluntarily by law enforcement agencies across the nation....

For many people, divorce can feel even more adversarial than a criminal case. Too often, people feel like the court is biased against them. So, is it true? Do divorce courts favor men over women, or vice versa? We don’t have the answer here, but we do have some interesting results on what people think, especially once they have been in court. FindLaw Survey FindLaw.com just conducted a survey asking 1,000 men and women if they believe divorce courts favor men or women....

The Supreme Court has refused to hear the case of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal (aka Wesley Cook) who was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1981 killing of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Via order today, the court declined to take on Abu-Jamal’s plea for a new trial in the racially-charged case that, as the AP noted, became a focus for civil rights activists. A federal court of appeals had previously invalidated Abu-Jamal’s death sentence on the grounds that the jury in the case was not instructed properly....

If you’ve been involved in a car accident, one of the first documents you’ll want to look at is the police accident report. You’ll especially want to look for any errors in the accident report so that you can revise them. An accident report is sometimes not admissible in civil court cases. However, the document is important as insurance companies may look to it to determine accident liability and how much money you’ll have to pay....

With summer in full swing, everyone’s getting their BBQs and bonfires on. But is it actually legal to have a bonfire? Growing concerns about air quality and smoke blowing into neighborhood homes are causing some lawmakers to place legal restrictions on bonfires. Even in Southern California – a haven for sun, sand and bonfire pits – the regional air quality board voted Friday to reduce the number of beach fire pits and move them farther away from homes, reports Los Angeles’ KNBC-TV....

When you’re employing more than a handful of people, it can often be tempting to try to save a few dollars per employee, per day, whatever way possible. However, there’s a difference between being more efficient and cutting legal corners. A recent federal lawsuit filed against Facebook is a good example of one big legal corner to avoid cutting. The Facebook lawsuit alleges that the social media giant misclassified several types of employees as managers, and thus paid them as exempt employees (or more aptly, didn’t pay them)....