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While there may be several reasons for wanting to fire an employee, it’s important to make sure that you’re doing it for the right reasons. There are, after all, illegal reasons for terminating an employee’s job. Generally, however, employees are fired for work performance, which can include anything from not doing the job well to being late or absent too often. Firing an Employee for Reasons Other Than Work Performance First, it’s important to mention that if your employees are “at will,” you’re permitted to fire them at any time and for any reason, as long as the reason isn’t discriminatory or retaliatory....

2015 was a big year for employment and wage law. Gig workers got unions. Cheerleaders got employee status. Heck, even Walmart raised their wages. And a whole bunch of cities and states followed suit. So who’s got a new minimum wage this year? Let’s take a look: Beginning January 1, 12 states are raising their minimum wage: Alaska to $9.75 Arkansas to $8.00 California to $10.00 Connecticut to $9.60 Hawaii to $8....

You have a small business and you would like to see it grow. When you think of growth, however, and the direction you want to take, it does not include hiring a human resources manager or team. But an article in Slate says that, in fact, HR is exactly what you need. Why? Mainly for regulatory compliance issues, but also to recruit talent. Let’s take a look at what HR can do for you....

In March, an Uber test vehicle hit and killed a pedestrian in Arizona while operating in “autonomous mode.” The pedestrian, Elaine Herzberg, was crossing the street outside of a crosswalk when she was struck, and Uber announced that it would suspend all of its self-driving vehicles in cities where they were operating. According to a 318-page report released by the Tempe Police Department last week, the vehicle’s operator, Rafaela Vasquez, was allegedly watching Hulu on her phone at the time of the accident, and police have deemed the crash “entirely avoidable....

Nobody wants Google Streetview capturing their saddest moments and displaying them on the internet, especially their breakups. But that’s what seems to have happened to this Southern California woman, who had her picture taken at what might as well have been 123 Dumpsville Road. Is Google Streetview invading your privacy by memorializing your pain on their maps? U.S. privacy law serves to protect the private lives and information of those within its jurisdiction, and typically taking photos of someone in a private moment is considered an illegal intrusion of solitude....

More new dads are taking advantage of paternity-leave benefits and laws where available, but it’s still not an option for all men in the United States. At companies where paternity leave is available, nearly six in 10 new fathers used the benefit, according to a 2007 survey by career website Monster.com. So if you’re a new dad, how do you know if you’re eligible? In general, look to these three sources to determine if you get paternity leave:...

A federal appeals court is set to release its long-awaited ruling Tuesday on California’s Proposition 8, a ballot measure that barred same-sex marriage in the nation’s most populous state. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ Prop. 8 ruling, set for release at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, will likely not end the same-sex marriage debate. All parties expect the Ninth Circuit’s decision to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, NPR reports....

Technically, the law permits a child to sue their parents as a result of child abuse. There are no special rules preventing this type of lawsuit. However, what a child considers to be abuse may not actually be legally considered abuse. Parents are generally permitted to punish their children, which can include depriving children of luxuries such as video games, computers, internet access, a car, dating, seeing friends, or even dessert....

The case of Daniel Hauser, a 13-year-old child who has Hodgkin’s lymphoma but refuses to undergo treatment, took a dramatic twist into criminal-land today after he and his mother, Colleen Hauser, failed to appear in court for a hearing. According to a local news report, the judge in the case proceeded to issue an arrest warrant for Colleen Hauser, and followed that up with an order requiring that Daniel be taken into protective custody....

Joint tenancy is a property law term that describes a type of home ownership. Joint tenants do not have to be married, and joint tenancies are not necessarily limited to two people. There are perceived advantages to joint tenancies as forms of ownership. But beware, there are also certain risks. Joint Tenancy When two or more people own a home as a joint tenancy, each person owns an equal interest in the whole of the property....

You probably picked your apartment or rental house based on the fact it had a pool, and now that summer is here, that decision can really pay off. So it’d be a real bummer to find the pool discolored or half-filled or the pool area dirty or potentially dangerous. Before you can enjoy the full summer pool party experience, your pool needs to be adequately maintained. But whose responsibility is it to maintain the pool?...

A lawsuit against eBay was filed by a deaf woman in Missouri who claims that that the online auction site violates the Americans with Disabilities Act because it requires sellers to verify their identities via telephone. The complaint against eBay for deaf sellers was filed by Melissa Earll on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the western district of Missouri. According to MediaPost, Ms. Earll, a “profoundly deaf” individual, claims that she was not able to register as a seller with eBay because it requires sellers to punch in passwords online that they receive via telephone....

Some lawyers at Chase Bank must of thought themselves pretty clever when they came up with the idea to serve papers on Facebook to a particularly hard to find adversary. But not so fast, said a federal judge. While everyone and their grandmom may be on Facebook, U.S. District Judge John Keenan found that the world was still not ready for Facebook as a place where someone could be slapped with their legal papers, reports CNET....

You may have thought that buying into an existing franchise, with its business plan, name recognition, and even supply chain all sorted, would be a less risky way to own your own business. But even less risky doesn’t mean risk-free and not all franchisees avoid failure, as one Iowa-based McDonald’s franchisee recently learned. As it turns out, declaring bankruptcy as a franchisee has some different quirks than shuttering a business you own outright....

A bipartisan immigration bill has passed the U.S. Senate. Yes, you heard right. The Senate voted to pass an expansive overhaul of federal immigration laws Thursday, sending its landmark bill to the House of Representatives. The uncharacteristic showing of bipartisan support gives the country a fighting chance to reform the immigration system for the first time in a generation, reports Time. As the bill moves forward, here are five key points to keep in mind:...

You’re not paranoid if they really are stalking you, right? It turns out that insurance companies may check Facebook and other social media sites, looking for evidence of fraud. The concept isn’t completely new. We’ve also discussed divorce lawyers and private investigations searching for evidence of infidelity on Facebook and other social media. The Los Angeles Times profiled Nathalie Blanchard, who took a medical leave in early 2008 from her job while she struggled with depression....

Mississippi flood waters take the treat from beating your feet on the Mississippi mud. The toxic mold might give you more than a treat, too. And when Mississippi tributaries begin to back up, breaching their low levies, the damage will spread. Snakes, molds, water-borne bacteria, and septic tank effluent will spread to form a river of cess as much as 80 miles wide, reports USA Today. The Army Corps of Engineers, after grim calculations, has begun to relieve pressure on the lower reaches of the Mississippi, by diverting river flow upstream....

This is a real-life kitchen nightmare: A chef at a Morton’s steakhouse sued his ex-coworkers for attempting to rape him in the restaurant. The Morton’s lawsuit details some appalling and disgusting behavior going on at the chain’s Boca Raton, Fla. location. It at all began when a cook stuffed asparagus down his pants. The stalks were then served to unsuspecting diners. But what happened next is even more distasteful. On Valentine’s Day, the coworker allegedly confronted Williams in a storage area where he tried to strip Williams and attempted to rape him as another coworker stood guard....

If you’re a woman who tries to ride on the B110 bus line in New York, you may be asked to sit in the back. At least this is what some investigatory journalists allege. And it has to do with religion. Reporters say that the sex discrimination on the bus line arose because the route runs through the Hasidic Jewish community. The incident was investigated by reporters who tried to sit in on the bus....

A Connecticut man and his wife are suing New York City and Citi Bike – NYC’s public bike-sharing program – after a bike crash left the man with serious nerve damage. Ronald Corwin, 73, of Westport, claims he flipped his Citi Bike when the front wheel struck a low barrier that was installed next to the bicycle docking station. As a result, Corwin now suffers from traumatic nerve palsy, according to the New York Daily News....