If you’re one of the many people who bought a house as a rental investment property or decided to become a landlord instead of selling a home, you may be looking to sell that house. Whether the hassle of tenants has become too much, or the housing market has finally bounced back and you can get a great price on the home, you might be looking to boot your tenant and sell right away....
If a student loan co-signer dies or declares bankruptcy before the loan is repaid, the loan may go into default and wreak havoc on the borrower’s credit, a new report finds. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published the report which found that many private lenders will make the balance of a loan due if a parent, grandparent, or other co-signer becomes unable to share the responsibility of the loan, Reuters reports....
Disneyland Hotel laundry workers answer to what they call the “electronic whip.” Basement laundry rooms are outfitted with large flat screen monitors that keep track of employee efficiency. Each person is listed, followed by a number representing their current speed. Everyone can see who is the quickest–and slowest–inciting both competition and dissension amongst colleagues, reports the Los Angeles Times. But what about the very public electronic whip? Is it different?...
Any time states move from marijuana criminalization to legalization, there are a multitude of legal issues to work out first. Not the least of which are: who can buy, who can sell, and how much. But some of the smaller questions turn out to be the hardest to answer. Like, who can transport the marijuana from production facilities to retail stores? When Nevada legalized it last year, they thought they were doing the simple thing by requiring recreational marijuana to be regulated the same way as alcohol products in the state....
Ms. Yee Xiong, the University of California, Davis student who woke up in 2014 the morning after a party to find a former friend on top of her, raping her, was sued by her assailant for defamation this year. The assailant, who pleaded no contest to felony assault a few months ago, served Ms. Xiong with a defamation lawsuit on the same day he was sentenced. The action sought $4 million in damages....
Oklahoma’s anti-Sharia law amendment is not okay, according to a panel of judges on the 10th Circuit. Attorneys for the state argued the “Save Our State Amendment” only bans judges from applying international law. But the amendment’s language singles out Sharia law, specifically banning its judicial application. One clause even allows state judges to apply “the law of another state of the United States provided the law of the other state does not include Sharia Law”...
Retailers have filed a credit card lawsuit against major banks. The interchange fee lawsuit pits nearly 5 million retailers against prominent financial institutions including Visa and MasterCard as well as 13 other large banks. The primary concern is the 2% interchange fees – also known as swipe fees – which retailers are saddled with. The retailers allege that the banks illegally colluded with each other. They claim the high credit card transaction fee would not exist in a competitive market....
Yelp is not just the hottest review site, its also gaining notoriety in the news with recent lawsuits filed against it. ABC News reports that within weeks of the Yelp lawsuit filed by a veterinary hospital, another lawsuit has been filed by a California day spa against Yelp. We write about the Yelp lawsuit filed by the animal hospital in a previous post. Both lawsuits claim that the online review site tried to exort money in the form of advertising from them....
It’s 2016 – by now every small business owner should know that sexual harassment cannot be tolerated in the workplace and even one sexual harassment lawsuit is one too many. Fostering a healthy work environment and preventing sexual harassment at your company can be an around the clock enterprise, but it is well worth the effort (and also legally required). Here’s how to avoid a sexual harassment claim at your small business, and what to do (and not do) if you can’t avoid one....
Florida Jury Hits Big Tobacco in the Pocketbook A Florida jury has ordered cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds to pay $30 million in damages to a woman whose husband, a long-time cigarette smoker, died of lung cancer. Benny Martin of Pensacola, who died in 1995, took up smoking 20 years before cigarette packs carried health warnings, according to lawyers in the case, who argued that R.J. Reynolds hid the health risks of smoking while making cigarettes increasingly addictive....
On the heels of the ten-year web search and advertising partnership announced yesterday between Microsoft and Yahoo, in which Yahoo search will be powered by Microsoft Bing, many startups are looking for the take-away from this epic and seemingly one sided deal. Small businesses, hoping to weather out the slowly-subsiding tides of the economy, and start-ups, eager to make a name and carve out a piece of market share, can look to what the deal says about the importance of search....
The U.S. Supreme Court may not have much of April left, but there are some big cases still to be argued and decided. With six days of oral arguments remaining, here are five Supreme Court cases you should be watching in April: Streaming video fans should pay very close attention to ABC v. Aereo, which goes before the High Court on Tuesday. This case is set to determine whether streaming services like Aereo will be allowed to essentially rebroadcast live broadcast TV on a computer, tablet, or smartphone....
If you’re involved in a lawsuit, you should know that most cases settle out of court. In fact, it’s estimated that as many as 92% of cases are resolved through settlement, as The New York Times reported. In settlement talks you, as a party, are an active decider. You need to know how to make good choices, and also have some idea of what strategies you’re going to use. A settlement is similar to a negotiation in terms of the process....
Last December, several visitors to Disneyland in California got an unexpected surprise – measles. An outbreak of measles started when at least 40 people who visited or worked at the park contracted the disease and spread it to nearly 100 more people in over half a dozen states. The Center for Disease Control declared the outbreak over on April 17, 2015. Despite measles being almost eradicated in the United States, unvaccinated travelers to and from other countries can bring the disease back....
A Walmart worker has been fired for anti-Muslim remarks he made on Facebook. Along with a picture of Muslim women shopping at a Walmart in traditional dress, the assistant manager’s expletive-laced posting read: “Halloween came early this year… do they really have to f—in dress like that… your [sic] in my country… get that f—in s— off!!!!!” Drawing praise for taking responsibility, Walmart terminated the employee, 54-year-old Terry Earsing, from its store in Hamburg, New York....
Voters in Washington state are set to decide on a proposal that would legalize marijuana possession for non-medical use and authorize its sale in state-run stores. Initiative 502, which supporters call “a new approach to marijuana,” qualified for November’s statewide ballot Friday after a months-long petition drive, Reuters reports. If approved, I-502 would make Washington the first U.S. state to legalize both medical and non-medical pot. The new pot law would come with limits, however....
Any time a person files for bankruptcy, federal courts will apply a means test to see if the debtor qualifies for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The first step in that test is to compare the person’s average monthly income for the six months preceding the filing to their state’s median family income. If your monthly income exceeds the state median, you may not qualify for Chapter 7. And any time there is math involved, a calculator is sure to follow....
“Given the history of violence in their parking lots,” a wrongful death lawsuit claims, “and Wal-Mart’s [sic] knowledge they were not employing adequate security measures, it was foreseeable to Wal-Mart that the Plaintiff would be attacked in their parking lot and sustain serious injury or death.” That’s the legal argument a widow is making against the megaretailer, and it may be difficult for Walmart to refute. Recent years have seen a crime wave at Walmart locations, from the serious to the silly....
Is Wisconsin’s anti-union law legal? Apparently not, says one judge, who struck down the Wisconsin anti-collective bargaining law that had been given so much negative publicity from pro-labor advocates. Judge Maryann Sumi ruled that the rushed way the legislature passed the bill made the bill void. The law prevented public-sector unions, like teachers, from using powerful collective bargaining tools in negotiating for their health benefits and pensions. Police and firefighters were excluded from the law, reports The New York Times....
It’s a sad day when a promising young woman is killed in a freak accident while contributing to the very field to which she has dedicated much of her life. Michele Dufault, a Yale physics and astronomy major, was killed sometime late Tuesday while working in a student machine laboratory on Yale’s campus. Her death was a result of her hair becoming caught in a piece of machinery. As part of its science programs, Yale provides students with access to a laboratory in which they can construct and modify research instruments, reports USA Today....
