Posts

22 year-old Susan Reeve was walking to her parent’s home in Demarest, New Jersey when she was abducted and violently raped by Robert Reldan. Her body was found two weeks later in a nearby park. The year was 1975, and the now 70 year-old Reldan has been in jail for the murder of Susan and another woman since 1979. Thirty five years later, Susan Reeve’s family filed a civil suit against Reldan for damages after learning that he inherited millions of dollars from his aunt, philanthropist Lillian Garis Booth....

Uber drivers trying to sue the ride share company as a class are struggling with damages and their case has not really even started yet. Last week drivers went before US District Court Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco and asked him to allow the case to continue though it already seems that it would be very difficult to calculate damages if they do succeed in proving that they were employees and not contractors, Courthouse News reported....

Two former New York City waitresses will soon be meeting with a jury. A state appeals court has agreed that Kristen McRedmond and Alexandria Lipton can sue South Place Restaurant & Bar for retaliation and discrimination. They claim they were fired after complaining about the bar’s “no fatties” policy. Managers are accused of forcibly weighing female employees and then posting the results on the Internet. The bar’s owner instead claims the women were fired for breaking rules, but the appeals court found the evidence to be suspicious....

Are you ready to pay for your child’s college education? According to the Institute for College Access and Success, 69 percent of all graduates from public colleges in 2013 have an average student loan debt of $28,400. That’s only for a bachelor’s degree. If your child goes to law school, add about $84,000 to $122,000 more in student loans. Does your kid want to be a doctor? Expect to pay nearly $300,000 for medical school....

You may have received a flier inviting you to a free talk or an email announcing a lunch seminar to inform you about setting up a living trust. But what is a living trust? And do you need one? First thing’s first, here are the basics on what a living trust is and its features: A living trust is a written, legal document that transfers title to a person’s property to a trust immediately – during the trust creator’s lifetime – to be managed by a trustee....

Virtual offices, shared office spaces, and coworking locations can have their advantages. Especially for small businesses and startups with limited resources, shared workspaces can give you and your employees access to office services, a social network or like-minded entrepreneurs, business development workshops, and, in some cases, even health insurance. Coworking spaces can also have their downsides, like, according to one lawsuit, an “entitled, frat-boy culture” that engenders sexual assault. Ruby Anaya, a former WeWork employee, is suing the shared workspace company, claiming she was assaulted by two other employees at separate corporate events and that the company took no action against her assailants....

Patricia Behr was awarded $6.75 million by a California jury last month in a lawsuit against her ex-lover. Her claim? He gave her herpes and knew about it. As the instance of sexually transmitted diseases rises, sex torts have become a more focused point of legal inquiry and litigation. Some states have even codified the cause of action, named Wrongful Infection of a Sexually Transmitted Disease. Though the lawsuit by Patrica Behr is not unique, it provides a good explanation of sex torts and just what makes an infected person liable....

The American Express Co. OPEN State of Women-Owned Businesses Report is out, and there is some very good news for female entrepreneurs. The survey, which utilizes data collected every five years by the U.S. Census Bureau, reports that there are 8.1 million women-owned businesses in the United States–up 50% from its start date in 1997. Women-owned businesses also outperformed their male counterparts in all fields. These numbers account for 29% of all companies, and a growth rate 1 1/2 times the national average, according to the Dayton Business Journal....

If you’ve been injured at work, you’ll probably need compensation. But do you accept workers’ compensation or try to sue in civil court? In most cases you cannot receive workers’ comp and sue for your injuries, as workers’ comp is intended to substitute for the kind of compensation an injured worker might receive in court. However, each work injury case is different, so it’s important for employees to consider their options....

Troublesome employees can be a pain in an employer’s side and a real impediment to business prospects, so firing them can be a real boon. While you may hope to weed out potential troublemakers during the interview process, it may take some time for a worker to reveal his true colors. By then, giving him the pink slip may be the best solution. Here are five kinds of employees that you may want to consider firing:...

Hiring the right small business lawyer for your business is critical. But with so many seemingly qualified attorneys out there, how do you know you’re picking the right one? As with most aspects of your business, you will have to do some research, interview several candidates, and ask a lot of pressing questions. Here are seven questions you should ask when hiring a small business attorney: Follow FindLaw for Consumers on Google+ by clicking here....

Usually you like to think of your place of business as reasonably pleasant. But recently your employee committed a violent crime – at work! Apart from the blow to your ego, you are concerned about liability. Can you be held responsible for an employee assault? How common is workplace violence anyway? Employer Responsibility for Worker Acts The answer is yes, you can be held liable. It’s not that you are expected to anticipate any and every possible action people will take....

A baby born in midair on a U.S.-bound plane is doing well, and the father claims the newborn is American – though the boy was actually born over African airspace to a Nigerian mother. The boy, named Ebosalume, was born three hours into a 12-hour flight from Ghana to Atlanta on March 23, The Tampa Tribune reports. Flight attendants and fellow passengers – a doctor and two nurses – helped with the delivery, which occurred 36,000 feet above Africa....

You can challenge a request for additional child support in court. When it comes to child support payments, the parents can either agree to a modification or they can put the request before a judge. When asked, courts do review previous child support arrangements and the law does account for changes of circumstances, allowing downward or upward modifications of support. Whether you are being asked to pay more, or you are seeking a decrease in child support due to a change in your life, a judge will reconsider a previous arrangement....

The First Amendment provides strong protections to protesters that express their views in public. However, when a protester’s actions go beyond free expression in public, businesses can face unintended, and sometimes intended, casualties. And while there may be legal remedies, sometimes enforcing those remedies will be impossible. For example, if a protester throws a brick through a shop’s window, the individual protester can be held both criminally and civilly liable. The First Amendment does not protect against violent or destructive acts against other people’s, or the public’s, property....

The term cyberbullying has become part of most Americans’ vocabulary, after surfacing in high schools and universities nationwide. In the past few months, a rash of teen suicides resulting from bullying, cyber and otherwise, has renewed the concern by teens, parents and lawmakers about cyberbullying and how to prevent it from harming or taking the lives of our kids. Even President Obama got involved with the YouTube campaign “It Gets Better Project,” aimed at helping LGBT teens deal with bullying....

Although fictional stepparents have made the lives of stepchildren awful in fairy tales and movies, many people are surprised to learn that real life stepparents routinely don’t have any actual legal authority over their stepchildren. Without the consent of the legally recognized parents, a stepparent cannot send a stepchild to military/boarding school, make medical decisions, or make other decisions that parents routinely make. Fortunately, there are options for stepparents that want to be more involved in their stepchild’s lives....

Workers’ compensation insurance is in place to make sure employees get paid if they get hurt on the job. While this coverage can include a wide range of injuries and scenarios, it doesn’t quite cover every injury just because it happened at work or while you were working. And it may not cover you if you fail a drug test. Here’s what you need to know: Not Quite No-Fault The most important question in a workers’ comp claim is whether or not the injury was “work-related....

What’s your worst nightmare? Mine is getting stuck in an elevator. There’s a slight twinge of fear every time I step in an elevator. The fear grows when more than three people enter it with me. When the doors don’t open right away when the elevator reaches my level, the fear turns into momentary panic. Don’t laugh. Getting stuck or injured in an elevator is not as rare as you would think!...

When they paid for their relaxing, exciting vacation on board the cruise ship the Carnival Splendor, it is a safe bet the passengers never imagined they would be without air-conditioning, telephones and for a bit, working toilets. No, this wasn’t a survival course, this was supposed to be a cruise; but after a fire broke out onboard the Carnival Splendor, things changed. The Carnival Splendor fire began in the engine room, according to a report by The Los Angeles Times....