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With great theatrics comes great responsibility. In addition to a lot of aerial stunts, the Spiderman musical actors do all of their own stunts, which are both demanding and dangerous. The potential legal issues at play here: whether the performers have a potential personal injury claim based on unsafe work conditions. The personal injury claims will depend on the nature of the accident(s) –a twisted ankle, long hours of rehearsal and other injuries related to the musical itself are not outside of the realm of normal activities a performer would have to deal with it....

Judge Thomas E. Stringer of Florida reportedly has burned down his otherwise-gleaming career with a string of bad decisions, all starting when he met stripper Christy Yamanaka. In its story about Judge Stringer’s downfall, the AP included a perfect quote written by then-Tampa Tribune columnist Daniel Ruth, “It is axiomatic that ‘Judge’ and ‘Stripper’ showing up in a headline is never a good thing, especially if you happen to be the ‘Judge’”....

The FBI has analyzed Tucson shooting video gathered from two dozen surveillance videos. The footage shows Judge John Roll getting shot in the back while trying to push a Congressional aide out of the way, The New York Times reports. The Tucson shooting video in FBI custody shows U.S. District Judge John Roll may have died trying to save one of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ staff members, the Wall Street Journal reports....

A former postal supervisor in Spokane, Washington plans on suing over wrongful termination over his refusal to accept a late delivery of Netflix DVDs. He claims that the WA Post Office fired him because he refused to process the DVDs. The Daily News Online reports that John A. Branda refused to accept the shipment of 20,000 DVDs because they arrived several minutes past 6:00 pm. Mr. Branda was in charge of supervising the Postal Service’s inbound bulk mail receiving area at a WA post office processing plant near an airport in Spokane....

What is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act? It’s at the center of two Obamacare-related U.S. Supreme Court cases scheduled for oral argument Tuesday. While the First Amendment guarantees persons the free exercise of religion, there are other legal protections for religious rights – including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which has been the subject of recent court cases. So what exactly is the RFRA? Congress passed the RFRA in 1993 in response to a 1990 U....

So what is a disability, anyway? Well, the feds have changed the definition and it may mean changes for business owners. If you have fifteen or more employees, the ADA and ADA Amendments Act apply to you. If this is the case, pay attention. The new guidelines will be changing the way you handle disabled employees and reasonable accommodations. According to the EEOC, the ADA Amendments Act of 2009 was designed to overturn Supreme Court decisions that limited the scope of the original ADA....

Acquitted killer George Zimmerman may soon see more time in court, as his wife Shellie Zimmerman filed for divorce on Thursday. Prior to filing the divorce papers, Shellie had told ABC News that the ordeal of the trial had “put a strain on their marriage.” Her divorce filing comes a short two months after her husband’s acquittal. What remains for Shellie Zimmerman if she separates from her notorious husband? Aside from the emotional pressures of her husband’s trial, Shellie Zimmerman, 26, also faced criminal consequences herself....

Bloomberg reports that Philip Morris USA must pay $300 million dollars in compensatory and punitive damages to former smoker Lucinda Naugle. The woman brought the lawsuit against the tobacco company because she claims that the company committed fraud against her. Her lawyers argued that the tobacco company knew about the fact that smoking cigarettes was addictive and harmful to a smoker’s health, but they hid that information. According to the Sun Sentinel, Ms....

No one wants to think about crime on vacation, but you may have no choice. We tend to think of hotels as our home away from home and we trust hotels to be as secure as our homes. And if something is stolen from our hotel room or on hotel property, we naturally want to hold the hotel responsible. But is that legal? And are there limits to hotel liability when it comes to stolen property?...

On the one hand, small businesses are trying to take advantage of temporary, seasonal, and contract workers. On the other hand, more and more people are working multiple jobs. All this against a backdrop of startups and Internet businesses with employees that wear a number of hats. The point is, joint employment is becoming more common. And, according to this warning from the American Bar Association, litigation based on joint employment could be on the rise as well....

Workers’ compensation programs are state specific. Each state has a different set of rules and requirements and grants different benefits. So, what are the best and worst states for workers’ compensation? It depends on what criteria you’re looking at. Statutory Waiting Periods Most states have a waiting period after an injury before a person can claim disability benefits, with some exceptions. The waiting period is only three days in California, Iowa, and Illinois....

Dealing with customer theft is one thing, but what happens when it’s your own employees stealing from your store? Of course there are criminal laws against theft, but that may not get you the full value of what was stolen. So can you file a lawsuit against an employee for theft? And, if so, what kinds of theft are covered? Paycheck Penalties If your state allows, and if you’ve decided not to fire the employee, you could consider deducting the amount of the theft from his or her paycheck....

As you have read in our previous posts in Small Business Social Media 101, 102, and 103, Facebook plays a pretty vital role in growing your small business. However, it can also bring about some issues of oversharing from you, your employees, and even your customers. Using Facebook to vet job applicants is becoming more common too. In fact, 30% of today’s employers are using the social media site to do just that....

A man who claims he was injured on a Southwest Airlines flight by a falling carry-on bag has filed a lawsuit against the airline. Jerry Reinhardt was seated on a Southwest plane at Portland International Airport in 2013 when another passenger tried to fit a large carry-on bag into the compartment above Reinhardt’s head, reports The Oregonian. Reinhardt’s lawsuit claims that when a flight attendant came to help the passenger cram the bag into the overhead bin, the bag fell on him, causing him to suffer an injury....

An attorney for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, CA, is suing the Obama administration for health benefits denied to her wife, in a suit filed Wednesday. Karen Golinski was married to her wife, Amy Cunninghis, in California during the brief period when same sex marriages were legal in the state. Although the voters passed Prop. 8, a ban on same sex marriage, the California courts have declared that marriages already performed are still valid....

A high-level female Yahoo! executive has been accused by an ex-employee of sexual harassment, including allegations she coerced the employee to have “oral and digital sex” with her. Nan Shi, the employee who filed the sexual harassment suit, accuses Yahoo! Senior Director of Engineering Maria Zhang of forcing her to have sex with the promise of “a bright future at Yahoo!” According to the San Jose Mercury News, Shi claims Yahoo!...

How do car recalls work? You see the headlines, but may not know how the recall process works and how to deal with a malfunction. With Chrysler finally relenting to U.S. regulators after initially refusing to recall 2.7 million Jeep models, now might be a good time for a crash course we’ll call “Recall 101.” Here’s some basic information on how recalls work: When a manufacturer “pulls a Chrysler” and is reluctant to initiate a recall, the government can step in through National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigations....

It’s a common misconception about criminal law, and an understandable one – after all, when it comes to civil litigation, it’s a person, company, or group of people filing a lawsuit. But that’s not quite how it works in the criminal context. Not just anyone can file criminal charges, prosecute a criminal case, or even dismiss charges after they’ve been filed. Because of the serious nature of both criminal activity and corporeal punishment, criminal cases are prosecuted a little differently than their civil counterparts....

Even if you remember to declare the pennies on your eyes, an IRS tax lien can have a significant impact on your business. If you owe money to the IRS or state tax board, and are behind in making payments, the IRS or state tax collector can put a tax lien on your business assets. Having a tax lien can prevent your business from selling assets, or getting new lines of credit, and could potentially affect existing lines of credit....

Vaccinations have become a contentious, hotly debated topic in parenting and medical circles. But there are also legal questions regarding the legality of not vaccinating children. These questions are being raised after a recent outbreak of measles at California’s Disneyland theme park. The outbreak, which involves more than two dozen cases of the deadly disease, includes a number of children who were not vaccinated against the disease. Of the 16 California cases where the vaccination status of the infected person is known, 12 of those sickened were not vaccinated against measles, reports Forbes....