Many parents would be worried to let their kids fly alone, but is it even legal to let young children travel by themselves? In one unusual incident, a 9-year-old boy in Minnesota somehow managed to board a Las Vegas-bound flight alone on Delta Airlines without a boarding pass last week, NBC News reports. Though the TSA has stated the boy was screened in security along with other passengers, there are other legal worries when children fly alone....
When an employee has a headache at work, offering over-the-counter medication may seem like a logical and humane way to go. Not only is it kind to your employees but it also keeps productivity up. Right? While those things are true, giving out OTC medication at work is probably not a good idea, legally speaking. You may think providing the medicine is a good service. But it also leaves your business vulnerable to a much bigger potential headache – lawsuits....
Louisiana resident Cody Melancon has filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit after a police dog bit his penis. The K-9 officer, named Zin, is a Belgian Malinois, and is still on active duty with the Gretna police. The unfortunate incident happened in late May, according to UPI. Police went to Melancon’s apartment to arrest him on charges that he’d kicked down a front door and hit the occupant. The police were accompanied by Zin....
Yesterday President Donald Trump signed the Right to Try Act into law, ostensibly providing terminally ill patients who have exhausted all approved treatment options access to unapproved, experimental drugs without first seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Proponents of such laws, like patients, their families, and patient advocate groups, argue that terminally ill people shouldn’t be forced to seek life-saving remedies in other countries. Critics contend the laws do not actually require physicians to prescribe experimental therapies, insurance companies to pay for them, or drug manufacturers to provide them, and there is no safety data on how the drugs would affect sick patients....
The California Supreme Court dealt Phillip Morris USA another blow last week in a ruling that may revitalize hundreds of lawsuits against the company. Smokers in California who are diagnosed with a second smoking-related disease are no longer barred from bringing a tobacco lawsuit if they previously failed to file suit over a different smoking ailment. In 1989, Nikki Pooshs was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She failed to sue Phillip Morris, allowing the statute of limitations to run out....
As you may have heard by now, journalist Michael Wolf’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” has caused quite a stir. The president was not too pleased with the work, and lawyers for Trump and the book’s publisher traded some entertaining letters over it. (And, of course, Trump tweeted.) As they have so often done throughout his business and political career, Trump’s lawyers threatened the author and publisher with a defamation lawsuit....
It’s been 20 years since the Family and Medical Leave Act, more commonly known as the FMLA, was signed into law. What do employers need to remember about their FMLA responsibilities? The groundbreaking law, signed by President Bill Clinton, serves to protect employees. Through its provisions, the Act places many responsibilities and duties on employers. In brief, the FMLA allows eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for medical care, for the employee or for a family member....
We ask nursing homes to care for our elderly loved ones specifically to keep them safe from injuries. Due to their age and the possibility of other ailments, nursing home injuries can severely impact an elderly person’s health, wellbeing, and future care. And while it would seem obvious for nursing homes to take special precautions to keep residents and patients from falling, a new study from the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests nursing homes aren’t doing enough to prevent falls and that those falls can lead to a significant amount of traumatic facial injuries....
The latest iteration of President Trump’s Executive Order banning foreign immigrants and visitors from Muslim majority nations has been blocked by a federal judge in Hawaii. No, you’re not suffering from deja vu. Judge Derrick Watson, the same judge that blocked the second travel ban, temporarily blocked travel ban 3.0 from going into effect. This newest iteration of the executive order travel restrictions was set to go into effect on October 18, 2017....
Uber’s Firearms Prohibition Policy “prohibits riders and drivers from carrying firearms of any kind in a vehicle while using our app,” and provides that “[a]nyone who violates this policy may lose access to Uber.” But at least one of their drivers was carrying a gun, evidenced by a fatal shooting on a Denver, Colorado interstate. Police say the passenger, who was shot multiple times, was pronounced dead at an area hospital....
Walmart announced last week that it will be closing 269 stores and laying off thousands of employees by the end of the month. But the news isn’t all bad for the brand – the mega-retailer also announced plans to open 300 to 400 new stores in the next year, most of those overseas. It’s worse news for the thousands of employees that may need to find new jobs. Due to this concern, federal law requires employers to alert employees before mass layoffs and possibly provide skill training or retraining programs for affected workers....
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 cemented many of the bedrock federal protections against discrimination in this country. President Barack Obama delivered a speech Thursday at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, marking 50 years of the Civil Rights Act opening “doors of opportunity for millions of Americans,” including himself, The New York Times reports. What exactly is the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and what does it cover?...
There has been a lot of talk recently about murder and dismemberment, and not solely because it is almost Halloween. Taking politics out of the equation, what is the penalty for a crime like this, both domestically and abroad? In April 2018, Danish submarine inventor Peter Madsen was found guilty of murdering and dismembering Swedish freelance journalist Kim Wall, and of indecent handling of her corpse. Wall boarded Madsen’s submarine with the intent to do a story about Madsen’s scientific and entrepreneurial career, but it appears Madsen developed different intentions....
Everything ends badly, the old saying goes, otherwise it wouldn’t end. And while that’s not always true in the small business world – sometimes you’re happy to see employees move on to bigger and better things – more often than not, the employer-employee relationship ends on a sour note. And if it does, that can complicate the process of providing a reference for your former worker. So, what do you do?...
Waterparks are a great way to cool off during the summer, but they can also leave you with serious injuries. Slip-and-fall injuries, heat-related illnesses, and even drownings can occur at waterparks. And while it hasn’t caused any injuries yet, the world’s tallest water slide – a 168-foot-tall slide set to open at a park in Kansas City (here’s video of a test run shared by io9) – made some of us wonder about potential liability issues (though the net makes us feel a bit more safe)....
President Donald Trump entered office having made some big campaign promises regarding immigration reform. And the administration’s repeated efforts to make those promises a reality have met with mixed results from legislators and courts. Given all the back-and-forth, it’s been a busy year on the immigration front. Here are the major immigration stories from 2017: Given those campaign promises and the often bombastic manner in which they were made, many were left to wonder whether now-President Trump could make those changes all by himself....
Contracts are some of the most ubiquitous legal documents in our modern society, and the average person doesn’t know half of the problems they can cause. Before you decide to sign that agreement, contract, or waiver, consider how much information you’re missing out on – info that a contract lawyer could provide. Don’t believe us? Here are five things a contracts lawyer can do that you probably can’t: Do you read or speak legalese?...
Small business owners, it’s time to consider some year-end tax tips. As a business owner, this may be one of the busiest times of year for you. With less than two months left in the tax year (for most of us), you’ll want to ensure that everything is in order, tax-wise – and that you’ll be able to take advantage of as many potential tax deductions as possible. Consider the following seven tips for your year-end “to-do” list:...
If you’ve taken on the task of preparing Thanksgiving dinner, or even if you’re just bringing a homemade pie to a party, food safety is a serious concern. Inattention could lead to legal consequences and more importantly, some family strife. Your goal is to create something delicious to share with family and friends over the holiday. But you also want to make sure the only medical issues are due to overeating....
Tami Barker, a former Airbnb host in California, settled a civil rights complaint against her for $5,000, and has agreed to a whole host of other demands, after it was discovered that she discriminated against an Asian renter. Dyne Suh, and a few friends, had rented Barker’s cabin through Airbnb. However, when Barker realized Suh was Asian, she cancelled the reservation, hours before it was set to begin. Even though a last minute cancellation may be incredibly rude, it would not have been discriminatory but for what the host texted to Suh....
