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Whether you’re just starting your business, or you’ve been in operation for years, developing a business line of credit could be the most critical step in taking your business to the next level. While many business owners finance their businesses using their personal credit, business lines of credit can be vastly larger and superior to those offered to individuals. The big question that many small business owners ask is: How do I establish credit for my business?...

A parent’s worst nightmare is losing a child, especially to abduction. For better or worse, abductions are not just perpetrated by strangers driving scary vans and luring kids with candy – sometimes family members abduct a kid or hire someone else to do so. Knowing this, you wish you could keep your kid by your side at all times. But you cannot. Still, there are steps you can take to prevent tragedy and to ensure that law enforcement can do all that’s possible to find your child should the worst occur....

If you’re starting a new business, one of the first decisions you’ll have to make is how to organize your business and whether you should incorporate your business. There are many different types of business forms you can take including sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporations. The type of business you plan to run, your willingness to take on risk, and the amount of business you expect will likely drive what type of business form you take....

It may not be sterling parenting to leave kids home alone, but is it legal? Maybe by examining the following legal precepts, parents will have a better understanding of whether it is legal to leave their kids home alone: No Federal Law on Leaving Kids Home Alone Like many facets of the law, the legality of your children staying at home unattended is the province of the states. The Child Welfare Information Gateway, a part of the Children’s Bureau of the U....

Some small businesses are licking their proverbial chops about Cyber Monday. Others? Not so much. What’s the difference? Well, your outlook could be a bit different depending on whether you’re an online retailer, or you’re worried about your employees doing some online shopping while on the clock. Either way, small business owners need to be thinking of data security come Cyber Monday, so here are some legal tips. Of course, you could give your staff Cyber Monday off, but you want to get some things done, right?...

It’s no surprise that when parents go through a nasty divorce, the children suffer the most. However, to the surprise of many, that suffering is not limited to mental and emotional distress. A recent study, released this year, has shown that a link exists between children of bitter divorces and long term weakening of the immune system. The study’s findings are rather straightforward. Adults who were children when their parents separated are more likely to suffer from a weakened immune system if the parents were no longer on speaking terms after the divorce....

Many people incorrectly assume that public defenders are available to individuals facing deportation. Despite the high stakes, immigration matters are civil and not criminal under the law, and as such, there is no federal constitutional right to an attorney. New York has long been considered the traditional and primary entry point to the United States for immigrants across the world. In fact, over a third of the population of NYC are actually foreign born....

A Nicaraguan Diplomat was found dead in NYC early this morning, and his death was anything but natural. 34 year-old Cesar Mercado was found by his driver with his throat slashed near the door of his Bronx apartment around 10:30 a.m. yesterday morning. Mercado was the highest-ranking Nicaraguan official at the United Nations consulate, and had been working and living in New York for eight years, including yesterday. CNN quotes another Nicaraguan Diplomat, Danilo Rosales Diaz: “He was here yesterday, working yesterday....

The Nvidia crop circle in California that baffled countless onlookers and garnered massive national attention proves that outlandish viral marketing stunts can pay off big time. The tech company hired world-class crop artists “to explain that our new Tegra K1 processor, with 192 graphics cores, can do things no other technology – on this planet, at least – could.” If you’re inspired to try to a sneaky publicity stunt of your own, keep these viral marketing tips in mind:...

We cannot stress this enough: interns are not free labor. You can’t use interns like employees and then not pay them or not provide any educational experience. This is what the Olsen twins seem to have done with their interns, leading to litigation from one intern that has possibly ballooned into a 40-intern class action lawsuit. Judging from Shahista Lalani’s complaint, the “internship” she had with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s Dualstar Entertainment has all the indications of your classic intern lawsuit:...

Parents of more than 100 autistic children in eastern Los Angeles have filed a class action against the nonprofit agency Eastern Los Angeles County Regional Center for what they claim is an illegal suspension of therapy for autistic children. The Los Angeles Times reports that the agency claims that it cut the therapy for autistic children because of state budget cuts. The parents claim that if their children are treated now, then they will be less likely to need state help in the future....

FindLaw has obtained a copy of the charges brought against the Somali man accused in the Maersk Alabama cargo ship hijacking that ultimately ended with the dramatic rescue of the ship’s captain, Captain Richard Phillips. The alleged pirate, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, was according to the charges “the first pirate to board the Maersk Alabama,” and he fired his gun at Captain Richard Phillips. Amongst other things, the indictment charges Muse with “piracy as defined by the law of nations” and elaborated on the charge stating that Muse “unlawfully, willfully and knowingly seized and robbed, and aided and abetted the seizure and robbery” of the Maersk Alabama....

It is unconstitutional for police to use Stingrays without a warrant. And yet, it happens more often than is ever discovered. Last week, the Florida Court of Appeals ruled that any evidence obtained through the use of a Stingray device without a warrant is inadmissible, even if police used admissible technology to come up with almost the same information. This ruling should not have come as a surprise – it is consistent with almost every court ruling of a Stingray device....

A Virginia man who suffered a broken leg during a recreational-league soccer match is suing a fellow player for $2 million. Drew Sellers, 36, of Norfolk, was playing in a Southside Men’s League game in Virginia Beach in 2012, when he claims another player named Isaiah Ruhl purposely kicked him in the lower leg, breaking his tibia and fibula bones. Inquiring minds may be asking: Doesn’t playing organized sports mean assuming the risk of injury?...

Health care giant Johnson and Johnson was sued this week by the attorneys general of California and Washington for misrepresenting the risks of vaginal mesh implants, causing severe complications for thousands of women. The company responded by calling the lawsuits unjustified. But the devices were recently reclassified as high-risk by the Food and Drug Administration and there are already product liability lawsuits against the company for injury from them. Let’s consider the claims....

The fans, not Sugarland, are to blame for the injuries they sustained during last summer’s stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair. This assertion appears in court documents filed in response to a lawsuit accusing the band of negligence. Victims of the Sugarland stage collapse claim the band acted negligently when it failed to stop the concert despite 70 mph winds and a severe weather warning. But the band’s attorneys believe that it was the fans who acted negligently when they “failed to exercise due care for their own safety....

A Texas family has won a $2.96 million fracking-pollution lawsuit that’s believed to be the first jury verdict of its kind in the United States. Robert and Lisa Parr own a ranch near the north Texas town of Decatur, a 40-acre parcel that had allegedly been polluted by Aruba Petroleum Inc.’s nearby fracking and drilling activities, reports the Los Angeles Times. Deleterious health effects forced the Parrs out of their ranch home and into the back of Robert’s business office – 30 miles east....

As a caring small business owner, you want to take good care of your employees. And you have a legal obligation to make sure they’re safe and taken care of if they are injured on the job. You likely just pay into your state’s workers’ compensation insurance fund automatically, but is that all you need to worry about? Here are some of the biggest questions small business owners have about workers’ comp:...

Texas Governor Rick Perry has been sued over his prayer rally. Gov. Perry’s prayer rally has met the ire of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which has filed a federal lawsuit trying to prevent Gov. Perry from taking part in the prayer day. Freedom from Religion Foundation alleges that Perry’s participation in the prayer rally would violating the establishment clause, the constitutional ban that prevents governments from establishing a religion, reports KXAN-TV....

Could Melissa Huckaby Have Been Stopped Sooner? California prosecutors brought new charges against Melissa Huckaby, the Sunday school teacher that got arrested in the highly publicized Sandra Cantu case. CNN reports that the additional charges involve the poisoning of another girl and a man. Considering that, if convicted on murder, rape and kidnapping charges, Melissa Huckaby would already face the death penalty, one might wonder why prosecutors would even bother bringing such charges, praticularly since they may result in a delay....