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Defects in New York City subway platforms have caused at least three riders to fall onto the tracks while waiting for trains, but city transit officials are dragging their heels instead of identifying and fixing platform problems in a timely manner, according to an investigation report released this week. The report from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) begins by recounting a near-tragedy that occurred on a subway platform in Brooklyn in January 2008, when the “rubbing board” on the platform’s outer edge gave way and a teenage boy fell in the path of an oncoming subway train....

Here is a recipe for a holiday office lawsuit: Invite hotel employees to company work party Bring assorted sex toys Have husband of boss wear thong and perform lap dances for everyone Have husband of boss take off thong Have boss invite employees and guests to play ‘ring toss’ with husband’s genitalia You would think that this would all go without saying, but, of course it does not. A hotel employee in Eugene, Oregon, is suing her boss, Julie Frederick, for just such an office “sex party....

Alcohol has long been used to improve sales. But shopping under the influence seems to have moved beyond in-store wine parties and stay-at-home-mom soirees. If anecdotal evidence is correct, drunk online shopping is all the rage. In one British survey, about half of all respondents admitted to drunken impulse buys. And a number of online retailers have seen an uptick in evening traffic, according to the New York Times. You too can capitalize on the uninhibited nature of drunk online shopping....

When most parents send their children off to school, they want them to get a good education and be safe. The same is true for parents of transgender students, only they are also concerned with how their children’s rights will be protected on school grounds. The Department of Education sought to clarify this issue when it released guidance for public schools, ordering them to treat a student’s gender identity as their sex and prohibiting them from discriminating against any student based on the basis of sex or gender identity....

In these shaky economic times, many Americans are adopting a “less is more” mindset, and in the vehicle market that means mammoth SUVs are out and smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles are in. But a new crash test study shows that owners of these smaller cars may be sacrificing safety for affordability. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) conducted crash tests of three popular “microcar” or “minicar” models: the Honda Fit, Smart Fortwo, and Toyota Yaris....

Depending on who you talk to, and which federal prosecutor you encounter, creating a fake Facebook profile may be a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a law designed to punish unauthorized access to computers. Relying on language that makes it a misdemeanor to “exceed authorized access” to computer systems, a number of people have been prosecuted for violating a private website’s terms of service. Senators Al Franken and Chuck Grassley would like such prosecutions to stop....

The Supreme Court may consider the legal question of gay marriage later this year because of an appeal of California’s Proposition 8. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stuck down Prop 8 in a 2-1 decision in February. They based their decision on a previous Supreme Court ruling that says a majority cannot take away the rights of the minority without legitimate reasons. Now opponents of Proposition 8 have filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to review the decision....

Tax Day is filled with people filling out forms, rushing to pick up tax returns and then speeding to the post office to ensure they get sent out by midnight. It’s also apparently a good day to get into a car crash. The number of fatal car crashes increases by 6% on Tax Day, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That’s 13 extra fatalities....

It’s the first and biggest question after a car accident: Whose fault was it? Because determining who caused a car accident will often determine who will be legally liable to pay for the damage and any injuries. In some cases, deciding who’s liable for a car accident is pretty easy: someone was tailgating; that guy ran a red light; she was looking at her cell phone. Other times, figuring out who’s at fault is a little bit trickier....

You’ve got questions … we’ve got answers. If you have not yet asked or answered a question in FindLaw’s Answers community, what are you waiting for? This amazing free resource supports a dynamic community of legal consumers and attorneys helping each other out. Simple as that. We see a lot of great questions in our Answers community every day. Here’s a look at some recent questions relating to injuries and accidents from our FindLaw Answers boards:...

No, this isn’t some plot from a comic-book villain come to life; a company, that has, up till now, focused on marijuana technology and hemp oil, has purchased the town of Nipton, California for $5 million. The plan is to turn the ghost town, population: 6, into a destination for marijuana tourism. Now, you may be asking: Marijuana tourism? Excuse me? However, in California’s last election, marijuana was legalized for recreational use by adults in the state....

Some allergies are serious physical ailments, such that an allergic reaction can be debilitating, substantially limiting your major life activities. George Hirmiz, claimed his Wi-Fi allergy, or sensitivity due to “long-term exposure to high levels of electromagnetic voltage,” was such an affliction, and that his employer, a Travelodge Hotel in Chicago never accommodated his disability and even fired him in retaliation for filing a complaint about the hotel’s voltage levels to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration....

Since the year 2000, proponents of creating an .xxx Internet domain have been lobbying for the creation of a separate domain for adult entertainment. They say it makes sense to have a clear domain category for pornography and adult entertainment. Critics counter that it will be costly, confusing and will create difficult technical issues about how to categories and define pornography. Last Friday, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or “ICANN,” seemingly put to rest a decade long dispute over whether porn sites should have their own top level domain, which is the technical terms for the end name of a website, such as ....

Finding the right divorce attorney is key to resolving your divorce case, and so is knowing when to get a new attorney. While there are many good divorce lawyers out there, some just fail to meet the mark either professionally or interpersonally. And it may take time before you realize your current attorney isn’t the best fit for you. Here are five signs you may need to search for a new divorce lawyer:...

Great, so you have an amazing idea for a product or service. Now all you need is financing to turn that small business idea into a reality. The truth is that many million-dollar ideas are buried at the financing phase. The unfortunate reality is that unless you are blessed with considerable wealth, you will have to seek financing for your business, and if you don’t get it, your business may never make it off the ground....

Another blow to small businesses came in the form of Advanta’s bankruptcy filing this week. This news coupled with CIT’s bankruptcy means that getting credit lines and loans that small businesses need will just get harder and harder. Advanta is a small business credit card lender. They filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this past Sunday CNN reports. Its lending arm called Advanta Bank Corp. was not including in this filing....

The universe can have some funny timing. The one time you’re driving without insurance, and boom – you cause a car accident. Maybe your insurance had just expired or you were between policies. And maybe the person slammed on their brakes right in front of you or you lost control on an icy patch of road. Either way, being at fault for a car accident when you’re uninsured can be a scary prospect, so what should you do next?...

Intellectual property rights can seem like invisible property rights. They’re out there, but that never seems to stop businesses and enterprising individuals from running afoul of them. That’s apparently true for the North Coast Brewing Company, out of Mendocino, California. A federal judge refused to dismiss a trademark infringement suit brought against the company on Wednesday, alleging that the company improperly used the likeness of jazz legend Thelonious Monk to sell beer-related merchandise without permission....

California passed more than a dozen measures to bolster the #MeToo laws in 2018, many dealing with public entities and private citizens. However, there are two notable laws that businesses should keep in mind moving forward into 2019. Violations of these could result in fines and potentially a lot of bad press. Nondisclosure Agreements for Settlements Involving Sexual Claims Though nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) are rightfully used to keep private information private, some entities have taken the use of these too far, and are using NDAs to protect private information that, quite frankly, is illegal or would normally be considered public information....

Misdiagnosis is a legitimate claim in a medical malpractice lawsuit, and that applies to skin cancer like any other disease. But it is not easy to prove a doctor is liable for failure to correctly diagnose skin cancer. Medical malpractice suits are complex. Proving misdiagnosis is particularly difficult because you must show that an absence of action, or failure to take the correct action, is what caused your injury. This is tougher than a suit where you show someone acted negligently causing injury....