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When it comes to personal injury lawsuits involving negligence, fault is often shared by both the person who was injured and the person who is being sued. The law accounts for this shared fault scenario in different ways, depending on the rules of the state in which the accident occurs. Known as contributory negligence, a person’s own level of fault in causing his injuries may lessen the amount of recovery possible in a personal injury lawsuit, or bar recovery entirely in some jurisdictions....

Texting Trucker Gets In Over His Head (Legal Grounds) MBTA: Conductor in Boston trolley crash was texting his girlfriend (Boston.com) Engineer texted just before crash (Long Beach Press-Telegram) Distracted Driving Summit (Department of Transportation) Texting While Driving: How Dangerous is it? (Car and Driver compares reaction times while texting vs. while drunk) Driven to Distraction (New York Times series on technology-based distractions) Senate May Move to Ban Texting While Driving (FindLaw’s Injured)...

Guest post by Jennifer K. Halford, Esq. It is not uncommon for business owners to think that they have the right to ask if a job applicant has a criminal record and then to use that information to determine who to hire. After all, it is your business. You are trying to protect it. So shouldn’t you have the right to decide whether or not to hire someone who has a criminal record?...

Recently, a bill was introduced that could potentially help ensure that federal small business contracts actually go to small businesses. The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act of 2009 would modify the definition of small business in the Small Business Act to exclude publicly traded companies and would create a complaint system for resolution of disputed contract awards. Reports of government small business contracts going to subsidiaries of large corporations are not new....

As we’ve said here before, patents can be vital to your small business. Beyond protecting your inventions and ideas, patents can add value to your business for investors or a possible future sale. And yet many entrepreneurs and small business owners fail to file for patents for fear that the process is too complex. But the United States Patent and Trademark Office is aiming to change that perception and the reality of filing for patent protection....

Slip and fall accidents do occur, and the injuries sustained during and after a legitimate fall can be serious. But not all slip and fall claims are legit. And one example from New Jersey showed just how illegitimate some slip and fall lawsuits are, and absolutely what you should never do. Alexander Goldinsky was caught on film faking a slip and fall while working as an independent contractor for a company in Woodbridge....

In what seems like an annual occurrence at this point, the federal government is nearing another potential shutdown over budget squabbles. And while this might all sound like political wrangling to you, there are some real ways a government shutdown could affect your small business. So what can you do to prepare? Here’s how to gear up for a potential government shutdown: What You Can Rely On The postal service, federal law enforcement, and military will continue to function....

Flu season is upon us, which means quite a few folks will be driving while sniffling, either hopped up on decongestants or hoping they don’t have to sneeze while rolling up to a stop sign. (And just so you know, yes, you can get a DUI for driving while on cold medicine.) But that’s not the half of it – two recent studies found that driving with a cold could be as dangerous as drunk driving....

Is it legal to breastfeed in public, or in a privately owned store? The answer to that question will depend on a number of factors, including your state’s breastfeeding, indecent exposure, and public accommodation laws. Take, for example, an incident at a Victoria’s Secret store in Texas earlier this month, when an employee refused to allow a customer to breastfeed in a fitting room, Austin’s KTBC-TV reports. The customer’s ordeal highlights the ongoing national debate over public breastfeeding and confusion about the current legal status of breastfeeding in public....

If you’re thinking about where to start your business, you might want to consider what industry you’re in. Then, you might consider relocating to the hot hub for your business industry, as named by The Wall Street Journal. Relocating or starting your business at one of these “hubs” can come with some advantages. Depending on where you are located, some cities and counties might be giving entrepreneurs a gentle nudge by helping with funding and giving them access to facilities, reports The Wall Street Journal....

It’s one of those terms you hear in business circles, but have a hard time defining: silent partner. It sounds pretty cool, but what does it actually mean? And if you know it means someone who backs a business financially while backing away from the day-to-day operations, you may know just enough to get yourself into trouble. Here’s what you really need to know about bringing on silent partners to your small business....

From bath time to running through sprinklers, ostensibly cute naked baby pictures have landed a surprising number of parents in legal “hot water” (sorry). While busting parents for naked baby photos is a relatively new phenomenon with sweeping legal gray areas, there are a few situations in particular that seem to have a magnetic pull on law enforcement. But whether or not it’s legal to take naked baby pictures, or post them online, isn’t an easy to answer legal question (no surprise there)....

When large pile-up accidents occur, figuring out who is to blame can sometimes be impossible. Liability depends on how the accident happened, and for every vehicle involved in the accident, there will be a different account of what happened. Frequently, multi-vehicle accidents require accident reconstruction experts to figure out who is to blame. Nearly all car accidents are the result of negligence, and most multi-car accidents are the result of multiple instances of negligence....

David Jimenez wanted to show his gratitude after his wife’s ovarian cancer was cured, so he offered to clean the cross in front of which he had prayed for her recovery. But while he was scrubbing the 600-pound crucifix, it fell on him and crushed his leg. The damage was too much, and Jimenez’s leg was amputated following the incident. Now the father of three is unable to work. Fellow church-members collected food and money for Jimenez and his family after the accident....

The questions over safety standards at the Massey Energy Corporation’s Upper Big Branch coal mine have begun. By April 7, it was reported that the company had been cited for 600 safety violations in less than a year and a half. Some of these violations were in connection with the failure to properly ventilate methane, the gas thought responsible for this week’s massive explosion. This is not the first time safety issues have resulted in deaths at a Massey mine....

Many politicians have strong feelings about undocumented immigrants coming to the United States. However, Donald Trump took things too far, and now it’s backfiring on him. Mexican language television company Univision announced that it has cut all ties with Donald Trump and his organization after Trump made seemingly racist comments against Mexico and Mexican people. Donald Trump started his presidential campaign off with a bang by attacking Mexican immigrants. His comments, which won’t be repeated here, angered many and prompted Univision Communications Inc....

Whether or not we have recovered from the shock of Michael Jackson’s early departure, the constant stream of headlines ranging from custody matters to cause of death to burial planning decisions have kept the King of Pop where he was most comfortable– in front of his fans. Late this week the singer, dancer, performer-extraordinaire was laid to rest, over two months after his death on June 25th 2009. Deciding on a burial location proved to be an involved process for the Jackson family....

When last we left Denise New and her son Lane, Mother New had been charged by the local DA for harassment after hacking into her son’s Facebook page and leaving comments which he at the time described as, “involv(ing) slander and personal facts about my life.” On May 27, Denise New was convicted of misdemeanor harassment and ordered not to have further contact with her son. During sentencing, Judge Hill took particular exception to New’s attempts at parental supervision by leaving statements on Lane’s Facebook page which implied he was “a liar” and by the “vulgarities” in messages left on his cell phone....

A new bill requiring ignition interlock devices for everyone convicted of driving while intoxicated is expected to reach the New York State Governor’s desk this week. The measure has passed the State Assembly and now needs a nod from New York’s Senate. According to the New York Times, the new legislation, Leandra’s Law, pushes for some of the nation’s toughest drunk-driving penalties. Leandra Rosado, 11, was killed in October after the mother of one of her friends, who has since been charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated, flipped her car on the Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan....

The NLRB has ordered Mercedes-Benz to remedy three labor law violations in one of its plants, mostly by revising solicitation policies with regard to unions. An administrative law judge ruled Thursday that employees at the car manufacturer’s Vance, Alabama, plant was violating employees’ Section 7 rights by prohibiting soliciting for any purpose in the office – even in “mixed use” areas, reports The Tuscaloosa News. Small business owners should be wary of even “neutral” policies that might stifle union participation, and Mercedes-Benz learned that the hard way....