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Two lawsuits filed in South Carolina and Tennessee last week added to a manufacturer’s growing woes. Lindsay Corporation, the Omaha-based maker of the X-LITE guardrail commonly used on the side of highways, has faced growing criticism that it’s guardrails are defectively designed and fail to protect drivers and passengers during car collisions, resulting in several injuries and deaths. The X-LITE End Terminal is installed at the start and end of guardrails along highways and roads across the country....

When you start a business, there is a lot to handle and it makes sense to hire a lawyer. But many business people don’t do that, thinking they will leave the little details for later, once the big stuff is set up. That is not a good idea, according to David Rose, who is a successful serial investor and the author of The Startup Checklist: 25 Steps to a Scalable, High-Growth Business....

Putting physical assets like a car or a house into your will or estate plan is relatively simple. Adding financial assets like stocks and savings accounts can be a little more complicated. But what about cryptocurrencies like bitcoin? Now that bitcoin is legal tender and its value is skyrocketing, more and more people will be owners of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, meaning those assets will need to find their way into a will or estate plan....

The “Ice Bucket Challenge” is the newest viral stunt to hit the Internet, but despite its altruistic goals, it can potentially do more harm than good. Viral challenges like this one all have a similar formula: Someone challenges you via social media to perform a stunt, you record video of yourself doing the challenge, and then you challenge three more people to follow suit. As Chicago’s WBBM-TV reports, the “Ice Bucket Challenge” involves dumping ice water over your head and donating either $10 or $100 to research for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease....

Ah, the polygraph – a staple of crime dramas. There’s the suspect, sweating it out as dancing needles reveal if he’s telling the truth. While they may not be admissible as evidence in a criminal trial, and their accuracy remains a mystery, they remain a common trope of legal fiction, and legal fact. But what if you had one for the written word? European researchers think they’ve developed a tool that can help police identify false statements regarding mugging-style robberies, which could also be used to weed out other false police reports....

The dark side of the hospitality industry - hotel sexual harassment and sexual abuse of maids - has made headlines lately. First, there was Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former IMF chief, who is accused of sexually assaulting a maid at the Sofitel in New York City. Now, there is Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar, an Egyptian businessman, who is accused of a similar assault at the Pierre, also in New York. Employers at the two hotels are so concerned about employee safety that they are giving their housekeepers panic buttons, according to CNN....

What is a class action? What are some class action defenses for businesses? Class actions are something that small business owners should be concerned about, as they can cost business owners thousands of dollars. Class action lawsuits can come from two places - employers should be concerned about the possibility of class action lawsuits brought on by employees, or by customers. Class actions are most often used when there are a number of plaintiffs, each with a similar injury....

The Improving Small Business Cyber Security Act of 2016 is aimed at getting aid and resources to small businesses to improve their cybersecurity, and the bill is scheduled to come up for a vote in the House of Representatives today. While its passage is not guaranteed, the bill could have a huge impact on the tools and data available to your small business to keep it safe from hackers, data breaches, and other cybersecurity threats....

Has your small business been harmed due to the BP oil spill? Did you know that the U.S. Small Business Administration offers disaster loans to assist distressed businesses? Business Owners can apply for SBA disaster loans at the SBA website: https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/ Businesses may also apply by mail. The interest rates are three percent for non-profit organizations and four percent for for-profit businesses. Loan amounts and terms are based on each applicant’s financial condition....

Some seemingly complicated legal issues are actually fairly straightforward, once you know the lingo. Known as legalese, the specialized language used by lawyers, judges, and government officials can often make it difficult for laypeople to understand legal proceedings or correspondence. That’s why we’re going through the legal dictionary letter by letter as part of our new series, Legalese From A to Z. This week, we look at legal terms beginning with the letter “F”:...

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled late last month that a media company was not responsible for the copyright infringing posts of its freelance writers. If you are running an online business of any kind, creating content, or working with contractors and freelancers, you will find this case interesting. According to Reuters, the three-judge panel ruled that Examiner.com was entitled to safe harbor protection for Internet Service Providers under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and, as such, was not responsible for content posted to the site by “Examiners....

The West Virginia’s high court has ruled in favor of Kathryn Kutil and Cheryl Hess, a same-sex couple, who sought to stop the state’s Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) from removing a baby girl from their foster home. The high court ruled in the couple’s favor rejecting claims that the foster child would be better placed in a “traditional” home with a prospective adoptive mother and father pair....

Last year’s election shed some light on women in the workforce. One area where women are grossly underrepresented is in entrepreneurship. There are several lists out, detailing the top cities for female entrepreneurs. The finance website NerdWallet has its own list, while Forbes has a different list, calling into question some of the methodology used by NerdWallet – for example, New York City didn’t make the NerdWallet list. What are some factors to consider when talking about the right climate for building women-owned businesses?...

We all know you can be pulled over for a broken tail light and possibly ticketed if the cop throws the rule book at you. Those kinds of tickets are often called mechanical violations. It’s a non-moving violation but police can also use it to give you a ticket for something else. In some circumstances, what police see when giving you that ticket can lead them to search your car....

Donald Trump, billionaire, was a fan of professional wrestling. And Donald Trump, President-elect, remains a fan of one of professional wrestling’s biggest magnates. Trump has tapped Linda McMahon, former President and CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment and wife of Trump’s wrestling nemesis Vince McMahon, as the future head of the Small Business Administration. Does this mean cage matches for everyone? Will you have to beat Stone Cold Steve Austin up a ladder to get your small business loan?...

Dealing with an on-the-job injury can be a huge hassle. There’s paperwork, doctor appointments, more paperwork, long-term financial uncertainty, and often … even paperwork. So, it’s that much more painful when you feel like the workers’ comp doctor makes your injury worse, rather than better. In that instance, you may be wondering when you can sue a workers’ comp doctor. The answer? It depends. What Is Medical Malpractice? Medical malpractice is a broad concept that applies not only to doctors, but to nurses, health care facilities, pharmaceutical companies, and others....

If you employ more than 10 people and you don’t have a gun policy in your office, it may be time to write one. There are 88.8 firearms per 100 people in the United States, according to The Huffington Post, meaning that it’s possible someone in your workplace owns a gun. The time to deal with whether employees can have guns in the office isn’t when a conflict comes up; by that point it’s almost too late....

When you’re a kid, grown-ups seem so mature and wise. And then you become an adult and you realize that grown-ups can be just as immature and petty as children, but with less of an excuse and a lot more power. In one shining display of adulthood, a grown man launched a cyberattack on the servers of the video game, “World of Warcraft,” after getting angry at his online opponents. Now that gamer will spend a year in a grown-up federal prison....

Estate planning is a vast topic and covers a lot of ground. For entrepreneurs and small business owners, it can get complicated. Here’s one reason why: A family’s wealth can often be tied up in the business venture. That becomes the one major source of income for the family. Entrepreneurs and small business owners can benefit from estate planning and can use estate planning tools to their advantage. Here are three things you need to think about:...

Reading about the multi-million dollar divorce settlements of the stars leaves a lot of soon-to-be-former spouses wondering what they should be asking for in their divorce settlements. Unfortunately, for those of us not counted among the super-rich, what’s negotiated for will be much more humble. Although family law is primarily controlled by state law, there are several general terms in a divorce settlement agreement that a party should be sure to ask and argue for, and be ready to negotiate over....