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While traditional custody agreements usually consist of one parent having primary physical custody and the other parent getting visitation on weekends, there has been a growing movement toward 50/50 custody, or joint custody. These 50/50 arrangements, however, can be difficult for all involved. Here are five tips on how to make 50/50 custody work: 1. Get the Agreement in Writing. Don’t let miscommunication sour your relationship with each other. Put your joint custody agreement in writing so that both parents are on the same page and know exactly what to expect....

The 17 year-old daughter of the U.S. Ambassador to Thailand was killed on August 26, after she fell from the window of a high-rise in midtown Manhattan. Nicole John, daughter of Ambassador Eric John, was reportedly partying with friends on the 25th floor of the Herald Square Towers when she leaned out the window, witnesses said, for some fresh air and fell According to the report by the New York Daily News, John was with friends who had come back from clubbing just before 4:00 a....

Remember the good old days when angry customers bluster and threatened to tell all their friends about how unhappy they are with your service? You weren’t too worried back then. How many people could they possibly tell? With the growth of Yelp, social media, and other online review sites, unhappy customers now have a much wider audience to air their disappointments to. And, those reviews stay online forever! So, how is a company supposed to protect its reputation?...

We’ve all had that experience of finally finding a parking spot and pulling in, only to see that dreaded sign: “RESERVED.” And we’ve all had that next thought – what would actually happen if I parked here anyway? It seems like a risky proposition, so let’s see if those reserved parking spots are enforceable. Public Versus Private We all know to avoid red curbs and to pay up on parking tickets issued by municipal authorities....

Are you thinking about filing a bankruptcy petition in order to stop a foreclosure? A foreclosure sale happens when a person has defaulted on her mortgage payments. How is a bankruptcy filing related, though? A bankruptcy filing often will often delay the foreclosure. Depending on what kind of bankruptcy you file for, you may even be able to save your home. Before you get into it, though, here are five things you’ll need to know:...

While “black boxes” are most commonly associated with airplanes, you might be surprised to know that most recent car models have a “black box” installed as an event data recorder. This “black box” is typically used by car companies to assess the performance of their vehicles, but the data that’s collected on the boxes may also assist police and insurance companies investigate crashes. So can “black box” data be used in a car accident lawsuit?...

You were sent to attend a convention for work and you got hurt setting up the company booth. On the flight, your back cramped up and the pain won’t go away. So now you’re curious – will workers compensation pay for this injury? Breathe easy. The answer is probably yes, most likely, although each state does have its own statutes and every case has its own unique deciding details. But the first key to a successful workers compensation claim is that the injury is work-related....

Along with the new executive branch’s hard-line anti-immigration stance, legal questions have arisen as to how far the federal government can go in their efforts to enforce immigration laws. One such recently raised question is whether the National Guard can be used to enforce immigration laws and deportations. The executive branch currently maintains that there are no plans to use the National Guard to enforce immigration laws or form a deportation force....

Previously, we talked about which businesses must comply with COBRA. Now, we want to look at questions to ask once you know your business needs to be in COBRA compliance. As previously discussed, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), from 1986, gave certain employees the rights to continue their employment based health coverage if their employment was terminated (or in certain other events). Here are some questions you need to ask yourself if you are a business that has a qualifying health-care plan:...

The DC Federal District Court has ruled in favor of work email privacy even if those messages are personal ones. The Reporters Committee For Freedom of the Press reports that the court ruled that a U.S. attorney’s personal emails are private even if they are from a work issued email address. The ruling was surprising because most employees expect that they have no rights to privacy when it comes to work issued email addresses....

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), every special needs student aged 3 to 21 completing his or her primary or secondary schooling in this country is entitled to a “free and appropriate education.” School districts are required to identify disabled students; conduct comprehensive annual assessments of their needs; create an Individualized Education Program that provides the child with a uniquely tailored curriculum; and pay for any required services, such as speech therapy and equipment....

Online gambling has taken another hit today with federal authorities arresting the founders of the three largest U.S. online poker companies–PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker. The eleven arrestees are accused of side-stepping federal law by creating an elaborate scheme to trick banks into processing bets and payments. As any poker aficionado knows, in 2006 Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which made it illegal to place, receive or knowingly transmit a bet or wage over the internet if to do so is illegal in the state in which the bet is initiated, received or made....

It’s no secret that junk food is bad for you but it seems that Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are taking all the heat as more schools are banning the popular snack food. School districts in Illinois, New Mexico, and California have banned Flamin’ Hot Cheetos or are trying to do so. Students that bring them to school risk administrators confiscating the bright red spicy snack. The problem is the lack of nutritional content in the snacks, according to administrators....

Employee vacation policies can vary depending on your business. Some employers choose to have no vacation time during a year, while other employers are now instituting forced vacations for employees. At the Motley Fool, a 250-employee financial services company located in Virginia, all employees are entered into a monthly drawing where one lucky (or unlucky, depending your perspective) employee “wins” a forced two-week vacation, according to The Wall Street Journal....

A Washington state agency is set to review Josh Powell’s child-custody case after a scheduled visitation ended in a deadly house explosion. Powell and his sons, ages 5 and 7, were killed. “We really look at the service delivery with the case. Was there anything we can learn about what happened?” a deputy director with Washington’s Children’s Administration told The Seattle Times. Josh Powell’s struggle to regain legal custody of his sons apparently led to the explosion that investigators believe was a murder-suicide....

Imagine sitting in the stands of a baseball game–just behind the third base dugout–when a strange creature appears in your line of sight. You’re not particularly sure if it’s a lion or a dog with a permanently attached crown. All you know is that it’s big, fuzzy, and tossing hot dogs your way. Oh, and it’s using an air gun. Now, what do you if you’re John Coomer and confronted with this situation?...

Lead poisoning of school-aged children is unfortunately back in the spotlight, this time in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina area. Last year, 58 schools voluntarily tested the drinking water in local schools, and nearly half showed high lead levels. Results started posting earlier this week, reporting at least 27 schools had lead levels at the action-level 15 parts per billion (ppb) or greater. Some had lead levels as high as 100 ppb....

From shoulder wings to plugs, tattoos and piercings are quite the rage. But is it legal to fire people for having tattoos or piercings? Despite their growing popularity, if you aren’t a fan of your employee’s alternative forms of self-expression, you can ask him or her to cover them up. If that doesn’t work, then you may be able to legally fire a tattooed or pierced worker in particular situations....

Frosted Flakes aren’t the right diet for a monkey and grumpy monkeys can bite. That’s the lesson a woman in Paso Robles, California learned when her Javan macaque bit her several times. The woman was hiding the monkey in her home and feeding it a diet of mostly Frosted Flakes and juice. That apparently wasn’t the best choice. But the worst choice was keeping the monkey in the first place. Now that woman not only has injuries, she’s also the subject of a legal investigation, reports the Chicago Tribune....

A New Jersey ironworker who fell into a vat of acid is recovering after co-workers performed a courageous rescue, a fire chief said. Martin Davis, 44, was on the roof of a metal tube manufacturing plant in Clifton, N.J., when he somehow fell through the roof and plunged 40 feet into a tank of nitric acid Monday morning, The Record reports. Davis was fully submerged in the acid. Clifton’s fire chief initially said a co-worker had jumped into the vat to save Davis, but the reluctant acid-vat hero was a bit more modest....