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Search results for “employment law”

20 results

At-will employment: the "you can be fired anytime" rule has one giant catch

At-will employment is the default rule in almost every state, but it only really applies if you are legally an employee in the first place.

ARTICLE by James Thornton

Employee vs independent contractor: the liability dodge that usually fails

Vicarious liability means you can end up paying for someone else's misconduct, and the old "they weren't really my employee" escape hatch is a lot weaker than people think.

ARTICLE by Danny Correia

Is it legal to make me sign a noncompete after I quit?

A major 2024 change put noncompetes in the spotlight: the FTC adopted a nationwide ban, but courts blocked that rule before it took effect for most employers. That means state...

Preponderance vs beyond a reasonable doubt and why your workplace case needs far less proof

In most civil workplace cases, you do not need airtight proof - you need enough credible evidence to show your version is more likely true than not.

ARTICLE by Theresa Palazzo

What counts as employer retaliation for filing a workers' compensation claim?

What the ER doctor records is your injury, work restrictions, and likely cause; what the workers' compensation insurer does with that information is decide compensability and...

Can employees report illegal conduct without being fired?

Yes. What the insurance company does not want you to know about this is that whistleblower protection laws can block retaliation when a worker reports certain illegal conduct,...

Joint and several liability: the old rule that can leave one defendant holding the whole bag

Joint and several liability means an injured person may collect the full judgment from one defendant, but the real fight is how that rule collides with comparative fault, settlements, bankruptcy, and state law changes.

ARTICLE by Keith Ouellette

non-compete vs non-solicitation

Misreading these clauses can cost a worker a new job, trigger a lawsuit, or put a business's customer list and trade secrets at risk. A non-compete restricts where, when, or...

ADA coverage looks narrow on paper, but the disability loophole mostly failed

The ADA has a definition that once let employers and businesses argue lots of people were not "really" disabled, but Congress and the courts largely shut that down.

ARTICLE by Brian Saarinen

Illegal search, real evidence: why police can lose a case even when they found the goods

Mapp v. Ohio made illegally seized evidence unusable in state criminal trials, forcing police to follow the Fourth Amendment instead of treating it like a suggestion.

ARTICLE by Kyle Reinhart

why can companies force arbitration instead of court?

The key thing to know is that many companies can require arbitration because federal law strongly favors enforcing arbitration clauses. Arbitration is a private dispute...

If my injury happened years ago, what is preponderance of the evidence?

The one thing your employer or landlord is hoping you never find out is that preponderance of the evidence is the lowest common standard of proof in civil law. It means your...

Almost everyone gets the Commerce Clause wrong - and it decides who can make the rules

The Commerce Clause is why Congress can reach far beyond shipping and trucking, but it still has real limits that matter if you are thinking about suing under federal law.

ARTICLE by Marcus Brown

Terry v. Ohio: the street stop rule that grew far beyond one man on a Cleveland sidewalk

Terry v. Ohio created the rule that lets police briefly stop and pat down someone without a warrant, and the real fight now is over how much suspicion counts as enough.

ARTICLE by Colleen O'Brien

trade dress protection

Legal protection for a product's or business's distinctive look and feel. That can include packaging, design, color combinations, store layout, or other visual features that...

What evidence can be excluded from court, and why?

A judge can exclude important-looking evidence at the last minute, even if it seems decisive, and once that happens a claim or defense can weaken fast. That surprises many...

A guide to RFRA and why Congress made it harder to enforce some laws

RFRA was Congress's response to a Supreme Court decision that weakened free-exercise protections, and it gives people a powerful way to argue that federal law burdens their religion too much.

ARTICLE by Sandra Fischer

Habeas corpus is real, but proving you should be released is brutally hard

Habeas corpus lets a prisoner challenge unlawful custody, but modern federal habeas mostly turns on a punishing rule: it is not enough to show the state court was wrong.

ARTICLE by LaKeisha Davis

Dobbs changed abortion law fast, but enforcement is messier than it looks

The Supreme Court erased the nationwide abortion right in 2022, but whether state abortion bans actually get enforced often depends on who is suing, who is prosecuting, and which court steps in.

ARTICLE by Wayne Hustead

DMCA takedown notice

Not a court order, and not proof that someone actually infringed a copyright. It is a formal request sent under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), usually...