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Search results for “worker classification”

20 results

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

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

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...

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...

coordination of benefits

A rule used when a person is covered by more than one insurance plan, telling the insurers which plan pays first, which pays second, and how much each must cover so the same...

claims adjuster

Insurance companies often present this person as a neutral helper: someone "working on your claim" who just needs a statement, a medical release, or one more conversation to...

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,...

independent adjuster

Like hiring a freelance mechanic instead of taking your truck to the dealership, an independent adjuster is a claims worker brought in by an insurance company on contract...

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

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

likelihood of confusion test

People mix this up with actual confusion, and that mistake matters. Actual confusion means real buyers were genuinely fooled - wrong calls, misdirected orders, bad reviews...

No, divorce property division is not always 50/50

States use two very different systems to divide property in divorce, and the difference can change who keeps the house, retirement money, and debt.

ARTICLE by Travis Sorensen

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...

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...

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

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

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

You'll usually see this on the declarations page of an insurance policy, in a denial letter, or when a claims adjuster says, "Only the named insured can make that change." It...

How does a government tort claim work after a long-delayed injury?

A recent policy shift has made this more visible: federal agencies have tightened online claim procedures under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), so more people first learn...