Under a federal law that requires employers to inform job applicants that they may obtain their credit reports as part of the application process, an employer cannot make applicants sign a release from liability before procuring the report. (Sarmad Syed v. M-I, LLC, No. 14-17186 (9th Cir. 2017). In a…
They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, but Louis Vuitton doesn’t seem to think so. The luxury brand has filed numerous trademark infringement lawsuits against small companies that parody the designer bags in some way. The lawsuits have been so far fetched as to have been called “bullying”…
Peoples’ worst sides often come out on social media and online comments sections because there’s a sense of anonymity and unaccountability – even if that sense is misleading. Often people post whatever comes to mind without worrying about any consequences, but as one North Carolina woman recently found out the…
The Society for Human Resource Management recently published an interesting article discussing the use of non-compete agreements by businesses throughout the country and a White House paper on the issues raised by non-compete agreements. The article states in part: Noncompetes may be unpopular among employees, but they’re becoming more common,…
Although various people and organizations can put together estimates of the number of sexual assaults that take place in a given time frame, it is extremely difficult to come up with an accurate number. Because so many incidents go unreported, it is common for different sources to come up with…
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), all hourly, non-exempt employees are entitled to one and one-half times their normal hourly rate for all the overtime they spend working. It sounds simple enough, and for most workers it is, but employers need to make sure they’re including all the…
For the past few years, many of the large employers across the country have had to face the possibility of redefining what they consider to be “work.” The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not provide a definition of “work,” although the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) does define…
Business relationships are often just as complicated as personal relationships, and the longer the relationship, the messier the breakup can be. In a perfect world, people would be able to accept that things change and allow both their loved ones and their coworkers to move on when the time comes.…
Class action and collective action lawsuits are both important tools for plaintiffs with common complaints against the same defendant. Both types of lawsuits allow plaintiffs to do essentially the same thing in terms of the rights they can win for plaintiffs, but with one distinct difference. In class actions, all…
We live in a world in which everyone constantly feels like they don’t have enough time, which is why most of us hate to feel like anyone is wasting our time. That feeling only gets worse when we don’t have any control over it, such as when our employer keeps…