Category: Business Law

While you have heard this expression a thousand times, it is worth repeating:  "It is better to have a good customer than a good contract." If a project has gone as well as can be expected, the terms of the contract become almost meaningless. In fact, if you had to go to the contract to resolve a dispute, there was a failure of some sort. Contracts are more important when things go wrong than when things go right. Unfortunately, things often go...

As explained this past Sunday, the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR) has issued its own sample employee notice that employers may use to comply with the Maryland Healthy Working Families Act’s (MHWFA) notice posting requirement.  That said, the DLLR model notice is optional; employers are free to provide a similar notice as long as it provides the required information (see Sunday's post for more details). We have...

Part One - the Monkey Selfie case I read today about the Ninth Circuit argument held July 12 in Naruto v. David Slater, et al., No. 16-15469 (9th Cir.).  Known as the “monkey selfie” case, the matter involves a wild Celebes crested macaques (Naturo) who used a camera set up by a nature photographer to take a picture of herself.  The picture went viral on social media and brought fame to Naturo.  See, e.g.,...

Shane Jones was a mechanic for Needham Trucking, LLC (Needham) for approximately seven months in 2014.  Jones alleged that Needham fired him because he refused to have sex with his direct supervisor, who was also a shareholder of the Company.  Jones v. Needham, No. 16-6156 (10th Cir. May 12, 2017). In filings with the EEOC, Jones claimed sex discrimination, retaliation, and sexual harassment.  Jones also stated that another mechanic -- who did...

Ever wonder where union dues go?  Maybe to some hackers in a foreign land.  We have repeatedly heard horror stories of email scams, hacks and the general badness out there on the internet.  Well, a chapter of the Communication Workers union in Connecticut got hacked for $438,000 and the social security numbers of over 1,000 members. Here’s what happened.  A payroll company handled the CWA’s finances and issued checks for the union.  The...