Careful: text-message advertising may violate federal law

If you’re thinking of using a text-message advertising campaign for your company, be aware of the possible legal hurdles. Recently, a company called Nextones began giving away free ringtones. In order to get one, customers had to agree to receive text messages from Nextones affiliates. Nextones then licensed its list of customers to publisher Simon […]

Employers who use ‘promotional exams’ are facing a dilemma

Employers who use tests to hire or promote employees now face a tough dilemma if those tests end up significantly disfavoring minority workers.  If the employer uses the test results, it could be sued by the minority workers on the grounds that the test had an unfair impact on them. On the other hand, if […]

Does an insolvent customer have a legal duty to pay you?

If a customer owes you money but is going under, who does it have to pay first: you…or its owners? This is a significant issue in a recession. A key test case in Wisconsin was supposed to provide a clearer answer, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court split 3-3 and couldn’t make a decision. The case […]

What to do if your child is a spendthrift?

Many people wonder about passing along their assets to a child who tends to overspend and hasn’t show an ability to manage money.  They worry that such a child will blow through an inheritance quickly and wont have the money to live on as he or she gets older. Fortunately, there are ways to provide […]

How an executor can save taxes after someone dies

When a person dies, the value of his or her estate for tax purposes is its value at the date of death.  However, the tax isn’t due until nine months after death.  If the value of an estate plummets in the nine months after a person’s death, this can create very bad consequences for the […]

How to prevent slip-and-fall claims

More than a million people suffer a slip-and-fall injury each year, and some 16,000 die as a result. Slip-and-fall injuries often result in significant legal awards against a business, so it’s wise to take precautions. A recent study by the insurance company CNA makes the following recommendations for commercial property owners:

U.S. steps up pressure on companies over illegal workers

Increased paperwork audits could lead to fines; are you in compliance? The Obama administration has announced that it intends to focus its immigration enforcement efforts on companies that hire illegal workers, by stepping up its audits of I-9 forms – the employment eligibility documents that businesses must fill out for every employee. This is a […]

Roth IRAs for estate planning get a big boost from Congress

Many people should consider converting a regular IRA or old 401(k) plan into a Roth IRA, as a result of a change that takes effect on January 1 of next year.  With a regular IRA, contributions are often tax-deductable, but you have to take a certain amount of money out of the account each year […]

Glitches on credit card receipts are getting companies in trouble

A new federal “identity theft” law prohibits merchants from printing more than the last five digits of a credit or debit card number on a customer’s receipt. The law is triggering a lot of class-action lawsuits against companies that haven’t updated their receipt systems. For instance, many companies still print credit card expiration dates on […]

How to revoke a power of attorney

If for any reason you become unhappy with the person you’ve appointed to make decisions for you under a durable power of attorney, you can revoke the power of attorney at any time. But you must take a few steps to ensure that the document is properly revoked. First, you should put the revocation in […]