When an employee leaves your company, you may consider offering severance pay in exchange for an employee signing a severance contract or exit agreement. The severance pay could be a benefit that the employee is provided in order to create a legally valid and binding contract wherein the employee agrees to certain important contractual terms.
Read MoreThe Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines sexual harassment as a “ form of sex discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” Behaviors of an alleged harasser must meet certain criteria in order to be considered unlawful harassment. If a co-worker or supervisor simply asks you on a date, for example, this may not be considered harassing behavior that is actionable. Sometimes harassment is clearly occurring, but in other situations it is a more difficult judgement call to determine whether harassment happened or not.
Read MoreYour residential construction contract needs to be very detailed. It should include complete information on the cost of construction, on the timeline for construction, on who will be performing work, and on when the construction project will be completed. If you wish to ensure a project is completed on time, you may also consider including clauses to provide penalties for delays that result in the project getting off schedule.
Read MoreIt can be difficult to determine why you were not hired, as there may be many reasons why someone would be passed over for a job. However, if discrimination of any type played a role in you not being hired for a position you were qualified for, it becomes very important to understand whether the potential employer violated anti-discrimination laws.
Read MoreGoing to court should generally be a last resort when a partnership dispute arises, and/or should be reserved for cases where an agreement cannot be reached in any other way. Going to court could also become necessary if your partner has committed an egregious violation, such as breach of fiduciary duty or suspected fraud or embezzlement.
Read MoreIf a lien has been put on your property by someone who performed work for you, you need to contact an experienced mechanics lien attorney right away. A mechanics lien can impact your property rights in profound ways and can make you responsible for paying the contractor or subcontractor who put the lien on your property.
Read MoreIf you are going to be doing any type of land development, including new construction or remodeling, you need to make sure you do your due diligence. You want to make certain that your land can be used for the purposes that you intend and that your updates or your improvements are permissible. It is up to you to conduct your due diligence before acquiring property or entering into a contract for remodeling or building so you don't find yourself with land you cannot use or a building that violates the rules.
Read MoreIn May, the Department of Labor instituted new overtime rules by making a change to the definition of “exempt.” Exempt workers are employees who generally are not entitled to receive overtime time. If a worker is classified as an exempt employee, he does not get paid any extra money for hours over 40 per hour. If a worker is not exempt, on the other hand, he generally can get paid time-and-a-half for the extra hours that he works over normal business hours.
Read MoreThe creation of an unreasonably unpleasant working environment on the basis of any unwanted sexual behaviors, including by co-workers and peers, could potentially be unlawful and the company could be held responsible if there were no policies in place to prevent the behavior and if no system was set up to make certain that this type of behavior could be reported.
Read MoreIf your tenants are causing a disturbance, you need to take action because your other tenants could become angry, could complain regularly to you, or could even potentially have grounds for breaking a lease if the tenant who is causing the problems is making the property unsafe or uninhabitable.
Read MoreA Philadelphia commercial real estate lawyer provides assistance with many different aspects of commercial real estate investments and real estate transactions. Owning, investing in, or leasing commercial real estate can be a major investment and can require a substantial commitment on your part.
Read MoreIn general, employers have wide leeway to act in accordance with their own beliefs and theories and to hire and fire anyone for any reason or no reason at all. However, certain groups of people are protected from being fired because of who they are, because these groups of people have historically been discriminated against and treated unfairly by employers.
Read MoreA breach of a construction contract occurs under any circumstances where a party to a contract has failed to perform according to the specific terms of the contractual agreement. A breach can be a material breach when the failure goes to the heart of the contract, such as in situations where a construction professional fails to even start a project by a required start date and no building occurs.
Read MoreThere are many different laws that regulate the process of doing business. For example, antitrust laws could control your ability to merge with competitors or to engage in behaviors which are defined as unfair competition that interferes with markets.
Read MoreIt is common for partners and shareholders in closely held companies to experience disagreements. While these disagreements can sometimes be healthy by encouraging creative solutions, they can also be destructive if partners or shareholders cannot agree on what is best for a business and cannot continue to work productively together to advance the company’s interests.
Read More