California is cracking down on companies that skirt labor and tax laws by misclassifying workers as independent contractors, and the state has instituted a major change by providing mandatory paid sick leave to nearly all employees in the state. Businesses must be aware of these changes and review their policies and contractual relationships to ensure compliance.

Columns & Departments

In-depth analysis of two key verdicts.

Features

The (over)use of the summary judgment process in employment discrimination cases has been heartily scrutinized over the years. As this author has pointed out, there is at least one prominent federal judge who thinks the use of summary judgment, as a practice, should be eliminated in these types of cases.

As the year draws to an end, many of the more enlightened law firm managing partners and members of the executive committee assess the results of the current year and begin to develop plans for the coming year.

Features

Much has been written about the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to address equipment leasing disputes, some of it positive and much of it negative. For a variety of reasons, the equipment lessor legal community has historically been reluctant to embrace alternative methods of avoiding protracted litigation.

Features

It seems that the definition of employer under state law is becoming more restrictive but the definition under federal statutes has become more flexible. The reason is a federal political agenda to empower the National Labor Relations Act to encourage collective bargaining of employees of franchises.

In insurance law, if there is a border as long-established as the one between the U.S. and Canada, it is the border between the two types of coverage provided by liability policies: defense coverage and indemnity coverage. But even along this well-established border, disputes have recently begun to develop.

The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation's Q4 update to its 2015 Equipment Leasing & Finance U.S. Economic Outlook reports that investment in equipment and software is expected to grow 4.1% in 2015, which is down from the 5% growth forecast in its Q3 Update to the 2015 Annual Outlook released in July.