Life Insurance and Divorce
Life Insurance is an important matter in most divorces. There are a host of issues that are not addressed in the typical negotiation. Consider the following sample insurance clause from a Property Settlement Agreement (PSA): <i>The husband shall maintain life insurance for the wife having an aggregate death benefit of $250,000. Said obligation shall be terminated if the husband's obligation to pay alimony is modified/terminated. The husband shall maintain life insurance having an aggregate death benefit of $250,000 for the benefit of the unemancipated children. Said benefit shall be reduced by $75,000 upon the emancipation of the first child and again upon the emancipation of the second child. The obligation to maintain any life insurance for the children shall terminate upon the emancipation of all Three (3) children.</i>
One-Way Age Discrimination
Does the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) protect an employee regardless of his or her age, once that employee turns 40? The EEOC's regulation provides that it does, stating that the ADEA works both ways once someone reaches protected status at age 40. Finding this regulation "clearly wrong," the Supreme Court recently held in <i>General Dymanics Land Systems Inc. v. Cline</i>, 124 S. Ct. 1236 (2004), that the ADEA does not protect younger employees who are treated less favorably than older employees.
Insurer Must Cover Weekend Accident
An umbrella insurance policy that covers a company's employees while "acting within their duties" should cover a worker who drove out of town on a weekend in search of a company cell phone he'd lost -- even if he stopped for personal errands on the way home, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled.
'Stop, Drop and Roll'
Since the Supreme Court's decision in <i>McKennon v. Nashville Banner Publ. Co.</i> 513 U.S. 352 (1995), authorizing employers to contest back pay and front pay/reinstatement remedies if they acquire evidence during discovery that would have led to the plaintiff's termination irrespective of the disputed reason, employers have expanded the reach of their discovery efforts. The purpose: Find anything in the employee's background that the employer can argue would have led to the employee's termination anyway, thereby precluding the potentially costly remedies of back pay and front pay/reinstatement per the <i>McKennon</i> decision. This article posits some possible countermeasures for plaintiffs to employ in combating the "after-acquired evidence" defense.
A Trade Secret By Any Other Name is Still a Trade Secret: Why UTSA Pre-emption Matters
Trade secret plaintiffs sometimes couch their claims under other, alternative titles, such as "common law misappropriation," "unfair competition," or "breach of confidence." The tactic is often a deliberate ploy to avoid complying with state Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) statutes and case law governing trade secret litigation — a body of law that favors former employees in many respects.
Can a Custodial Parent Be Forbidden to Relocate?
Parents in Georgia may need to reconsider moving out of state, or they could risk losing custody of their children. The Nov. 10, 2003 decision by the Supreme Court of Georgia in <i>Bodne v. Bodne</i>, 588 S.E.2d 728 (2003) (Benham, J., dissenting) has overruled or otherwise affected nearly 100 years of child custody law, and it has rescinded the well-established presumption that custodial parents have a <i>prima facie</i> right to retain custody.
Bullies in the Workplace
Bullying isn't just a playground issue. In an era of declining unionization, job insecurity, and the global profit squeeze, bullying has become a serious workplace problem, even though workplace bullies usually prefer memos, informal disciplinary meetings and grinding criticism to spitballs. Left unchecked, on-the-job abuse adversely affects both employers and employees. Current legal theories, though, are inadequate to address this recent phenomenon.
