If you are an employer in Northern California – Humboldt County, Mendocino County, Del Norte County or Trinity County, you may sometimes ask yourself what personnel records do I need to maintain and how long should I maintain them.
Following is a partial list of personnel records and a recommended retention time for these records:
Permanent:
Six years or longer:
Five years or longer:
Employers need to also remember that non-public employees are allowed to inspect their personnel records that have been used to determine that employee’s qualifications for employment, promotion, compensation, termination, or other disciplinary action, including any grievances. There are records that are not subject to this rule including records of an investigation of a possible criminal offense or records that were obtained before the employee’s employment.
For employee privacy reasons, an employer should also not keep all records in the personnel file. Records that should be segregated from the personnel file include:
If you have any questions regarding which personnel records should be retained or for how long a personnel record should be retained, please consider contacting one of the Janssen Malloy LLP attorneys.
Posted in Dennis Reinholtsen, Employment Law | No Comments »
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Speeding tickets are annoying by most people’s standards, but few do anything to fight them since most are “infractions” and do not carry any potential jail time. This means that most indigent defendants who are ticketed do not have the constitutional “right to an attorney” (also known as free representation), and thus they often just pay up and do not force law enforcement to meet any burden of proof. The tickets are paid without anyone showing that the drivers are guilty by competent evidence, as our judicial system would otherwise require.
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Posted in Shanti Michaels, Uncategorized | No Comments »
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Cloud computing is rapidly gaining ground in today’s workplace, offering on-demand storage capacity, software advantages, and related IT department and capital expenditure savings. The transition to cloud computing, however, comes with a healthy dose of potential hazards. Awareness of these potential pitfalls is essential for companies considering cloud computing and various providers.
Posted in Business Law, Megan A. Yarnall | No Comments »
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In a recent article in TRG Personal Injury Litigation News(March 2012), Kelly Kirkland argued that a clear and convincing standard of proof should be adopted in tort cases where large damage awards were at stake. In other words, the more seriously injured the victim, the more difficulty the ability to recover. According to the article, an increased standard of proof is necessary because the outcome of these suits . . . affect . . . the distribution of existing wealth. A necessary predicate to Mr. Kirkland’s proposal is that a tort crisis exists. The problem is that Mr. Kirkland’s predicate is simply an urban myth and not based on reality. The number of tort (personal injury) cases has been in steady decline. In 1985, 3,600 tort trials were decided by a judge or jury in U.S. District Court. By 2003, that number had dropped to less than 800.1 According to the National Center for State Courts, tort cases accounted for just 4.4% of all civil cases filed in 2008 and declined by 25% between 1999 and 2008.2 The truth is that most jurors hate lawsuits. The idea that 12 jurors will run amok and vastly overcompensate an injured party, while good politics, is extremely unlikely. Like the Easter bunny, it is talked about a lot but rarely seen.
Posted in Litigation, Uncategorized, W. Timothy Needham | No Comments »
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The California Supreme Court recently significantly limited the ability of injured plaintiffs to receive the full measure of their damages by its ruling in Howell v. Hamilton Meats & Provisions, Inc. (2011) 52 Cal. 4th 541. The Supreme Court ruled in Howell that an injured plaintiff could only be compensated to the extent of medical expenses actually paid, rather than the amounts that were billed for the treatment of the plaintiff’s injuries. The differential between the “billed” versus “paid” can be enormous, and leave a seriously injured person woefully under compensated.
Posted in Michael J. Crowley, Personal Injury | No Comments »
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As part of the settlement of a class action case brought on behalf of some 32,000 residents of understaffed skilled nursing facilities, including those in Humboldt County, the parties agreed to the disbursement of $198,078 of settlement funds to Area 1 Agency on Aging.
Eureka law firm Janssen Malloy LLP was one of three firms which represented the class of seniors and dependent adults who claimed to have received insufficient care at skilled nursing facilities. On July 6, 2010, after a seven month trial, a Humboldt County jury returned a record $677 million verdict against one of the nation’s largest nursing home chains, Skilled Healthcare, for violations of California’s Health and Safety Code at 22 of its skilled nursing facilities, five of which were located in Humboldt County. The parties then settled the case before the jury heard evidence about punitive damages.
Posted in JLF In Community, Patrik Griego | No Comments »
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Since 2005 there have been at least 46 buyouts of nursing home operators. Private equity firms now own three of the five largest nursing home chains in the United States, including HCR Manor Care which was bought by the Carlisle Group for more than $6 billion dollars in 2007.
The private equity firms claim that, even though they are “for profit,” they can still provide excellent care for seniors. However, recent studies show that is simply untrue.
Posted in Healthcare Law, W. Timothy Needham | No Comments »
Tags: Healthcare, Healthcare Law, W. Timothy Needham
As part of the settlement of the Skilled Healthcare class action lawsuit brought on behalf of some 32,000 residents of understaffed skilled nursing facilities, including those in Humboldt County, for violations of California’s Health and Safety Code, the parties agreed to the disbursement of $300,000 of settlement funds to Hospice of Humboldt.
Posted in JLF In Community, Michael Morrison | No Comments »
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There were relatively few pieces of legislation passed by the legislature or cases decided by the California courts in 2011 that are important to estate planning. The piece of legislation with the greatest impact was Assembly Bill 1305 which will allow small estates with probatable assets with values up to $150,000 to avoid the probate process. The bill increases the values in the succession and transfer provisions under sections 13100 and 13151 of the Probate Code from $100,000 to $150,000.
Posted in Dennis Reinholtsen, Estate Planning | No Comments »
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Humboldt County may soon be signing a contract with American Airlines for airline service from the Arcata/Eureka Airport (ACV) to Los Angeles (LAX). Currently, the only commercial airline service providing flights out of Humboldt is United. Los Angeles-bound travelers on United must transfer via San Francisco International Airport, converting a 90 minute flight into a full day’s worth of traveling. This is very inconvenient for local business men and women, including attorneys, who have business or family and personal matters to attend to in Southern California, as well as Northern California.
Posted in Shanti Michaels, Uncategorized | No Comments »
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