Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

In the face of rising credit and debit card use nationwide, the Janssen Law Firm hopes to inform small businesses in Humboldt County and elsewhere to make the best decisions for their growth.   Whether or not to accept plastic forms of payment involves knowing the parameters of what can and cannot be done in compliance with the law and merchant contracts.   Since small businesses have little to no bargaining power in the contracts they must sign to accept cards, they should at least familiarize themselves with the rules (for an illustration of the rising use of credit and debit cards, see  New York Times .

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By far, the majority of questions we receive from Humboldt County employers concern meal and rest period requirements. If you haven’t heard, California employers and employees alike (as well as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (“DLSE”) await a decision by the California Supreme Court in the Brinker Restaurant Corporation v. Superior Court case.   Until then, in California, the Industrial Welfare Commission (“IWC”) Wage Orders require that employers authorize and permit nonexempt employees to take a rest period that should be taken in the middle of each work period.  You should always check the Wage Orders for your employees’ industries because more than one Wage Order may apply to a single employer,  particularly those who employ in different job functions.

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The Fresno Bee, in an article written by Barbara Anderson published on April 19, 2010, reported on the Humboldt County nursing home staffing class action lawsuit in which the Janssen Law Firm is one of the three law firms representing the plaintiffs.

Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc., a group of for-profit nursing homes have put elderly residents at risk and skirted state law by skimping on staff to make more money, lawyers contend in a class-action lawsuit.

In a trial unfolding in Humboldt County Superior Court, lawyers for nursing home residents say staffing problems have plagued homes operated by Skilled Healthcare Group Inc., the 10th-largest nursing home chain in the country.  They hope to collect a multimillion-dollar judgment and improve care.

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Based on the passage of SB 401 on April 12, 2010, California now allows taxpayers who had all or part of the loan balance on their principal residence forgiven by their lender to exclude the forgiven debt from California gross income.  The new law now conforms, with modifications, to the federal mortgage forgiveness debt relief for discharges through tax years 2007 through 2012.

More information about the modified law is contained here.

There are a variety of reasons that it may be better to wait before suing, often having to do with determining the amount of damages to demand in the lawsuit.  However, waiting too long to sue may legally prohibit you from being able to do so.

Almost every law provides a window of time after the facts of a case arise during which a suit may be filed.  This window of time is called the Statute of Limitations (“SOL”).  The size of the window will depend on the law which provides the right.  After the time period has ended, the SOL is said to have “tolled.”  California Code Civ. Proc. (“CCP”) § 312.  The rules for how a SOL tolls are complicated.  However, if you are thinking of filing suit, you should be aware of a few basic rules.

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Identifying which employment laws affect which employers is sometimes a difficult exercise, despite all of the available information. Sometimes, it takes a careful read of the applicable statutes and regulations to determine a law’s applicability.   For small Humboldt County employers, the first question in a discrimination complaint or lawsuit is whether a state or federal law even applies to the employer.   Many laws that apply to California employers require a minimum number of employees before the law is applicable.   As a general rule of thumb,  California state discrimination laws (concerning protected classes such as race, gender, national origin, religious affiliation, etc.) apply to employers with five or more employees.   Additionally, employers with five or more employees must comply with laws prohibiting pregnancy discrimination.

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Lately, much has been written and talked about in the news regarding real property short sales and foreclosures.  Federal and state law have also been changing in an attempt to assist homeowners who find themselves “under water” and burdened with excessive mortgage debt.  When faced with a foreclosure, a homeowner has various options and may be assisted by advice from an attorney.

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The Janssen Law Firm is pleased to announce that Shanti Michaels has joined the firm as an associate.  Ms. Michaels is a 2009 graduate of the University of California Hastings College of Law and a member of the California  and Humboldt County Bar Associations.  She served as an Executive Editor of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly and was a member of the Hastings International and Comparative Law Journal staff.  Ms. Michaels’ undergraduate work was at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA with study abroad at the University of Salamanca, Spain.   Ms. Michaels is fluent in Spanish.

If you’re an employer in California, you know the difficulties associated with proving an employee meets an exemption from overtime. Last month, a California appellate court issued an opinion highlighting those difficulties.  The case is entitled Pellegrino v. Robert Half International, Inc. (2010) 181 Cal.App.4th 713 (out of the Fourth Appellate District).   In Pellegrino, six former employees of a temporary staffing agency, most of whom were “account executives” sued the agency for Labor Code violations,  primarily failure to pay overtime and failure to provide meal periods.  The agency defended the lawsuit by arguing that the employees fell under the Administrative Exemption from wage requirements.   The appellate court decided in favor of the employees.

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The Janssen Law Firm recently resolved a semi-truck/vehicle head-on collision case for the trucking insurer’s one million dollar policy limit.  The semi-truck driver employed by a trucking company out of Washington State fell asleep at the wheel while traveling Southbound on Interstate 5 North of Williams, California.  The big rig traversed the center median area and collided head-on with a young couple driving Northbound on Interstate 5.  The impact demolished the car our clients were in, and caused serious injuries to the driver, including an open left humerus fracture, splenic lacerations, chest pulmonary contusions, and left transverse fractures of cervical vertebral level 7 and thoracic vertebral level 1.  The driver’s open fractures required two separate bone graft surgeries, including the acute care surgery to implant hardware to reconstruct the limb.

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