Plea Deals and Their Effects on Expunctions and Non-Disclosure Orders in Texas

Employee rights lawyer

One unfortunate issue with background checks of arrest records with expunctions and nondisclosure orders is arrests for a felony level offense resolved by plea agreement. This type of plea deal may make tremendous sense to avoid a prison sentence. The appellate decision in In re Expunction earlier this year addresses this problem and why an expunction is typically […]

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Dealing with Dividends in a Texas Divorce

Divorce Law, Property Division Attorneys, Uncontested Divorce Attorneys

Dividing property in a Texas divorce can be a complication and expensive affair under the Texas Family Code. The Texas Family Code lays out a complicated framework of community property rules. Property may be community property of the marital estate, the separate property of one spouse, or separate property jointly owned by the spouses. The

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10 Keys to Tackling Defined Benefit QDROs in a Texas Divorce

Divorce Law, Property Division Attorneys, Retirement Plan/401k/Pension, Uncontested Divorce Attorneys

Dividing defined benefit pension benefits in a divorce strikes fear into the hearts and minds of divorce attorneys. Defined benefit pension plans, often simply called pensions, are far more complex than the relatively newer defined contribution plans like 401ks and ESOPs. Defined contribution plans are often easy to divide in a divorce. They maintain records of individual accounts

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Will the Ashley Madison hack lead to more divorces in Texas?

Divorce Law, Uncontested Divorce Attorneys

You probably heard about the recent release of a massive database of information about Ashley Madison users by a hacktivist group aimed at challenging Ashley Madison’s business model of creating opportunities for spouses to cheat. If you are an Ashley Madison user then this news might be alarming. Many people, including some divorce attorneys, await

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What is the employment at will doctrine in Texas?

Employee rights lawyer, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Wrongful Termination Law

All states except Montana follow the employment at will doctrine for employees. Although the employment at will doctrine governs employment relationships in Texas and most of the country since the days of the Founding Fathers, there is still a great deal of confusion about what this means. Part of the continuing confusion is the growing

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Papa Johns franchise hit with $500k recovery and criminal prosecution in overtime violations

Wage & Hour Lawyers

It’s not every day a state criminally prosecutes an employer for wage theft. Last month a Papa Johns franchise operator suffered a judgment of $500,000 in damages plus an indictment in a criminal prosecution for wage theft. The case may not have an effect here in Texas but the facts are worth discussing. They could

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Fort Worth Employment Lawyer and Overtime Pay

Employee rights lawyer, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Wage & Hour Lawyers

Although overtime pay has been a part of the Fair Labor Standards Act since its enactment in the 1930s employer continue to violate overtime rights and misunderstand how employees may be classified as exempt from overtime and minimum wage requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Texas Labor Code. Employees not exempt

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Is a contested divorce better than an uncontested divorce in Fort Worth or Dallas, Texas?

Divorce Law, Uncontested Divorce Attorneys

An uncontested divorce or no contest divorce in Texas is a divorce in which both spouses have agreed to the divorce and all the terms of the divorce, including property division and child issues. The Texas Family Code does not treat a contested divorce differently from an uncontested divorce or no contest divorce. (These mean

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Second Circuit undercuts Department of Labor unpaid internship test

Employee rights lawyer, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Wage & Hour Lawyers

This month the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (which oversees appeals in New York, Vermont and Connecticut) in Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. rejected the nearly forty year old internship test applied by the Department of Labor in favor of a more business friendly test called the primary beneficiary test. This

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Are Texas Uber drivers employees or contractors?

Employee rights lawyer, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Wage & Hour Lawyers

So far Uber hasn’t had a great start in Texas (according to reviews). Uber has seen great success in other areas. It is widespread in the major cities in California despite an existing availability of taxi drivers. Major cities around the country are tackling the issues with Uber and other ride-sharing services in different ways.

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Is a Texas firefighter who can’t fight fires disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act?

Disability Discrimination Law, Employment Litigation Attorneys

Disability discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Texas Labor Code (and formerly the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act or TCHRA) is not always a well understood subject in employment law. It is an even more difficult subject following the late 2000s expansion of the federal and state disability discrimination laws to

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Unanimous SCOTUS decision in Tibble holds ERISA fiduciaries must continuously monitor 401k investment choices

Employment Benefits Law, Retirement Plan/401k/Pension

A flurry of 401k litigation arose in the 2000s over the manner in which 401k plan sponsors select the investment choices and how those choices relate to the fees charged to the plan for various plan services and investments. 401k plan sponsors have fiduciary obligations to operate the plan prudently. 401k litigation asserts breaches of these

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Income Withholding for Support Form – Child Support in Texas

Child Custody Law, Divorce Law

In a Texas divorce or child custody case the court will apportion financial responsibility for the well-being of the children by ordering child support. The Texas Family Code deals extensively with ordering, paying and enforcing child support orders. A child support order involves several people and entities–not all lawyers–who need to understand and follow a

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Grapevine, Texas Target Slip and Fall Case Dismissed for Lack of Knowledge of Condition

Serious Bodily Injury Lawyers, Slip and Fall Injury Law

Last week the United States District Court Northern District of Texas granted Target summary judgment in Sandoval v. Target Corporation in a slip and fall case arising from the Target store in Grapevine, Texas. This case demonstrates an important element of slip and fall cases that the property owner has actual or constructive knowledge of the

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“Like” Off: Facebook “Like” still at issue under NLRB social media policy

Employee rights lawyer, Employment Litigation Attorneys, Retaliation Law

In 2012 the National Law Review published my article discussing the relationship between social media and workplace harassment. In that article, I discussed a case arising from the National Labor Relations Board in which two employees were fired for allegedly violating the employer’s social media policy prohibiting employees from disparaging the employer online. Here, the employer

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