Privacy & Data Security

Blogs RSS Link

Federal, state, and local employment laws and regulations change often, and employers need to keep abreast of the changes to avoid liability. To protect your business, perform periodic reviews with your hiring and human resources personnel of the key employment issues, including:

  • Paid time off, sick leave and bereavement policies.
  • Workplace safety requirements.
  • Pay transparency and equality.
  • Workplace harassment and discrimination.
  • Trade secret protections, confidentiality and competition restrictions.
  • Temporary employee and independent contractor issues.
  • Severance agreement provisions.
  • Hiring and job placement.
  • Retirement, savings, and profit-sharing programs.
  • Handbooks and employee acknowledgements. 

The attorneys at Brooks, Tarulis & Tibble, LLC can help…
Continue Reading Employment Checkup

If your customers receive your products or services before you are paid in full, you are issuing credit. While this can be a boost for sales, it can be a bust for profits if there are collection expenses and losses. Some of the steps you can take to address issuing credit include:

  • Use a credit application. Know to whom you are providing credit, the limits allowed, the terms of repayment, interest charges, and collection costs.
  • Conduct credit checks. Proper use of credit reporting agencies and asking for and contacting references can avoid collection problems.
  • Personal guarantees. Especially when issuing credit

…
Continue Reading Avoiding Customer Non-Payment

As we age, we may no longer maintain an adequate capacity to care for our own or our loved ones’ health or finances. Preparing for that possibility can ease your concerns and the burden it may place on your loved ones. While comprehensive estate and retirement planning are best, some of the easiest steps to take are preparing a:
(1) Health Care Power of Attorney;
(2) Durable (financial) Power of Attorney; and
(3) HIPPA authorization.
The attorneys at Brooks, Tarulis & Tibble, LLC can not only assist you or your loved ones in preparing these documents, but can prepare a…
Continue Reading Aging and Reduced Capacity

Businesses of all sizes and in all industries face potential lawsuits. These legal disputes can require significant money, time, and effort and can damage a company’s reputation, regardless of the case’s merits or outcome. The following are methods that businesses can implement to mitigate the risks of lawsuits.

  • Choose an appropriate business structure. The correct business structure is a key risk management strategy.
  • Stay informed on laws and consult legal counsel. Thorough knowledge of applicable legal requirements, including industry-specific regulations, employment laws, and data privacy laws, can help ensure compliance with them.
  • Utilize strong contracts and agreements. Clearly written contracts

…
Continue Reading Lawsuit Prevention Strategies for Businesses

What was once a rarity is now common as courts are accepting pictures, posts, and other information from Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media sites as evidence at trials, and it is not only defamatory or fraudulent statements posted on social media that are admissible. The content of a party’s posts and statements are admitted as prior inconsistent statements to their trial testimony and as evidence to show a witnesses’ prior knowledge. Photos are also potential evidence as it is hard to deny you know someone when you are frequently pictured with them. Lawyers know this and hire consultants to…
Continue Reading Facebook Evidence

Intellectual property, from formulas and brand names to distinctive logos, are becoming a more valuable asset for many businesses. Their value can vanish or decrease if they are not protected from misappropriation, and the type of intellectual property usually determines the best type of protection. Some of the ways to best protect intellectual property include:

  • Non-Disclosure Agreements. NDAs prohibit the signer from misusing your intellectual property and obligates them to return or destroy it on request.
  • Digital Protections. Strong passwords, encryption, limiting access, and investing in cybersecurity tools prevent data breaches and intellectual property theft.
  • Copyright. Copyright protects original works

…
Continue Reading Protecting Intellectual Property

Many multi-tenant commercial property leases not only describe what the tenant can or will do in the premises but may also contain a restrictive covenant prohibiting certain tenant uses. Landlords may also require its tenant’s business to be open certain times to promote foot traffic on the property and tenants may want to ensure that they are the only business of their type on the property. These restrictive covenants are strictly construed if they go to court for enforcement so careful drafting is needed. Recently a landlord had to ask a court to resolve a dispute over a restricted covenant…
Continue Reading Commercial Real Estate Restrictive Covenants

As digital assets like cryptocurrencies and NFTs become more widely accepted your estate plan should be updated to incorporate these assets into your estate and address their transfer. These assets have little tangible evidence of ownership, being held in online wallets and secured by private keys and passwords. Without quick access and other information this wealth can vanish. Their highly volatile value, lack of regulation, and questionable location for purposes of legal jurisdiction also complicate estate planning.
The inheritance rules and tax requirements that apply to crypto assets generally treat them as personal property like artwork. Due to their value,…
Continue Reading Estate Planning with Crypto Assets

The mistake of failing to properly designate the beneficiary on your life insurance policies can have substantial consequences after your death. Some of the mistakes to avoid include:

  • Not naming a beneficiary;
  • Not naming contingent beneficiaries;
  • Not properly identifying beneficiaries;
  • Not removing beneficiaries when appropriate;
  • Naming minors as beneficiaries;
  • Naming multiple beneficiaries; and
  • Naming beneficiaries that could lose entitlement to other benefits.

The attorneys at Brooks, Tarulis & Tibble, LLC can assist you in determining the best way to designate beneficiaries on your life insurance, as well as advise you on all estate planning matters. Please contact us with any…
Continue Reading Life Insurance Beneficiaries

Various governmental and regulatory agencies such as the EPA can demand to inspect your facility, review of your records, request information, interview your employees, and initiate an investigation of your business, sometimes on short or no notice. When confronted with such an action, after contacting your lawyer, accountant or other consultants, you should:

  • Determine what is requested of you.
  • Understand the scope and consequences of the request.
  • Locate, review, and protect all relevant documents.
  • Conduct an internal compliance review.
  • Put together a defense/response team.

During any inspection you should:

  • Proactively engage the inspectors and technical personnel.
  • Use your compliance documents

…
Continue Reading Handling Regulatory or Government Inspection

A recent court settlement disrupted the prior practice of residential real estate brokers automatically splitting the seller’s commission with the cooperating or buyer’s broker. As a result, residential real estate buyers need to negotiate a fee with the broker that assists them in finding a home and will be asked to sign an agreement with the broker before they assist you. The contract will identify who will pay and how much will be paid to the buyer’s broker. Buyers should require their broker negotiate a commission split with the listing or seller’s broker, eliminating a direct payment from the buyer…
Continue Reading Residential Buyer’s Broker

Starting a small business is the dream of many Americans, but it is also a financial risk. To ensure success, there are some pitfalls you should avoid to prevent or mitigate a failure, including:

  • Failing to establish the right legal structure. An improper or no business structure can expose you and you family’s assets to your business’ creditors. Each legal structure has different strengths and benefits, and selecting the right structure can have long-term financial, tax and legal consequences.
  • Not protecting what’s unique to your business. Recipes, formulas, brand names, logos, trademarks, slogans, and other proprietary information may be the

…
Continue Reading Small Business Start-Up Mistakes

With the federal and other elections looming, non-governmental employers are often confronted with addressing political speech in the workplace. As these discussions can become heated and affect employee morale, employers should establish strategies and publish policies that may help protect the business and its employees. Any policy must consider federal, state, and regulatory worker protections applicable to private employees’ right to engage in political activities. While protecting your business and employees, candidate bumper stickers on employee vehicles in the parking lot is acceptable while employee use of the company e-mail and resources to solicit support for a particular candidate or…
Continue Reading Political Speech in the Workplace

Brooks Tarulis’ partner Elizabeth Bacon and her co-counsel Brandon Clark of Saul Ewing represented Kevin Jackson in a nine-year legal battle to vacate his wrongful conviction and win long overdue justice for Mr. Jackson. The First District of the Illinois Appellate court ruled on October 25, 2024, in favor of the groundbreaking exoneration of our client who served twenty-three years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of the 2001 murder and shooting of two Chicago men. At Elizabeth’s insistence a 2023-2024 reinvestigation of the case by specially appointed counsel to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office confirmed Mr. Jackson’s assertion…
Continue Reading Press Release- Wrongful Conviction Reversed

Protecting your business is a full-time job. One method of protection is to acquire insurance. Listed below are the typical types of business insurance:

  • General Liability Insurance. Your business’s safety net against unexpected mishaps and third-party claims.
  • Property Insurance. Covers unforeseen events such as fire, hurricanes, tornadoes, and vandalism that damage your company’s real and/or personal property.
  • Fidelity Insurance. Covers damage due to internal or external criminal acts including those committed by your business’ people.
  • Worker’s Compensation Insurance.  Provides replacement and medical benefits to employees who are injured in the course of employment.
  • Director and Officer Liability Insurance.  Provides protection

…
Continue Reading Business Insurance

While there are almost endless religious and cultural laws, requirements, and traditions applicable to the disposition of a loved one’s remains, many businesses promote and survivors appear to seek creative and often illegal ways to do so. Disposition of remains, bodies, and cremains is generally prohibited on private land not designated for that purpose. “Burials at sea” must be by permit and at least three miles offshore. Sport arenas, nature areas, and national parks generally prohibit it or require permits and restrict it to certain areas. While some states allow “human composting” and “bio-urns,” they are not universally accepted, nor…
Continue Reading Disposition of Remains