Late in November 2016, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas granted an Emergency Motion for Preliminary Injunction which stops the changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act that were scheduled to take effect on December 1, 2016. The injunction applies to all fifty states, and it puts at least a […]

According to survey results released earlier this year by SunTrust Bank, 73 percent of all businesses experience actual or attempted fraud. The most common type of fraud perpetrated against small business is still the bad, handwritten check. Checks, according to Manuel Perdomo, the chairman, president and CEO of SunTrust Bank South Florida, constitute “an open

The federal law that guarantees fair hours and wages is the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The FLSA created the 40-hour week, rukes for overtime, and the minimum wage. It became law in 1938 after some employers exploited the circumstances of the Great Depression to impose dangerous conditions and long hours on workers. In 2016,

“Florida has a lot of opportunities for landlords,” according to Rick Drew, market leader for the Miami division of the property management company Renters Warehouse. If you’re a landlord in central Florida, you already know those opportunities entail some considerable legal obligations. Failure to meet all of those obligations can land you in court – unnecessarily

What is the difference between an agreement and a contract? If you own a small business, you need to be precise about the distinction. An “agreement” is simply any arrangement or understanding between two or more parties about their rights and responsibilities to each other. These kinds of arrangements may be “gentlemen’s agreements,” where the agreement

Starting a new business in the state of Florida can be an exciting time in an individual’s life, but it also requires hard work and dedication. This infographic explores and illustrates the four essential steps necessary to start an LLC in Florida beginning with naming your LLC and ending with creating an operating agreement. If you

If you ever receive in the mail what appears to be an invoice for trademark-related services, contact a good trademark attorney before you pay it. It’s probably a trademark scam. Trademark scams are on the rise in the United States, and a mailing that asks you to send a fee or payment is the “trademark” modus operandi, so

With the emergence of popular social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook over the last decade, the eternal struggle between employee privacy and an employer’s best interests has taken on a new dimension. If you think your social media accounts are something like a private hobby, think again. In Florida, employers can ask for social

Our Daytona Beach trademark law firm recently learned that when Christine Palmerton launched a brand called “NautiGirl” in 2008, she was simply printing the image of a blue-haired young woman at the wheel of a ship on items like mugs, baseball caps, and boating-related products and accessories. Ms. Palmerton’s niche market – female boaters – was narrow,