Supreme Court Ruling on Religious Reasons Small businesses and other employers are likely to find it more difficult to refuse requests for religious accommodations after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in a recent case, Groff v. DeJoy, which concerned a postal worker who unsuccessfully requested to be off-the-clock every Sunday—when…
You Can, But Should You? To begin with, employers thinking about using AI such as ChatGPT during hiring and selection need to familiarize themselves with the technology at a conceptual level, and then look closely at—and understand well enough so they can explain to others—how AI integrates with their recruiting…
Aret Smart Contracts Smart? Imagine if the paper on which your business’ contracts are written could somehow come to life and automatically send payments to your collectors—and receive payments from your debtors—at the appropriate times, as different provisions of said contract are triggered. That’s more or less how electronic smart…
Are Non-Competes Really Enforceable? Most non-compete agreements between employers and employees violate the National Labor Relations Act, according to a May 30 memo from Jennifer A. Abruzzo, general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board. Such agreements, which bar employees from taking certain types of positions or running certain types…
How to Avoid Crypto-Scams Do you accept cryptocurrency in exchange for your company’s goods and services? Or are you thinking about it? Then you should probably be aware of various types of scams associated with this virtual currency, most of which fall into the “too good to be true” category,…
The pros and cons of accepting Bitcoin and other online payments for small businesses What are the risks of small businesses taking payments in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? What are the rewards? But first, for the uninitiated, what are cryptocurrencies in the first place? They are decentralized digital exchange media…
Self-certification for veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses is being eliminated, and a number of other changes went into effect on January 1 as a result of an updated Final Rule from the Small Business Administration (SBA) about these types of awards, details of which will be posted in a…
Can You Keep a Secret? At the federal level, the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 created a pathway for civil action due to misappropriation of trade secrets; federal courts also can rule on criminal trade secret actions based on the Economic Espionage Act of 1996. The UTSA defines a…
2023 Business Outlook 2022 started out with the hope of a recovery from the pandemic but ended with a recession. With the advent of 2023 we are left to ponder on what is ahead for businesses in 2023. It’s the Recession, Stupid: The war in Ukraine has affected the world…
Are NDAs for Sexual Harassment dead? Employers will no longer be able to require workers to sign upfront non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) pertaining to sexual harassment incidents they have experienced or witnessed under new federal legislation that passed overwhelmingly through Congress and signed into law by President Biden on December 7.…