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Chicago Small Business Lawyer

Small Business Pandemic Survival Information

The $900 billion pandemic relief package included relief for Small Businesses.  The updated programs are intended to make it easier for small business owners to apply and gain funds.

The Small Business Administration (“SBA”) approved $5 billion in new Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans on January 19 and expanded the network of lenders who can make the loans.  At least $25 billion is being set aside for Second Draw PPP Loans to eligible borrowers with a maximum of 10 employees or for loans of $250,000 or less to eligible borrowers in low or moderate income neighborhoods.  More info is available on the SBA Website here.

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State Requires Sexual Harassment Prevention Training

If you’re a small business owner and you haven’t trained your employees on sexual harassment prevention, you have until December 31 to stay in compliance with Public Act 101-0221, which amended the Illinois Human Rights Act to require such training this year and every year hereafter.

This recent law mandated that the Illinois Department of Human Rights put together a model training program for sexual harassment prevention, which the department has made publicly available to employers online.

George Bellas Chicago Business Lawyer George Bellas answers questions for business owners.

Employment Issues in the Pandemic

Employees who decline to show up to a physical work location based on a city, state or doctor’s coronavirus-related health order are protected from employer retaliation under a newly passed City of Chicago ordinance.

Chicago-based businesses, defined as those with physical facilities in the city, or subject to its licensing requirements, must not take adverse actions against any employee following the  COVID-19 dictates of the Chicago mayor, city Department of Public Health, governor of Illinois, or their own treating healthcare provider.

By Jillian Tattersall, Chicago Employment Lawyer & Guest Blogger

Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) was created by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020. The United States Department of Labor has provided the following useful succinct summary of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance:

Jillian Tattersall, Chicago Employment Lawyer Jillian Tattersall explains unemployment benefits under the CARES Act

Unemployment Benefits under CARES Act

Marijuana became legal in Illinois on January 1, yet licensed cannabis dispensaries are generally forced to operate like their street-corner, black-market counterparts in at least one respect: They are cash-only businesses because they have no access to banking services.

Chicago Business Lawyer

Illinois Cannabis Laws create new issues

That’s because federal law still classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, and classifies marijuana businesses as illegal. And since banking is regulated by federal law, banks technically could be subject to charges like aiding and abetting, or money laundering, should they make loans, provide credit or otherwise service these businesses.

If you’ve watched any of the Democratic presidential debates, you might have heard candidate and entrepreneur Andrew Yang – you know, the guy with the $1,000 per month guaranteed income plan – talk about something called the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.”   This is a recognition that technology is imploding and changing everything about our lives.

4th-Industrial-Revolution-300x225In describing the ways social media and technology have redefined communication, in 2009 journalist Graeme Wood said that  “Change has never happened this fast before, and it will never be this slow again.”  

Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, coined the phrase “fourth industrial revolution” in his 2016 best seller.  This is techie-speak for disruptive technologies and trends like robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the Internet of Things – i.e. everyday devices like doorbells and thermostats that you can control remotely – that are changing how we live and work.  This Fourth Industrial Revolution is bringing together digital, physical and biological systems.  It will open up our minds to all kinds of new things:  Mobile supercomputing; Artificially-intelligent robots; Self-driving cars; Neuro-technological brain enhancements; Genetic editing.  We can see the evidence of these revolutionary changes all around us – and it’s happening faster and faster.

The new Illinois laws legalizing cannabis has a benefit to old stoners – expungement of criminal records.

Among the several provisions of the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act which takes effect on January 1 are provisions that include some dramatic criminal justice reforms.  The most important of these provisions are the expungement provisions for certain past cannabis-related criminal convictions.

Chicago Business Lawyer

Illinois laws now permit expungement of prior cannabis related crimes.

Purchasing and flying a drone might seem like either a fun diversion or a new way of doing business.  Professionals who do photography and videography, agriculture, weather forecasting, and increasingly construction are putting drones to commercial use, while they’re being piloted for package delivery through companies like Amazon and UPS.

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Legal issues regarding flying of drones.

Whatever use you have in mind for a drone, make sure you fully investigate federal, state and local laws on the subject, starting with those handed down a few years ago by the Federal Aviation Administration. For starters, drones being used for commercial purposes that weigh less than 55 pounds must have an Airworthiness Certificate, and the operator must have a Remote Pilot Airman Certificate.

After a teenage boy was fingerprinted without written consent when he purchased a season pass to Great America, his mother sued Six Flags for violation of the Illinois Biometrics Act.  In January the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously found that plaintiffs can bring a private cause of action for violations of the state’s biometric privacy law’s notice and consent requirements, even if they can’t show any harm.

The court found (Rosenbach v. Six Flags Entertainment Corporation) that individuals have control of, and a right to privacy over, their biometric identifiers, such as voice samples, retina scans and facial geometry, in addition to fingerprints. Because neither the son nor the mother consented in writing nor signed a written release for the taking of the fingerprint, and because Six Flags did not provide documentation about how long they might retain the data before destroying it, the court found the theme park violated these rights.

This decision underscores the fact that biometric privacy is quickly becoming an area of the law with greater application for businesses—and that they need to start paying attention, particularly as technology ramps up to a whole new level with the advent of microchips.  About the size of a grain of rice, these chips have been voluntarily implanted in the hands of employees at several companies and work like a card reader, providing the ability to open doors, get into company accounts and order from company vendors.

Estate plans should account for the disbursal of all assets, lest they become marooned in probate purgatory.  People are forgetting that they have digital assets that need to be accounted for.

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Protecting Your Digital Assets

Digital assets like cryptocurrency, social media accounts, e-commerce and online accounts need to be cared for just as much as conventional ones, so that family members are able to account for and access them as property, wealth and assets are transferred from one generation to the next.