The Legal Line^®

THE PROBLEM: Opioid use and abuse. It crowds the headlines each day – another over-dose, death or accident caused by opioids. States are rushing to enact legislation to address the crisis; the U.S. Center for Disease Controls just published its first national guidelines for medical providers prescribing opioid pain-killers. Opioid addiction is particularly hard to … Read more

In New Hampshire, live free or die works both ways when it comes to carrying a gun on private property. As one would expect, New Hampshire has a fairly permissive gun permitting law, found at RSA c. 159. At the same time, however, New Hampshire does not regulate how the owners or lessees of private … Read more

Enacted by the National Labor Relations Board in December 2014 and set to go into effect on April 14, 2015, new NLRB regulations could potentially shift the balance of power in union elections strongly into the unions’ favor. Commentators and the dissenting Board members believe that these new rules, taken together, could shorten the average … Read more

Currently pending before the Massachusetts Legislature is a bill, proposed by Representative Sean Garballey, that would significantly curtail employers’ scheduling flexibility. The bill would eliminate the “clopening” shift, where an employee closes one day then opens the next, by requiring that employers give employees at least 11 hours off between shifts. Thus, if an employee … Read more

New Hampshire’s Equal Pay Act, R.S.A. 275:37 has new language which became effective January 1, 2015. Just as before, the new version of the Act, set forth at R.S.A. 275:37-1, is intended to prevent discrimination in pay on the basis of sex. The newly effective Equal Pay Act does contain some important changes. Going forward, … Read more

The University Risk Management and Insurance Association (“URMIA”) release of its annual scholarly publication, the URMIA Journal. As it has in past years, the 2014 URMIA Journal contains a piece written by Allison Ayer entitled “When Professors Tweet: Using Social Media Policies to Manage the Risk of Faculty and Staff Social Media Misuse and Legal … Read more

Earlier this month, Massachusetts voters approved a ballot question which requires public and private companies in Massachusetts to provide sick time to their employees. Employers with at least 11 employees will have to provide the opportunity for employees to earn paid sick time, while companies with fewer than 11 employees must provide the chance for … Read more

Here’s the familiar nightmare scenario: The demand letter arrives from the lawyer of a former server claiming wage and hour violations at your restaurant. You can’t remember the server, but she claims to have worked at your place a year ago for all of a month and was allegedly required to do more side work … Read more

Chris Vrountas and Adam Chandler appeared before the New Hampshire Supreme Court last week on behalf of the New Hampshire Restaurant and Lodging Association. The firm filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the NHLRA in a case concerning the interpretation of New Hampshire’s statutory “ABC Test” which must be applied when determining who … Read more

The federal court in Connecticut recently granted a restaurant chain summary judgment on a race, sex and retaliation claim because the company had proper documentation, acted quickly, and treated people consistently. As we have said on this page in the past, the best way to manage your employees and to improve your position in defense … Read more