April 2006

Are You Drug Testing? Make Sure to Comply with Law

If you are a private Iowa company that drug tests your prospective or current employees it is important that you pay attention Iowa Code section 730.5. This statute sets forth the obligations of private sector employers involving drug testing in Iowa. I have dealt with…

A New York administrative law judge ruled that a city worker cannot be fired for surfing the Web. The judge said surfing the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their…

Corporate Minutes Help Maintain Limited Liability Shield

Corporate minutes often seem unnecessary and mundane. Here’s an article that discusses the importance of minutes and good record keeping in order to maintain limited liability in your corporation or limited liability company.

Click on the Inc article to learn more.

Over the past twelve years I have had the opportunity to work with well over one hundred businesses. Many of them have been successful but many of them unfortunately did not make it. The common thread among those that did not make it? You guessed it. No written business plan and in most cases no…

Outsource Your Legal Work to Iowa:

I have recently read several articles concerning the outsourcing of legal work to India and other countries. In fact, outsourcing is becoming popular for high level legal work including mergers and acquisitions. I have often wondered – why don’t companies outsource their legal work to Iowa? Relatively speaking we…

Retaliation Claims Pose Threat

Iowa is known as an "Employment at Will" state. The mantra is that an employer may fire someone for "any reason" or "no reason at all" – as long as that reason is not discriminatory. However, there are exceptions to this rule. One of the major exceptions is when a termination…

AVOIDING DEFAMATION CLAIMS IN RESPONDING TO REFERENCE CHECKS: Iowa Code Chapter 91B.2

A significant potential liability faced by employers is defamation. To defame someone is to make a false statement that injures the person’s reputation. A written defamatory statement is known as libel. A spoken defamatory statement is slander. In order to have a legitimate…

Talkin Baseball:

Let’s take time away from business and corporate law. Let’s talk baseball.

One of the bright spots in the major leagues this year is the play of Indianola, Iowa native Casey Blake for the Cleveland Indians. Casey is hitting over .400 and currently ranks in the top ten in batting average and on-base-percentage.