As shocking as it may be, in this day and age there are still many hospitals and medical-related businesses that have not made sufficient risk assessments relating to patients’ protected health information (“PHI”) and their third party vendors that have access to this information. This is pertinent to large organizations…
Articles Posted in Business Law
LLC BEST ENTITY TO OWN REAL ESTATE IN PA
Elimination of Capital Stock Tax and Foreign Franchise Tax On January 4, 2016, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf eliminated the Capital Stock Tax and Foreign Franchise Tax for all taxpayers effective for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2016. Previously, the Capital Stock and the Foreign Franchise were imposed…
THIS TAX SEASON THE IRS HAS THE POWER TO TAKE YOUR PASSPORT
President Obama recently signed into law The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act also known as the “FAST Act”. What people may be surprised to learn is that this new law also adds Section 7345 to the Internal Revenue Code which provides in part as follows: “(a) In general.—If the Secretary…
RULES FOR PENNSYLVANIA LANDLORDS WHEN DISPOSING OF TENANTS’ ABANDONED PERSONAL PROPERTY
Over the past few weeks several landlord clients called and asked the same question, “My tenant bolted and left some of his junk behind. Can I throw it out?” The answer to each landlord was slightly different but came from the same source – 68 P.S. § 250.505a – better…
INDEMNITY AGREEMENTS – CORPORATE BY-LAWS AND THE YATES MEMO
Last September Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates authored a six point Memorandum that identified how the Department of Justice would more effectively go after individuals responsible for corporate wrongdoing. The theory behind the new found emphasis on going after individuals being that corporations only act through individuals. Please click here…
BAN THE BOX IN PHILADELPHIA IS AMENDED PLACING FURTHER RESTRICTIONS ON USING CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS IN HIRING JOB APPLICANTS
At the end of last year on December 15th , Philadelphia’s Mayor Nutter signed into law an amendment to the city’s Fair Criminal Screening Standards Ordinance. The amendment, which goes into effect on March 14, 2016, limits an employers’ ability to inquire about the criminal history of a potential employee…
SMARTPHONE PASSCODES AND THE FIFTH-AMENDMENT
Earlier this year a Pennsylvania federal district court decided that a defendant could invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination by refusing to provide production of his smartphone passcode. In this case, the court denied a motion filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asking the Court to…
NEW JERSEY EMPLOYERS MUST COMPLY WITH ANNUAL GENDER EQUITY AND CONSCIENTIOUS EMPLOYEE PROTECTION ACT NOTICES BY YEAR END
Annually, New Jersey employers must provide to their employees on or before December 31 a copy of the Gender Equity Notice that can be found on Department of Labor and Workforce Development website. The sample set forth on the Department of Labor’s website is in both English and Spanish and…
WHY AN EMPLOYEE NEEDS THEIR OWN LAWYER IN A COMPANY INVESTIGATION
In today’s business climate we cannot seem to go a few weeks without the next big company fraud that has been foisted upon the public. The current scandal du jour is Volkswagen and tomorrow it will be who knows. At some point however, either as a result of a whistleblower…
PRIVATE PLACEMENTS, FINDERS FEES AND THE RISKS OF USING UNREGISTERED BROKER-DEALERS
Last month a friend reached out and in passing told me things were going great with the technology he was developing. He also mentioned that he was in the process of raising $5M in exchange for an equity interest in his company. “Great”, I said and casually asked if he…