Senate Bill 179, which became effective January 1, 2004 as Labor Code Section 2810, substitutes a new doctrine of vicarious liability for the long-established separation between principal and independent contractor.  It does so by making it unlawful for a person or entity to enter into an agreement for labor services with a construction, farm labor, garment, janitorial or security guard contractor, where the person or entity knows or should know that the agreement does not include funds sufficient to enable the contractor to comply with all applicable local, state and federal laws or regulations governing the labor or services to be provided.  Proponents of the law may have been targeting certain well-known labor abuses, but the broad scope of the law, and its vague language, will raise issues for many "persons and entities" in California.

Chicago-based Cragin Bank for Savings retained loan originators to obtain mortgage loan business. Each loan origina.

For both commercial trucking companies and truck owners leasing their vehicles and services, it is important to know the legal basics of lease agreements.

This article discusses the potential effect of Vizcaino v. Microsoft on classification of independent contractors.

The United States Supreme Court refused to review the controversial Ninth Circuit decision that held that Microsoft improperly denied benefits to workers originally hired as independent contractors and later reclassified as employees.

This article outlines when a worker is considered an independent contractor under California law. Employers often misclassify workers as independent contractors when they really should be classified as employees and this gives rise to serious consequences to the employer.

It is dangerous for an employer to assume that it owns an employee?s inventions merely because its employee invented them. Similarly, employees should not assume that they own inventions merely because they invented them at home. Employee-inventors present unique problems for the employer, and the answer to who owns an invention may depend on the type of invention. The rules for ownership of creations protected by a copyright differ from inventions protected by a patent.

In this case, the Texas Supreme Court held that a neutral arbitrator's failure to disclose his acceptance of a substantial referral to his law firm from the law firm of a non-neutral co-arbitrator established "evident partiality," and therefore the arbitration award was set aside.

This article details how employers are discovering that workers they once believed were independent contractors are instead viewed by courts as regular employees.

Common law rules define employer-employee relationship—a worker is an employee under the common law rules if the person for whom he works has the right to direct and control his work both as to the final results and as to the details of when, where and how the work is to be done, regardless of whether control is actually exercised

The IRS in looking at the status of a worker for a corporation looks at the employer's "right to control" that .

When I speak publicly about my work as a criminal defense lawyer, I am often asked "How can you defend someone you .

This article summarizes the implications of the Microsoft III case and how to avoid misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor.

This report discusses a recent court ruling that holds that companies must provide benefit services to independent contractors.

Are property owners responsible for the safety of their independent contractor's employees or the contractor's negligence? If the contractor is truly "independent," the Delaware Superior and Supreme Courts say no. In Roca v. E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Delaware Superior Court's finding that property owners have no duty to protect an independent contractor's employees from alleged "peculiar risks" encountered during the performance of the contracted work.

Employee versus independent contractor status is not only an issue with respect to classification for IRS purposes, but with respect to classification under other laws as well.

We frequently hear stories of homeowners who have paid excessive amounts for home repairs or remodeling, or who.