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Category: Corporate and Business Law

Revised Version of Form I-9

If you’re a business owner in the United States, you’re likely familiar with Form I-9, the Employment Eligibility Verification form. It’s essential to the hiring process, ensuring all your employees, both citizens and non-citizens, are authorized to work in the U.S.

Don’t DIY Your LLC

Over the last 20 years, limited liability companies have become the preferred way of doing business for many small and medium-size enterprises. That is primarily due to the fact that LLCs are easier to form than corporations. Unfortunately, that simplicity lulls many people into trying to do it themselves or working with forms provided online. Sure, if your LLC is only going to operate a kid’s lemonade stand for a couple of months over the summer, that might be good enough. But for most people engaged in real businesses with significant risks, it’s not.

The Shifting Landscape of Employee and Wage Claims

Employers face the constant challenge of regulatory requirements, which keep changing.  To further complicate matters,  compliance with employment obligations to employees varies from the employer’s home state to other states where remote employees work.  An employer’s compliance failure, regardless of whether it was inadvertent or minor, could provide an employee with an opportunity for an employee to hold their employer liable for statutory violations.  Employers and their employees should understand the rules for overtime pay, who can be a salaried employee and rules for employee classification, and what happens if wages are not properly paid. 

Beware of Treble Damages for Late Payment of Wages

Massachusetts, like Maryland and the District of Columbia (which has a liquidated damages provision requiring 4 times the wages due), has treble damages when wages are late. According to the Massachusetts statute, the terminated employee must be paid all wages due on the date of discharge, while an employee who resigns must be paid by the next regularly scheduled payroll after the last day of employment.