Our clients have generally recognized that providing an employee with a salary is not enough to exempt that employee from overtime. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) established the forty (40) hour week, minimum wage, overtime and what jobs were exempt from these requirements.
A Will is valid only if you – as the maker of the Will – sign it in the physical presence of two witnesses. Whether you’re in DC, Maryland, or Virginia – this law is basically the same. The purpose of this rule is to verify that you actually signed the Will, and to prove you weren’t under duress when you signed it.
Of all the questions which we are receiving from clients these days, “force majeure” is the one that can be hardest for clients to grasp and lawyers to give definitive answers on. Although little known and seldom used, this legal concept can be tremendously helpful to prevent a costly contract dispute when a party cannot perform as expected. It’s the equivalent of a “get out of jail free” card in a Monopoly game.
If you’re like me, you’ve seen every episode of the documentary Tiger King on Netflix. As an animal lover and estate planning attorney, the show covered a lot of issues that interest me.
All of us who are trying to figure out how best to help our companies survive and perhaps even thrive in the coronavirus crisis should be sure to review and evaluate the insurance policies we carry to protect our companies from unexpected loss. While none of us fully understand the extent of what the current losses could be, a wise business owner looks to all possible ways of mitigating whatever losses do arrive.
The sudden onset of COVID-19 has led every branch of State and Local governments scrambling to impose appropriate regulations and policies aimed at balancing public safety and avoiding a massive backlog. Each local planning and zoning authority, board of appeals, and permitting department already has a unique set of local rules for conducting business, but new emergency orders can dramatically change an agency’s review and approval process works in 2020 and has also led to a whole new meaning of “business as usual” that continues to evolve.
Emergency legislation has made unemployment benefits an important financial lever for small businesses faced with closing the margin between expenses and revenues. Labor costs often make up more than half of gross sales for service businesses, so payroll is one of the first places many owners are looking to be able to manage through the COVID-19 crisis. In previous articles, we discussed how to furlough employees, how to seek payroll loans and tax credits under the CARES Act, and specific business relief programs in the DC-Maryland-Virginia region for working capital and layoff aversion.
An information page for the Montgomery County Public Health Emergency Grant Program (PHEG) went live this week. Local businesses, including for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, may be eligible for grants of up to $75,000 from a $20 million fund. $5 million is reserved for restaurants and retail establishments. The catch is that local businesses must show evidence that they have already applied for any applicable State and Federal programs before qualifying for County assistance. We covered some of those programs in a previous article on Financial Assistance to Small Business. Additional programs can be found on the county website.