Dallas Business Law Attorney Blog

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. certifies financial professionals. It has recently published the Guide to Financial Self-Defense to help protect consumers from fraud and mismanagement by financial advisors and financial planners. This booklet describes many "common situations" in which consumers are victimized, identifies "red flags" that warn of trouble, and explains steps you can take to protect yourself.

Claims of sexual harassment or a hostile work environment can expose businesses and employers to the risks of negative publicity and possible liability for damages.

Accordingly, understanding past sexual harassment cases and their practical impact can help Texas employers protect themselves and their organizations from the problems caused by claims of sexual harassment in the workplace. Three U.S. Supreme Court cases are especially instructive.

First, a lesson imparted by the case Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth is that implementing and following anti-harassment policies can help protect employers from potential liability. Employers can defend against sexual harassment allegations by demonstrating that they have policies established to prevent, investigate and correct sexual harassment in the workplace. Also, employees can hurt their chances of winning a sexual harassment or other employment dispute by not following their employers' policies for reporting concerns.

As millions of people now use social media websites like Facebook and Twitter, employees and employers are attempting to understand what is legally permissible regarding their use and regulation of social media in the employment context.

Increasing use of social media has led to a rise in investigations by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) of employers' social media policies and employees' potential violations of those rules. Disagreement, confusion or ignorance concerning employees' rights to make negative statements online about their workplaces has resulted in more than 100 complaints to the NLRB, among other employment disputes.

A contract dispute between the U.S. government and a firefighting air tanker company has grounded almost one-half of the U.S. tanker force. Meanwhile, heat-stricken Texas continues to burn under one of the worst brush fires in Texas history, a fire that damaged at least 1,550 houses.

The U.S. Forest Service cancelled its contract with Aero Union after an undisclosed contract dispute involving Aero Union's 15-year maintenance plan. According to the director of the Forest Service's fire and aviation management program, there was a safety issue involved with the contract. "We can't in good conscience maintain an aviation contract where we feel lives may be put at risk due to inadequate safety practices," he said.

Now, due to the contract dispute, the U.S. Forest Service has only 11 tankers, compared with 40 tankers nearly 10 years ago.