Legally Easy is a free source of legal help, news and information from Charley Moore and the legal team at RocketLawyer.com. Rocket Lawyer is the easiest way to make a legal document, find a lawyer and get free legal advice for yourself and your business.
Supreme Court Decides New Haven Employment Case
In a case that will have both practical and political reverberations, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against the City of New Haven Connecticut in a reverse discrimination suit. The case, known commonly as "New Haven Firefighters," has political impact as well, due to the fact that Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonya Sotomayor, participated in the appeals court ruling that has now been overturned by the Court. What does the ruling potentially mean for you, your business or organization?
The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide, potentially limiting the circumstances in which employers can be held liable for decisions when there is no evidence of intentional discrimination against minorities.
The fact that this was a 5-4 decision indicates that even at the highest level, judges remain split on the application of employment law to the facts raised by the New Haven case. In particular, the case asked whether the city of New Haven Connecticut erred in throwing out the results of a promotion examination because minority test takers were unlikely to receive promotions based on the results of the exam.
Writing for the majority, Justice Kennedy states:
"Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions,"
Kennedy was joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Alito and Thomas.
The dissenting Justices were Ginsburg, Souter, Bryer and Stevens:
In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters "understandably attract this court's sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them."
Undoubtedly, labor and employment lawyers will be busy crafting new rules for employers to follow in employment testing situations. Employers will be wise to review their employment practices for compliance with the New Haven ruling and to consult with an employment lawyer to understand the issues raised by the case in application to their own organization's practices and policies.
Voting is perhaps our most fundamental legal right. Rocket Lawyer's State Law Legal Help center has links to every official state site. From there, look for your Secretary of State page to find essential voting information to help you get to the polls!
SmartVoter.org is also a great source of information, from the League of Women Voters.
- You can find your personal ballot and polling location - Browse every election and find particular candidates - Find a list of other helpful election-related links
Whatever you do, remember to vote and exercise your most important legal right.
And hey, Starbuck's is even giving away a free cup of coffee, so we can all caffeinate after staying up late reading about the issues and getting up early to cast our ballots!
One of the best kept secrets in a world of televised celebrity lawyers in expensive suits is that there are thousands of affordable real lawyers here to help you with your legal questions and issues.While celebrity attorneys may offer general information on TV and on the radio, real people have real questions that are specific to their lives and business matters that don’t fit into neatly canned answers.Real people also have personal and business legal documents that they need a real lawyer to review, revise and complete at a reasonable price.
Until now, these real people with their real legal documents would need to find a lawyer, go to the lawyer’s office (an office that costs money that results in higher legal bills for the client), pay for copies, mail, fax and other expenses, and then wait for the legal document, such as a legal will, a power of attorney, a lease or a business contract, to be finished, often after several weeks.Alternatively, a real person might try a web site that offers do it yourself legal forms.Most of these sites seem to offer nothing more than a downloadable PDF or word processor document, with little legal help and legal information.Other sites might have fill-in worksheets for legal documents and then require the person to wait for the document to be completed offline and mailed to them later.In either scenario, the real person is often left back where they started – needing affordable legal help and not being able to find it.
But wait – there is finally a better way, a way to have the best of both worlds – do it yourself legal documents, plus legal help and legal document review by real lawyers online!RocketLawyer.com offers both easy to use interactive free legal documents that real people can complete as well as click-through legal review by real lawyers.Now, a real person can fill in as much or as little of their legal documents as they feel comfortable with and then find a lawyer to help them online – without the need to visit a lawyer’s office or wait for the mail to complete the legal document.
If you are a lawyer, and you would like to join the growing RocketLawyer.com virtual law office network to begin offering your services online, just start here – and, best of all, it’s completely free for join the network and get a free professional profile here!
Do you have a list of the essential legal documents for this stage of your life? If the answer is yes – congratulations! You're ahead of the curve...so long as you have executed and properly filed your legal documents.
However, if the answer is no, you're not alone. Most adults don't have an Estate Plan. Similarly, most entrepreneurs, home-based business owners and other small business owners either haven't filed Articles of Incorporation (or LLC documents) for their business or don't keep regular Corporate Minutes. Missing personal and business legal documents increases the risks that your family and business can face in unforseen circumstances.
Want more free information and help? Now, you can easily and quickly complete your personal legal care check up and get the customized information you need in minutes. Just go to RocketLawyer.com and click FREE Legal Care Check-Up "Start Now" .
RocketLawyer.com™ provides information and software only. This site is not
a "lawyer
referral service" and does not provide or participate in any legal representation.
