Business and Tax Lawyer Blog

Businesses today are under increasing pressure to demonstrate profitability, which many do by reducing headcount. If you feel you have been a victim of wrongful termination, you may have legal recourse in Florida.

Wrongful termination may apply if you:

Have a written contract – while most employment is "at will" – meaning an employee can be fired for any reason at any time – having a formal contract may entitle you to additional protections.

Have an implied contract – if you have an agreement with your employer based on things your employer has said or done, this could also void the "at will" status of your employment. However, this can be difficult to prove, particularly in Florida.

Can prove a breach of good faith – if your employer has acted unfairly, you may have a claim for a breach of good faith and fair dealing.

Can prove retaliation – if you have been fired because you filed a complaint with the EEOC or have formally complained about your employer, you may have a claim for retaliation.

Are a whistle blower – employees who report unlawful activities or actions that could cause public harm are protected by whistle-blower laws.

Can prove defamation – if your employer has damaged your reputation through false statements to others.

Can prove fraud – if your employer intentionally tricked you or acted deviously on purpose.

If you think you may be a victim of wrongful termination and need more information, contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. a Jacksonville, Florida business and tax law firm.

If you are a Florida employer, you need to know both the state and federal laws that govern a company's relationship with its employees. Some key considerations are:

At-Will Employment – Florida employees are considered to be "at will", and can be terminated for any legal reason; but there are many exceptions to this rule. Florida employees who have employment contracts are not considered "at will" employees, and can only be fired for reasons outlined in the contract.

Workplace Safety – even though Florida repealed its Occupational Safety and Health Act in 2000, employers must still provide a work environment that is free of known hazards that result in serious injury or death.

Workplace Injury – in Florida, injured employees receive automatic compensation benefits for on-the-job injuries, which are considered to be the exclusive remedy against the employer, even in the event of employer negligence.

Discrimination/Wrongful Termination – Florida employers are not allowed to terminate or discriminate against employees on the basis of race, age, sex, religion, national origin, disability or pregnancy.

There are many other Florida employment-related regulations that employers need to follow, including some governing pre- and post-employment behavior.

For more information on Florida employment law, contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A., a Jacksonville, Florida business and tax law firm.

Members of Jacksonville, Florida's First Coast Manufacturers Association employ more than half of the region's 45,000 manufacturing workers. A current survey of members revealed that Jacksonville manufacturing businesses have an upbeat outlook on the economy for the first time in a long time. Forty-four percent of those who responded said that they expect their revenue to show growth in the first half of 2010 and sixty eight percent said that they expect growth in the second half of this year.

Lad Daniels, president of the First Coast Manufacturers Association, said that the results show much more optimism from manufacturing business owners than just eight months prior. According to Daniels, this is good news for the Jacksonville workforce as well. Most manufacturing employers have no plans to shrink their labor force during the rest of the year, and thirty one percent reported that they were planning to hire additional workers in 2010.

The news that such a major employment sector was not planning any layoffs and might actually be adding jobs is a promising sign for both Jacksonville workers and Jacksonville businesses.

Find out more about the First Coast Manufacturers Association's survey results at Manufacturers on First Coast optimistic.

If you live in North Florida and have a business legal matter, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. Jacksonville, Florida attorneys.

The Riverside area of Jacksonville, Florida is best described as an eclectic mix of residents and businesses from various ethnic and economic backgrounds. The Riverside Avondale Development Organization recently organized a community cleanup project to pick up litter throughout the area. The event gave local businesses an opportunity to show that they are interested in being a part of the local community – and that they are not just another bank or another store.

The event, which was co-sponsored by Florida Bank and Harpoon Louie's, drew business owners and their employees along with area residents, who walked a three mile area of the neighborhood with bright blue trash bags. They were able to fill nearly a hundred bags with trash removed from the area.

The organization promoted the event using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, and Constant Contact alongside more traditional methods such as going door to door to talk to business owners and hanging up flyers in the area. Businesses gave donations of t-shirts, refreshments, and gift cards to reward participants, and Green It Up Clean It Up provided trash bags and safety equipment for the volunteers.

Residents and merchants alike deemed the day a success, and hope to turn their attention to other community improvement projects in the future. Read more about the Riverside community cleanup at Riverside cleanup connects neighbors, merchants.

Continue reading "Jacksonville, Florida Businesses and Residents Join Forces to Clean up Riverside Area" »

If you own a business that operates strictly in Florida, you need to be aware of and follow Florida Labor laws. Employee work hours can be a particular point of contention between business owners and workers; some of the highlights of the Florida statutes governing work hours include:

Application of Federal Law

The Federal Fair Labor Standards Act only applies to businesses that engage in interstate commerce. If an issue arises that is not covered by Florida state law, then the Federal Law would apply. Florida cannot give less protection in this area than is provided by Federal Law.

Overtime pay

Hourly employees are entitled to overtime pay for any time worked over forty hours in one week. As a general rule, the rate must be at least one and a half times the employee's regular pay rate. If a worker is subject to a collective bargaining agreement, the provisions of that bargaining agreement would apply. Federal law also provides special overtime rules for retail and service workers, hospital employees, and fire protection and law enforcement professionals.

Work day overtime

If you require more than ten hours of work in a day from an employee who was hired to do manual labor by the day, week, month or year, you are required to provide extra pay for the excess hours unless you have a written contract with the employee that states otherwise. This does not apply to hourly employees.

Employee contracts

In Florida, the courts have held that there are no contractual rights conferred by employee manuals or handbooks unless it is stated specifically. Employers should still, as a matter of caution, specifically recite that the manual or handbook does not provide contract rights to workers.

Failure to pay overtime

If a Florida employer fails to pay overtime, the affected employee may file a civil suit in federal court. There is a two year statute of limitations on such claims.

Find out more about Florida employment law at Florida Work Hours Laws.

If you live in North Florida and have an employment legal matter, please contact our Jacksonville, Florida law firm.

Jacksonville business attorneys have taken note of a verdict awarding a South Florida heart surgeon $6.5 million for breach of contract and slander that has been upheld by Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeals.

The suit, brought by the surgeon against a Fort Pierce, Florida hospital, resulted in a $1.5 million award for breach of contract and a $5 million award for slander. The slander: a hospital executive said he would not send his dog to the surgeon.

In its 32-page opinion, the appellate court specifically condemned the hospital's attack on the doctor's reputation, noting that "the wrongdoing underlying the punitive damages in this case has Florida law's most severe condemnation, its highest blameworthiness, its most deserving culpability."

The 11-year court battle between the surgeon and the hospital may continue, as the hospital says it is weighing its options to have the decision reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court. The hospital's lawyers argued on appeal that the slander award was excessive under the U.S. Constitution; because of that argument, the appellate court said that the State Supreme Court could review the award.

See more about the lawsuit at $6.5M verdict upheld in slander case.

Continue reading "Slander Verdict Dogs South Florida Hospital" »

Non Compete Agreements have been a part of American businesses for a long time - Non Compete and Non Solicitation agreements are used (as a condition to hiring and sometimes as a condition to retain a job) to protect companies trade secrets, systems and client lists. The use of the Agreements prevented employees from learning the business from the employer, then resigning and going into competition with the employer. That seems okay, doesn't it? However in the current economic market, it is more likely that the employee was "downsized" and is now simply trying to use his training to support his family in tough times. Now the Non Compete and Non Solicitation agreement seems a bit unfair - however, the new facts don't change the enforceability of the document. Non Compete Agreements can affect all levels of employees, but make the news when high-level executives get tripped up.

In mid 2009, coffee store giant, Starbucks, claimed that their former Senior Vice President, Paul Twohig of Hilton Head, South Carolina, violated his non-competition agreement when he accepted a position with rival coffee shop, Dunkin' Donuts.

Starbucks filed a suit attempting to block Twohig from working at Dunkin' Donuts until eighteen months had passed, as stipulated in the non-competition agreement he allegedly signed when joining Starbucks in 2004. Starbucks claimed that Twohig had intimate knowledge of the company's branding and marketing strategies that, if passed on to Dunkin' Donuts, would cause irreparable harm to Starbucks. Starbucks also asked Twohig to return the severance pay he received from them and to pay damages and attorney's fees. Dunkin' Donuts was not named in the suit. In this case the employer and employee were able to resolve the matter outside of the coutroom and in November 2009, Twohig settled with Starbucks and reportedly paid $500,000 to settle the dispute.

There are restrictions on the enforceability of Non Compete and Non Solicitation Agreements in Florida and both employees and businesses should review those restrictions before signing such Agreements.

If you have a question about Non Compete and Non Solicitation Agreements, For your business law needs, please contact Jacksonville, Florida attorneys Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for legal counsel.

Find out more about this story at Dunkin' Donuts executive settles with Starbucks.

Francine Katz was the vice president of communications and consumer affairs at Anheuser-Busch when InBev took over the company. Katz was promoted to the position in 2002, and was the first woman to join the company's Strategy Committee. Other women at the company saw her as a role model, and admired her approachable demeanor.

The reportedly well-respected and outspoken executive left the company shortly after the InBev purchase, and filed a lawsuit for gender discrimination, alleging that she was paid less than male colleagues, specifically her predecessor, John Jacob. She claimed the company had a "frat party" atmosphere and routinely paid women less then men for the same work. This claim was disputed by the company.

According to company insiders, Jacob was a close advisor of August Busch III and earned the higher salary by being a valuable resource to the man over a period of many years. They said it would be hard to argue that a successor with different qualifications should earn the same salary right off the bat.

This scenario is, unfortunately, played out in companies (both big and small) throughout the United States. Companies must take steps to prevent such practices for a number of reasons: to protect the company from the risk of lawsuit; to prevent the negative impact on reputation and staff morale which occurs in the face of such a lawsuit and to prevent the loss of valuable employees (that the company has spent time and money training) as a result of poor employment / compensation practices.

If you have a question about this issue, contact an employment law attorney - contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for legal counsel.

If the case makes it to trial, it will be worth watching. Find out more about this gender discrimination lawsuit at More on Francine Katz's gender discrimination lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch.

In the case of an H1N1, or swine flu, breakout, employers have been urged for many months to become prepared for wide-spread impact on both their own staff and their customers. While we have dodged the bullet for now, this has been a good test case for businesses. Employers have several legal obligations regarding the privacy of employees, and may also be subject to federal laws that come into play if a pandemic hits the US. Employers need to be prepared with a plan in case the worst happens. Here are some tips for being prepared:

Consider the legal issues

Employers must provide employees and customers a safe working environment, and H1N1 (or some other massive breakout) could be considered a hazard. Employers should educate employees about virus, including information about how to control the spread of the disease. Employers may also have to consider how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) will affect their policies in the event of a pandemic.

Be prepared for recommendations from the CDC that will affect attendance

The CDC may recommend that certain people with a greater risk of contracting the disease stay home from work. These people would then fall under the protection of the ADA; employers would have to make allowances for them to work from home or to take an extended leave of absence. Employers will still have the right to request proof that the employee falls under the CDC guidelines for persons at high risk.

Understand how the FMLA will affect your plan

If an employee has a child or family member who becomes ill with a case of Swine Flu or some other outbreak that is bad enough to be considered a serious medical condition (requiring three or more trips to the doctor or hospital), an employer is under a legal obligation to allow the employee to stay home and care for the ill person under the FMLA. The FMLA does not require employers to allow employees to stay home to care for healthy children whose school has been closed due to an outbreak.

How do employee privacy laws come into play?

Employers are required to maintain employee privacy, but they also have a duty to protect the other employees from a potential hazard. In the current instance, a business may decide to notify employees that there has been a diagnosed case of swine flu in one of their workers, without naming names.

You can read more about these issues at Outbreak could bring legal, personnel issues.

Continue reading "Employers Advised to Put Plans in Place for Possible H1N1 (Swine Flu) Breakouts" »

Armor Holdings started out making bullet proof vests in Yulee, Florida and grew within fifteen years to a large multinational company with sales of $2.4 billion. It was twice named by Forbes Magazine as one of the nation's fastest growing companies, and was sold in 2007 for $4.5 billion.

Despite the outward appearance of success, FBI investigators are now saying that prior to the 2007 sale, company executives engaged in illegal exports, bribery, kickbacks, and sale of faulty equipment to the military. The investigation got underway when an Armor Holdings executive who was charged with various crimes agreed to work with the FBI and helped the agency gather evidence that led to the arrest of twenty two other executives, including a former president and former CEO of Armor Holdings.

Richard T. Bistrong of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida was formerly the vice president of international sales for Armor Holdings, and to date is the only individual who has been charged with wrongdoing while at the company. He is the executive who aided the FBI in its investigation. As part of the investigation, Bistrong met with several military and law enforcement supply executives and asked them to add kickbacks to proffered contracts. Twenty-two others allegedly agreed to the deals as well.

The arrests and charges represent the first under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which went into effect in 1977. The law forbids Americans from making payments to foreign officials in exchange for favorable treatment. Find out more about this story at Jacksonville company's shady dealings spanned globe, authorities say.

If you live in North Florida and have a business legal matter, please contact our Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A.

The worst employment outlook in years, combined with increasing frequency and thoroughness of employment background checks, has led to an increase in the number of job-seekers looking to legally clear their criminal past from their records. The state of Florida sealed and expunged almost 15,000 records in the last fiscal year, an increase of 43% over the previous year. Other states are reporting similar increases these types of requests. New businesses have sprung up to help people clear their criminal histories, and states have passed new laws to speed the process.

Background checks have become cheaper and easier since 9/11. More than 80% of employers performed some type of background check in 2006, up from 50% in 1998. And with an unemployment rate reaching 10%, businesses can afford to be very picky about whom they hire. But if a misdemeanor follows a person around for decades, preventing them from getting work, many judges and lawmakers have come to believe that the punishment no longer fits the crime.

Many times, the bad mark on a person’s record is as seemingly harmless as a decades old arrest and conviction on a misdemeanor charge. Many people believe that once they go to court and pay the fine, the matter is over. But a criminal background check will turn up the charges, and could disqualify such people for employment – especially if they “lied” on their application by not including the arrest.

In many states, felonies cannot be removed from a person’s record, but minor infractions can. This would allow them to legally claim that they have never been arrested or convicted of a crime. Records in this case may be shredded or sealed, but may actually still be accessible by police or schools in the future. But receiving an expungement may not be foolproof. Arrest details and mug shots may live forever on the internet, and data-harvesting companies that sell criminal record information to businesses are not legally required to erase expunged records. You can read an in-depth article on this subject at More Job Seekers Scramble To Erase Their Criminal Past .

If you have a business or employment legal issue, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for legal counsel.

A former employee, Darrol Olsen, of Lockheed Martin Corp, a major US defense contractor, has claimed in a federal whistleblower lawsuit that the F-22 Raptor stealth jets the company was building for the US defense department were knowingly finished with a defective stealth coating. President Barack Obama ended the production of the jets in 2009, following the advice of critics who said that it was ill-suited for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each jet cost the US $140 million.

Olsen was fired from the company in 1999. The false certification and concealment of negative testing results was alleged to have taken place between 1995 and 1999. Olsen also claims that he was told to mind his own business when complaining about his suspicions of false certifications to his superiors. In the lawsuit, Olsen claims that Lockheed added extra layers of coatings to the jets so that they would pass air force tests. Apparently the coating would rub off if it came in contact with oil, fuel or even water. The extremely thick coating added to cover up the problem allegedly affected the jets’ speed and maneuverability.

Olsen is suing Lockheed to pay $50 million to the US government for each jet included on the contract. Find out more about the F-22 Raptor Stealth Jet Ex-Lockheed engineer claims F-22 tech 'defective'.

If you ask Florida business owners about the social media phenomenon, you will find out pretty quickly that social media is not just for teenagers and college students anymore. Businesses around the world and throughout Florida are embracing social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and MySpace as a very effective way to meet and market to potential customers.

As tweets, posts and instant messages outpace email as the favorite method of communication, Florida Sunshine Law watchdogs are keeping a sharp eye on the social media sphere. They want to ensure that all public records remain public and that they can be tied back to the public official who generated them.

Just last year a large number of previously secret text messages sent between staff members of the Public Service Commission and Florida lobbyist groups came to light and were made public under the Sunshine Law. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has since announced that his office would keep a record of all Blackberry messages sent to or from state-owned phones. McCollum has also set up a task force to compile a report on which social media communication methods should be made part of the public record.

Read more about how business use of social media is affected by the Florida Sunshine Law at Businesses find Facebook, Twitter useful. 

If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida or Orlando, Florida area and have about social media and the law, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for business legal counsel.

The Bark ‘n Howl Bakery provides a variety of flavors of dog biscuits for Jacksonville, Florida pets. The non-profit business doesn’t just provide doggie treats though – they provide vocational training and employment for young people with physical and developmental disabilities from Career Frontiers of Northeast Florida.

Leigh Forrester and Martha Sawyer incorporated the business last year and sell their dog treats over the internet at www.barknhowlbakery.com as well as at local farmers’ markets in the Jacksonville area. The two take turns making the biscuits in their own kitchens, and started training the special needs students to help them in February, 2010.

The year-round program is suitable for young adults with Down syndrome, autism, and visual and hearing impairments. The helpers, are from eighteen to thirty five years old and learn a variety of skills, including safety, cooking, weighing, measuring, packaging, computer skills, and even help sell the treats at the farmers’ markets. They will soon be able to learn retail skills as the bakery plans to open a permanent location if they can find a local benefactor to donate the retail space.

The founders say that their goal is to train the students so that they can seek paid employment in Jacksonville and nearby communities. Find out more about this unique business at Dog bakery provides vocational training for special young adults.

If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida or Orlando, Florida area and have a business or employment legal matter, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for business legal counsel.

The Beaver Street Enterprise Center is a small business incubator that opened its doors in Jacksonville, Florida in 2003. It was established by the nonprofit group, FreshMinistries, to nurture small businesses by providing entrepreneurs with reasonably priced office space, mentoring services and opportunities for networking with other business owners.

In the incubator’s first year, fifteen fledgling businesses provided jobs for sixty two Floridians. By 2007, the center’

s businesses provided almost five hundred jobs to Florida residents, most of them from Jacksonville. The total revenue produced by these businesses has grown to close to $10 million.

Successful businesses to come out of the incubator include A. Harold & Associates, Xeye, Inc., and a Burger King Franchisee who owns six Burger King stores. The University of North Florida’s Small Business Development Center also has a presence there. Most come for the $10 per square foot office rent, but stay for the networking and relationships. Entrepreneurs credit the center with providing them the focus they need to build their businesses, the contacts with other business owners who can provide guidance, and the opportunity to meet local bankers who can help finance their operations.

The Beaver Street Center is currently home to fifteen small business tenants, and has room for two more. The Center also supports fourteen home-based businesses with shared office space, equipment and training. In addition, the Jacksonville Hospitality Institute offers a nine-week course, held in the Center, which prepares students for a career in hotels or restaurants.

Find out more about this small business incubator at Jacksonville small businesses get chance to grow on Beaver Street.

If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida or Orlando, Florida area and run a small business, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for business legal counsel.

Patricia Henry learned two years ago that she had AIDS. She claims that she contracted AIDS after having been stabbed with a bloody needle by a mentally impaired AIDS patient while working as a nurse's assistant several years earlier. She left that job and had found another one by the time her diagnosis was confirmed. She was fired from her new job shortly after revealing her disease to her employer.

Now she is suing that employer, Stacy Diaz and 5-D Tropical, a Tampa fish farmer, for discrimination, saying Ms. Diaz fired her because of her condition. The American with Disabilities Act and approved workplace protection in the state of Florida both provide job protection for AIDS sufferers. Ms. Diaz has denied the charges, saying that she fired Ms. Henry for missing too much work.

Ms. Henry is suing for her job back plus a seven figure settlement. Who will win in the case? According to Ms. Henry's attorney, 3-D has several strikes against it in a discrimination lawsuit. These include not having an employee handbook or published grievance process, not making a good faith effort to accommodate Ms. Henry, and perhaps most telling, no references to any disciplinary problems in her file. Find out more about this story at Why was she fired?

If you have a question about the ADA or Florida employment statutes, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for legal counsel.

The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has settled a class-action lawsuit for forty million dollars. The suit was brought by former and current employees of the company from the state of Massachusetts, and included about 87,500 claimants. They claimed that Wal-Mart deprived them of breaks, failed to pay earned overtime and changed employee timecards to lower their pay. The settlement is the largest of its kind in state history. Anyone working at Wal-Mart between 1995 and the date of the settlement will receive a check from the settlement. The average claimant is expected to receive $734.

The lawsuit is very similar to many other cases that have been brought against Wal-Mart across the country. Wal-Mart has denied the charges in all cases, but has agreed to pay up to $640 million to settle 63 federal and state class action lawsuits regarding wages and hours worked by employees. The Massachusetts case was not part of that larger settlement.

Lawyers for the workers are pleased with the settlement, but felt it could have been bigger. They hope that this case will serve as a warning to other employers to take worker pay seriously. For employers who follow the law, they will now benefit from an even playing field. Read more about the settlement at Wal-Mart will pay $40m to workers.

If you have a question about legal employment practices in the state of Florida, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for legal counsel.

CRM Holdings is a workers' compensation administration company. The company was sued by a New York State workers' compensation board, which is seeking $405 million in damages for alleged breaches of fiduciary duty, fraud, deceptive acts and mismanagement. The attorney general's office has also informed the company that they will be filing a separate lawsuit that will charge CRM Holdings with business and security fraud for allegedly engaging in deceptive and illegal business practices.

The attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, alleges that CRM Holdings purposely underestimated prospective clients' workers' compensation liability in order to lower premiums and attract more business; the practice would ultimately leave those companies with inadequate reserves for covering workers' compensation liabilities.

State officials charge that tens of thousands of workers have been left without insurance as a direct result of malfeasance by CRM Holdings. The attorney general is seeking $150 million from the company to cover the liabilities they have caused. CRM Holdings, which is based in Bermuda and has a Poughkeepsie, New York based subsidiary called Compensation Risk Management, has denied the allegations.

CRM has already surrendered its license as a New York third-party insurance administrator after the New York state workers' compensation officials charged that the company had given them false information, had not cooperated with an audit, and routinely failed to keep adequate reserves on hand for claims. Find out more about the two lawsuits at State Sues Administrator of Workers' Compensation.

If you have questions about workers' compensation or other business law matters, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for legal counsel.

Section 1346 of Chapter 63 of the U.S. Code identifies a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services as being included in the definition of the term "scheme or artifice to defraud." This is also known as the "Honest Service Law." The law was passed by Congress in 1988.

Federal prosecutors in Florida have used the honest service law to go after allegedly dishonest public officials in Palm Beach and Broward counties. Those affected included three Palm Beach county commissioners, a Broward county school board member and a Miramar city commissioner.

South Florida judges have expressed concern over the imprecise language of the law, saying that it fails to clearly outline what behavior is prohibited. The US Supreme Court agrees, with justices calling the law "mushy" and "vaguely written." They argue that an ordinary citizen should be able to easily determine what is considered legal and illegal conduct.

But even if the US Supreme Court strikes down the law, criminals who have pleaded guilty to honest services fraud won't be off the hook for their crimes. The cases against them are supported by overwhelming evidence of illegal acts, and their own confessions of guilt in open court.

Florida State Senator Dan Gelber is attempting to convince the Florida legislature to adopt a statewide version of the law. He has said that his version of the bill will be much more sharply focused and will concentrate on corruption of public officials. He says he will modify his bill based on concerns expressed by the US Supreme Court justices.

Find out more about the controversy over honest services fraud at `Honest Services Fraud' law mushy but necessary.

If you need clarification on any Florida business law, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for legal counsel.

The luxury Epic Hotel in Miami, Florida was the site of a Legionnaire's Disease outbreak recently. Four people were reportedly made ill and one person died from the bacterial infection. The bacteria is said to have gotten in to the hotel via the water system, but the Miami-Dade County Health Department is still investigating the outbreak.

An advisory was placed on the hotel to keep guests out; the hotel management company was ordered to upgrade their water filtration system and clean out their water supply before the advisory would be lifted. They were able to do so and reopened within a few days. It has not been proven whether the hotel was in any way responsible for the outbreak.

Legionnaire's Disease is an acute respiratory infection caused by Legionella bacteria. It is typically water borne, and cannot be passed from person to person. Symptoms include chest pain, coughing up blood, fever, gastrointestinal symptoms, headache, joint pain, lack of energy, muscle aches, chills and shortness of breath. Older people and those with poor lung capacity or compromised immune systems are more likely to die from the disease.

Read more about the Legionnaire's Disease outbreak at Virus Outbreak Comes To An End At Miami Luxury Hotel.

If you have a business legal matter, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for legal counsel.

SunTrust, the fourth-largest bank in Northeast Florida, received three and a half billion dollars in bailout funds from the federal government. The bank announced that in order to comply with the terms of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Standards for Compensation and Corporate Governance, it will freeze the salaries of all but one of its senior officers. The exempt officer is William H. Rogers Jr., who received a pay raise due to an increase in responsibilities.

As another part of the new compensation structure, the bank will not pay any cash bonuses to executives for 2009. The company also instituted a "clawback" policy, which would allow them to recover executive bonuses that were paid out on what later proved to be inaccurate financial statements. The bank's directors have approved the new compensation structure, which has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). SunTrust has thirty three local branches in Northeast Florida.

Other banks that received bailout funds from the federal government have filed similar compensation plans with the SEC. The changes in compensation were enacted in response to public outcry over the size of bonuses paid to executives in companies which accepted government funds after the financial collapse of 2008. Read more details of SunTrust's new executive compensation plan at To comply with TARP, SunTrust freezes salaries of most executives.

If you own a business in Jacksonville, Florida or Northern Florida, please contact Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A. for legal counsel.

If you use noncompete or confidentiality agreements in your course of business, make sure the employees properly fill them out. A detail as minor as a signature in the wrong place may invalidate your ability to keep your trade secrets secret.

Earlier this year, IBM initiated a lawsuit with David L. Johnson, a former executive, who became employed with Dell, one of IBM's competitors. IBM claimed that the ex-exec was in violation of a noncompetition agreement as well as an agreement to protect trade secrets. As the lawsuit was pending, IBM attempted to obtain a preliminary injunction to stop Johnson from "performing duties" at Dell. IBM suspected him of using valuable trade secrets in the course of his new employment, which would be a breach of duty to IBM. However, a U.S. District Judged denied the preliminary injunction. The denial came was due in part to the fact that the validity of the agreement was questionable because it was not properly signed. Although Johnson signed the document, he did not do so in the correct place.

For more information regarding noncompete and confidentiality agreements, get in touch with an attorney to discuss your options.

In light of a declining economy, courts are less likely to enforce noncompete agreements. Such agreements protect valuable training and trade secrets by preventing employees from competing with their former employers. They are not being enforced due to the interest in allowing people to work in such tough economic times. Despite the fact that noncompete agreements are seldom enforced, companies have other means of protecting their assets.

As an initial matter, a company will audit all of its proprietary information, assess the risks involved in losing such information, and determine how an employee might misappropriate it. Once the audit is complete, the company will employ a "comprehensive protection program," which is a combination of policies and restrictive covenants as well as a consistent enforcement scheme. Restrictive covenants differ from noncompete agreements in that they can be tailored to protect specific company assets. For example a "nonsolicitation agreement" prohibits an ex-employee from contacting the employer's clients. In this manner, the company will not lose clients when a key member of the sales staff defects to a competitor. Another example of a restrictive covenant is a "forfeiture agreement" wherein the employee's benefits from the company cease upon termination of employment. These instruments are advantageous because they offer the most protection with the least restriction.

For more information regarding alternatives to noncompete agreements, contact an attorney to explore your options.

In a recent court case, a Florida woman, identified only as Ms. Meyers, sued her former employer, Central Florida Investments (CFI), claiming that she was sexually harassed by the firm's CEO, David Siegel over a period of five years. During the time that she was allegedly being harassed by Mr. Siegel, he reportedly offered her boyfriend one million dollars in exchange for allowing Mr. Siegel to spend the night with Ms. Meyers.

Ms. Meyers further claimed that Mr. Siegel's harassment included inappropriate touching, whether they were alone together or if there were other employees present. When she complained to other executives, they did nothing to help her, and she was eventually fired in 2000. The jury in the case awarded Ms. Meyers one year's salary in compensatory damages ($102,223), and over five hundred thousand dollars in punitive damages against both Siegel and CFI. The decision was upheld as "reasonable" on appeal. Read more details of the case at Florida Employment Harassment Case "Out of a Bad Movie."

CFI executives' response to Ms. Meyers' allegations put their company at risk. So, what should have happened? Companies should establish a policy for handling complaints of sexual harassment and should ensure that the policy is enforced - from implementing a proper and immediate investigation through remedial action. The accused should be given sufficient detail about the complaint and provided an opportunity to respond. Confidentiality should be maintained to protect both the accuser and the accused from adverse workplace and personal consequences. Executives should ensure that any negative action toward the accuser is reviewed to ensure that it is not done (or could be perceived to be done) in retaliation for bringing the complaint. Employers should also consider whether the investigation should be handled by a qualified outside party to ensure fairness to the accused and the accuser as well as to provide evidence of the company's desire to handle claims of harassment in a fair and timely manner.

If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida or Orlando, Florida area and have been the subject of sexual harassment or are an executive with a company faced with a claim of sexual harassment, please contact our firm, Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A., for business legal counsel.

NASA chief Charles Bolden has announced that he will actively try to attract commercial space operators to Cape Canaveral. The so-called "space taxis" would be able to take advantage of the processing and launch facilities already in place in Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Bolden said his pitch to the commercial enterprises would be that they could save money and time by using existing infrastructure instead of building their own. He also indicated that NASA would help commercial operators modify existing infrastructure for their needs.

Kennedy Space Center director, Robert Cabana, has already said that NASA will begin upgrading its existing facilities in order to attract a private space company. The Constellation Moon project was originally slated to use the center's vehicle assembly building, hangars, and cargo bays, but the new budget constraints have prompted NASA to cut the program, leaving those assets unused. The same budget is allowing NASA to spend two billion dollars over five years to modernize the facilities.

The announcement may be good news for Florida workers employed at the space center, who were likely to lose their jobs when the space shuttle program is retired later this year. It will also be good for Florida's economy to attract large businesses to the area. Find out more about this story at Bolden: Florida should be home of private spaceflight.

If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida or Orlando, Florida area and have a business legal matter, please contact our firm, Wood, Atter & Wolf, P.A., for business legal counsel.

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is currently doing damage control after learning that one of its former computer programmers, Sergey Aleynikov, allegedly made off with highly sensitive computer code comprising Goldman Sachs' latest trading model. A trading model consists of a series of algorithms that temporally optimize risk. The model dictates investment strategy and transactions are made accordingly. This entire process is referred to as automated trading.

A trading model constitutes key intellectual property and enables investors to make moves more quickly than more traditional means. Automated trading has become more and more popular as it has yielded huge profits for investment banks. Higher levels of speed and volume confer a considerable competitive edge, so banks seek to create models that execute trades as quickly as possible. Million dollar transactions can take place less than a second!

What's surprising about Goldman Sachs' predicament is that the theft was allegedly perpetrated by a programmer, and not a high-level trader. In addition, Aleynikov is accused of stealing actual computer code as opposed to memorizing the platform and drafting a new, copycat version. This indicates that companies must identify potential leaks from every angle and take a variety of precautions.

I wonder if Goldman Sachs had confidentiality agreements with its employees. With rogue former employees like Aleynikov, it may not have made a difference, since he probably doesn't have the assets to compensate Goldman Sachs for their financial losses and business advantages. I also wonder if there were non-compete agreements in place, preventing former employees from running off to work for a competitor, or start their own business. Furthermore, I wonder how much of Goldman Sachs' information could have been protected under trade secret laws, where minimizing the exposure of these secrets to employees would offer them the best protection.

Are you a business whose assets are in intellectual property? Do you have special skills, customer lists, or processes you don't want your competitors to have? An intellectual property lawyer with a strong foundation in business law can help you cover all your bases!

Ever since he suffered an accident as a baby, Sam Genensky was classified as legally blind, having about 20/1000 vision in the only one of his eyes that worked. Despite this difficulty, Dr. Genensky became a pioneer of low vision improvement and designed a system called Randsight that magnifies text 31 times its original size and displays it on a video screen.

Dr. Genensky broke the chains of his poor eyesight and went on to graduate with honors from Brown University, earn a PhD in mathematics, and work as a mathematician for RAND Corp. for many years. It was during his time at RAND that he was able to make his stunning breakthrough.

Dr. Genensky's penchant for innovation started at an early age; in high school he altered a pair of his father's binoculars from World War I to help him read the blackboard in class. It's no wonder that he was able to create technology to help similarly-situated people. Dr. Genensky said that Randsight enabled him to read 130 words per minute!

I think it's simply amazing that a man with such a disadvantage was able to have more success than the average person with full capabilities. Dr. Genensky passed away on June 26th, 2009, but clearly has left a lasting legacy. Not only was he a brilliant inventor, he was a great inspiration!

What do you think of Dr. Genensky's accomplishments? Please post your comments!

The current proliferation of social-networking sites has been nothing short of astonishing! The two hottest sites at the moment, Facebook and Twitter, have 200+ million, and 12+ million users, respectively!

Facebook is a profile-based system, where users can post individual information, add friends, and communicate with them in a variety of ways. Twitter features the ability to tweet, which is an instant announcement to the world as to what you're up to, in 160 characters or less. Several Jacksonville businesses are capitalizing on Twitter's popularity and are utilizing the site to reach countless new customers by posting the latest, most up to date information regarding their products and services. Twitter may serve as an effective means for targeted advertising, particularly to younger clientele.

My advice for you professionals out there: don't mix business with pleasure! Sure, it's hilarious to show the world your candid camera moments at your brother's bachelor party, but your clients might not appreciate your rock star persona. At the same time, if all you tweet about is the N'th hour you have been slaving away at your desk, your social circle might start to look more like a pinhole.

The solution is to create two profiles: one for business, and one for pleasure. Compare the Facebook page I created for business, in addition to my original personal one. If you are so inclined, compare my business Twitter page with my personal page.

One of the keys to the popularity of these sites is free, virtually unrestricted access. This technology is not only burgeoning in the United States, but is veritably global. Media outlets like CNN are even relying on Twitter for breaking news!

It is vital for businesses to be adaptive and maximize their exposure through dynamic new technology. Customers cannot visit your business unless they know where to look! Where can I find you? Visit my Facebook and Twitter profiles, and leave me a note!

Caerus Institute of Open Innovation recently hosted a global summit on innovation, patents, and intellectual property. The event, "Intellectual Property Firestorm Meets Open Innovation 2.0", took place at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

The summit brought together leaders from the intellectual property sector and the engineering industry to focus on methods of maximizing the value of mid- to large sized businesses. Experts discussed topics such as open innovation in action, open innovation 2.0, and the implications for intellectual property quality and quantity goals for high tech companies. Attendees also had an opportunity to network at a social/mixer when the conference concluded.

Open Innovation refers to the new idea that businesses can be more profitable by sharing information. Today, businesses are beginning to incorporate outside research and inventions with their own internal research. This is different from the traditional "closed innovation" model where businesses generally kept research and development information secret until market release. For instance, one of the principles of open innovation is working with smart people both inside your company and outside your company.

Not all states see non-competition agreements through the same eyes. Here in Florida, as long as the agreement's restrictions are reasonable, the contract is enforceable.

Some states are much stricter. For example, Texas and Georgia courts make it very difficult to enforce covenants not to compete.

Most notably, California totally voids non-compete agreements between employers and employees, pursuant to Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 16600-16607.

If you need a non-compete agreement drafted, or if you have questions about an existing agreement, first check the terms of the contract to see if it mentions the state in which disputes are to be brought. If the contract is silent on that issue, contact an attorney in the state where the parties signed the agreement, or where the breach occurred.

Non-compete agreements (also called "non-competition agreements" or "covenants not to compete") are contracts wherein employers protect themselves from unfair competition, usually by former employees.

From my office in Jacksonville, Florida, there are times when a client will bring in one of these contracts, only to find out that the contract has to be enforced through the courts and laws of another state.

An excellent resource on where to begin when such an issue arises is to refer to Covenants Not To Compete, A State-by-State Survey (5th Ed.), Brian M. Malsberger, Ed. ABA Section of Labor & Employment Law (BNA Books 2006). Target.com writes a detailed description of the book.