But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. – Genesis 19:26, English Standard Version We’ve talked a fair bit about risk management in matters of employment, contracting, baseball, and insurance. We’ve talked about communication, getting buy-in from stakeholders, properly training and vetting employees, and checking our assumptions. We’ve harped on ounces of prevention and on measuring twice. You’ve probably got the point by now. But sometimes we get a bit too … academic. So… Read More

Tis the season…when it seems like all our co-workers have the flu, colds, and coughs. While this is nothing new, and we all have learned to live with it, the individual and national costs of sick employees are staggering. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the flu alone killed up to 80,000 people in 2017. Though, perhaps nothing showed us the impact of illness on the workplace more than COVID, and while the impact seen with COVID… Read More

Both Maryland and Virginia have codified their positions relating to personal injury caused by a dog (or sometimes another animal). The respective relevant statutes permit municipalities within each state to enact regulations governing their specific locality. Often called “leash laws,” the statutes, and their corresponding regulations, place strict liability upon a dog owner when the dog is “running at large” and causes injury to another person or to property. The phrase “running at large” seems to imply that a dog… Read More

Mr. Stephen Setliff, partner and owner of Setliff Law, was appointed General Counsel to the Southeastern Wood Producers Association, Inc. (SWPA) at their October Board of Directors Meeting. Mr. Setliff, who has been active with the SWPA for several years, says the appointment is an opportunity for him to serve as a resource for members on a wide array of legal issues, including business formation, governmental investigations and compliance, labor and employment law, intellectual property, commercial transactions, and of course,… Read More

If you didn’t see the news recently, the family at the center of the 2009 movie (based on a 2006 bestselling book), “The Blind Side,” has been sued because of a legal maneuver allegedly pulled 20 years ago. The story involves a then-16-year-old impoverished Michael Oher who believed he was being adopted into the wealthy Tuohy family. An adoption creates a parent-child relationship; the lawsuit suggests what really occurred was quite different. Rather than adopting Oher, Leigh Anne and Sean… Read More

Addressing an employee who has been cleared for duty can be tricky. One of the first issues that must be addressed is how “cleared” are they? An employee who was injured on the job may be declared to be able to return to work “with restrictions.” These restrictions can be minor or major impediments to returning to work. In some situations, the restrictions may completely render them unable to return to work at all (for you). In this situation you… Read More

MARYLAND – “Yes,” But Not Preferred A landlord may evict a non-paying tenant by initiating a failure to pay rent action in the District Court of the county where the property is located. This procedure, known as “summary ejectment,” is the statutory remedy available to all landlords when a tenant defaults in its payment of rent under a lease. Commercial landlords may also avail themselves of self-help actions to reacquire their property, and there is well-established case law supporting this… Read More

There exists a fifty-square-mile slice of this great country in which, arguably at least, a quirk of jurisdictional jurisprudence prevents any person from being convicted of any crime. The “Zone of Death,” as it was described by Michigan State University College of Law Professor Brian C. Kalt, lies in the southwestern corner of Yellowstone National Park where it crosses from Wyoming into Idaho. There the lethal legal loophole arises from three intersecting considerations: As the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction… Read More