The Library

For at least 110 years, Virginia has followed the at-will doctrine that employees working under an agreement that does not specify its duration or require cause for termination may be separated from employment simply by being given “reasonable notice.”[1]  An open question in recent years has been “what constitutes reasonable notice under this at-will rule?” On June 2, the Supreme Court of Virginia decided this issue. The case involved a claim by a long-term employee (17-year tenure) who was abruptly terminated without any advance notice. The former employee argued that she should have been given some reasonable period of advance notice before the […]

Finally, the much anticipated changes to DOL overtime regulations have been issued. Most significantly, the new overtime regulations will double the salary threshold effective December 1 and will be increased incrementally every three years. Here is the down and dirty on the new rules: Mercifully, the new regulations are not effective until December 1, which is at least longer than the 60-day period the DOL previously indicated.  The salary threshold is doubled to $47,476 per year or $913 per week. Currently, workers earning more than $23,660 per year are not eligible for overtime, if they also meet the various duties […]

Paul Klockenbrink contributes to the “Virginia Hospitality Law Blog” and is a frequent lecturer on employment law issues. A recent decision by a federal appeals court has sent minor, if not significant, shockwaves into the restaurant and hospitality industries that use tip pooling as part of their employees’ income. Under Section 203(m) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), restaurants and other hospitality industry employers are permitted to utilize a limited amount of employees’ tips as a credit against their minimum wage obligations by using tips as “wages.” This practice is known as taking a “tip credit.” An employer can pay […]

For many apartment dwellers, a deck or balcony is their version of a backyard — a place they can privately savor a sunny day or cool evening. Occupants and visitors alike should be able to enjoy a deck or balcony with confidence in its stability. Over the last twenty years, however, there has been a massive race to build structures which included decks and balconies. Unfortunately, many of those decks and balconies were not built to appropriate building codes or were negligently constructed using inferior products or inadequate nails/fasteners. In some cases, owners and managers of properties have failed to […]

What is due diligence? As an essential element of commercial transactions, due diligence is the process of investigating the target company or real estate prior to completion of the acquisition. For all forms of a business acquisition (or merger), the due diligence process will equip the buyer with additional knowledge, including but not limited to management, operation, financial perspective, structure, existing liabilities and contractual relationships, tax compliance, customer base, employees, and litigation or claims against the business. For real estate transactions, due diligence may include a review of the property’s title history, consideration of current and former uses and impacts […]