Joseph Greenwald & Laake Blog

Maryland’s New Healthy Working Families Act: What Maryland Business Owners Need to Know.

Posted on Wed, 2018-01-31 13:11 by Jerry D Miller in Business Law

The Healthy Working Families Act is now the law in Maryland.

Maryland businesses with 15 or more employees are required to provide paid “sick and safe” leave at the rate of at least one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to a minimum of at least 40 hours of paid leave per year. Businesses with less than 15 employees are required to provide unpaid sick and safe leave that accrues at the same rate.

Employees eligible to receive sick and safe leave benefits are those 18 years and older who work at least 12 hours per week.

Please tell his mother I’m sorry

Posted on Fri, 2018-01-12 17:01 by Megan A. Benevento in

“Please tell his mother I’m sorry.” That sentence is contained in every phone call I have received about the Harbour School since filing our lawsuit on January 9, 2018 in Baltimore County Circuit Court on behalf of an 11-year-old autistic boy who was sexually abused there after his parents repeatedly asked the directors of the school to fulfill the

Divorce and Special-Needs Children

Posted on Fri, 2018-01-05 14:26 by David Bulitt in Divorce

I have been a divorce lawyer for more than 30 years. Over that period, I have represented many parents with special needs children. Maryland judges have also appointed me, on well over a hundred occasions, to represent children as a Best Interests Attorney. Many of those children have also had special needs. These cases can be extremely difficult matters to litigate, particularly when the children experience mental health issues, learning disabilities or behavioral difficulties. The symptomology of these often cannot easily be seen, explained or understood.

Can I Fund an IRA with my Alimony Payments?

Posted on Fri, 2017-12-08 11:55 by Reza Golesorkhi in

This may seem like a fairly obscure legal question, but questions along these lines have become fairly common. As divorces between working couples become more prevalent, so do the concerns of not just dividing marital assets, but also funds for retirement and what qualifies as income.

As a general rule, you can contribute to a regular IRA or a Roth IRA, if you have qualifying income. So what counts as qualifying income?

There are three categories of qualifying income:

Saving Children and Families from Opioid Addiction

Posted on Thu, 2017-11-02 13:04 by David Bulitt in

As both a family law practitioner and a parent who has a child with an opioid addiction, I have, for many years now, had a front row seat to the damage that drugs can do to a family. Some years ago, we would encounter opioid addiction in a divorce case only occasionally. However, as the scope of this epidemic has grown in Maryland, so has its prevalence in child custody, divorce and in other family law matters.

The Problem With Emojis

Posted on Tue, 2017-10-17 14:04 by Jay P. Holland in Labor Employment

We may not all know the term emoji, but we have all seen them or used them. Emojis are small digital images or icons used to express an idea or emotion onine. The term is only a couple of decades old and derives from the Japanese words e, a picture, and moji, a letter or character.

Make an Estate Plan, and Keep It Up to Date!

Posted on Thu, 2017-10-05 16:53 by Paul F. Riekhof in Trusts Estates

A recent survey shows that the majority of Americans do not have an estate plan – in the form of either a will or a living trust – in place. Among Americans 72 years old and above, 81 percent do have an estate plan, but 78 percent of millennials (ages 18-36), 64 percent of Generation X individuals (ages 37 to 52) and 40 percent of people between 53 and 71 years old do not have a will.

Expert Testimony is Changing in Maryland

Posted on Wed, 2017-10-04 10:45 by Matthew J. Focht in

Two recent rulings from Maryland’s highest court have clarified the legal sufficiency of the data underlying expert causation testimony in lead paint cases.

Maryland Court Expands Defenses Available to Battered Spouses

Posted on Mon, 2017-09-18 15:42 by David Bulitt in

On August 7, 2017, the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, handed down a decision that will open a new avenue of defense to battered spouses in the state – in the extreme case where the spouse hires a hit man to kill the abuser.

Federal Medical Malpractice Legislation: Still a Bad Idea

Posted on Tue, 2017-09-05 10:36 by Burt M. Kahn in Medical Malpractice

Early this summer, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill (H.R. 1215 the deceptively titled “Protecting Access to Care Act”) that would limit the “non-economic” money damages available to patients in medical malpractice cases nationwide to $250,000. This bill is a “solution” to something that is not a problem and would be harmful to tens of thousands of people who suffer serious injuries every year from mistakes by doctors, hospitals, pharmacists and other health-care providers.

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