A non-compete agreement in Texas is enforceable if it meets all five requirements under Texas law: it is part of an otherwise enforceable agreement; there is valid consideration; reasonable in time; reasonable in geographic scope; and reasonable in activities restrained. If the non-compete agreement satisfies all four elements, then the answer to the question: “Is […]
Are non-compete agreements enforceable in Texas? Read More »
Legal terminology can be confusing for many reasons. There are Latin terms, words used with special legal meaning and terms that are not used in common discussion. If you believe you have a legal claim you may be in the process of determining what it would take to resolve your claim. Or you may have
Common legal terms in civil trials Read More »
The more information you know about your plan the better off you will be because your retirement plan account is very likely going to be one of your largest assets over the course of your life if not the largest. If you are new to saving for retirement or new to a plan this is a
Top Five Questions You Should Ask About Your 401k Plan (updated 2021) Read More »
EEOC lawyers have had a busy September starting and settling employment discrimination lawsuits. The EEOC accepts charges of employment discrimination in Fort Worth and Dallas at the Dallas, Texas office. Employment lawyers in Texas represent employees in these types of employment discrimination lawsuits. The following is just the listing of the EEOC activity reported in
EEOC employment lawyers busy this month on employment discrimination (2017) Read More »
Background checks are becoming an increasingly common part of the application process for major aspects of our lives including employment, housing, credit cards, college admissions and professional licensing. This continues to be true despite efforts of civil rights agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) to push back on the broad use of criminal
Super Lawyers is a division of Thompson Reuters, a private mass media and information business. People searching for lawyers or attorneys almost certainly will see law firms advertising Super Lawyers designations. These include Super Lawyers and Super Lawyers Rising Stars. People searching for lawyers may be impressed by this designation although they don’t really know
Super lawyers, rising stars, best lawyers and other attorney advertising in Texas Read More »
Dallas employment lawyers sometimes offer free consultations in their Dallas, Texas law firms. Most of the well-known employment attorneys in Dallas and Fort Worth do not offer free consultations. They may charge a fee of $75-300. Some lawyers offer free consultations but these may be personal injury lawyers or other trial attorneys who take on
Dallas employment attorneys with free consultations? Read More »
Employment discrimination claims under Texas and federal law often require sorting through a web of statutory and administrative requirements. Many employment laws overlap. A set of facts of a Texas employee may provide several claims for employment discrimination due to the overlap. Maneuvering the overlap and setting up an employee for the best employment discrimination
Differences between racial discrimination claims under Title VII and Section 1981 Read More »
Employees suffering employment discrimination often worry about the effects of reporting employment discrimination to the EEOC. This is especially true for employees who still work at the job where discrimination occurs. Retaliation for complaining about employment discrimination is a real and serious concern. This concern may lead workers to not contact the EEOC or an
Are EEOC complaints confidential in Texas? Read More »
Age discrimination is the new focus of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) this year according to the new acting chair of the EEOC, Victoria Lipnic. This is a surprising shift for the EEOC which targeted retaliation and novel issues over the past several years. This move towards age discrimination occurs with the fiftieth anniversary of the
Texas employees often question the relationship between severance pay and unemployment benefits through the Texas Workforce Commission. Workers often think if they accept severance pay they are automatically ineligible for unemployment benefits in Texas. That is incorrect. The terms of the severance agreement determine whether you can receive severance and unemployment pay in Texas. Basic
Severance and Texas unemployment benefits: Can I take both? Read More »
EEOC mediations and lawsuits often end in settlement of claims for employment discrimination in Texas, including wrongful termination. An important question for many employees filing employment discrimination claims with the EEOC is what they can expect in a settlement. Many employment discrimination complaints filed with the EEOC in Dallas settle either in mediation with the
EEOC mediation and lawsuit settlement amounts in Texas Read More »
Texas employees are generally fall within the overtime pay law under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) employees in Texas must receive 1.5 times the regular rate of pay for each hour of work in a workweek over forty hours, unless they qualify for a salary exemption or exception
Texas Overtime Pay Laws: When To Contact an Employment Lawyer Read More »
Texas employees have good reason to worry about how the polarized political climate may affect their jobs. Certainly changes in employment laws could have a meaningful change to employment in Texas. These could occur in changes to: civil rights protections for gay and transgender employees; minimum wage and overtime pay regulations; investment adviser fiduciary duties
Can I be fired for discussing politics at work? Read More »
Dallas residents may have discovered over the past several months a financial crisis in their city related to the Dallas Police and Firefighters Pension. Few people really understand pension funding and how pension funding created this billion dollar shortfall for the city. The local news media in Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas has done a fairly good
Dallas Police and Firefighters Pension Funding Crisis Read More »
QDROs are qualified domestic relations orders–a special court order used to divide retirement plans in a divorce or child support action. Often in a Texas divorce they divide 401k plans and pensions. Benefit laws and the Texas Family Code require QDROs to divide these plans. A major concern for people who divided retirement plans in
How much does a QDRO cost in Texas? Read More »
Courtroom and legal television is nearly as old as television itself, dating back to classic shows like Perry Mason–but how real are they? Not very real at all. The range of courtroom comedies, drama and “reality” shows over seventy years of television cover the entire range from editorializing real events to completely ridiculous fictionalized worlds.
Seven Ways Legal TV Shows Are Not Like Real Life Trials (and three they are) Read More »
Here’s a tricky situation: you follow a specific instruction from your manager or a company policy. Then your employer fires you. Can this happen for following orders? Unfortunately, in most cases the answer: yes. Seems bizarre–and it is–but this is the nature of the at-will employment relationship. In an at-will employment relationship the employer can discipline an employee,
Can my Texas employer fire me for doing what my manager told me to do? Read More »
If you are fired (aka discharged, terminated) from your job then one of your first acts in almost all cases should be to apply for unemployment benefits. Applying for unemployment benefits through the Texas Workforce Commission is free so even if denied benefits you have only lost the time applying. This is true even if
Just been fired? Apply for unemployment benefits in Texas Read More »
The past ten to fifteen years has given rise to a set of lawsuits against 401k plan administrators over excessive plan fees and revenue sharing agreements between plan administrators and recordkeepers. We are probably approaching the end of this wave of excessive fee litigation against for-profit employers for 401k plans. A new wave of excessive retirement
College Retirement Plans under Fire for Excessive Investment Fees Read More »