On September 27, 2010, President Obama signed the 2010 Small Business Jobs Act (the "Act") which includes a wide-ranging assortment of tax breaks and incentives for small business, paid for with various revenue raisers. Below is a brief overview of the tax breaks and incentives in the Act.

On March 1, 2011, the United States Supreme Court issued its unanimous decision in Staub v. Proctor Hospital

Under Minnesota law, work completed after a mortgage is granted and recorded can, in some situations, nonetheless give rise to a mechanic’s lien that has higher priority than the mortgage.

A recent ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has shed light on issues surrounding descriptive trademarks, with valuable lessons for organizations as they consider names of their products...

Do you think an employer could be liable if one of its employees, while driving and using a cell phone, causes an accident and injures another party?

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), children of employees can be covered under the parent’s group health plan until the child turns age 26.

Providers of online services have long struggled with claims being brought against them based on activities of the users of the service. The rules that have developed generally protect web site operators for claims arising in copyright and in tort such as libel.

The intellectual property community has been waiting over six months since the oral argument in "Bilski v. Kappos", No. 08-964, 2010 WL 2555192 (U.S. June 28, 2010) for a decision from the United States Supreme Court clarifying what is a patentable "process" under the Patent Act.

More and more frequently, employers are turning to outside agencies to conduct background checks regarding applicants’ criminal, credit, driving, educational, and work histories.

"Cartway" is an anachronistic term that invokes pastoral images of hay-laden oxcarts lumbering down country roads.

Given the current state of commercial real estate, it is understandable that an owner of an under performing building may be anxious to do whatever it takes to unload the asset, but sellers must take care to ensure that even in an "as is" sale, no exposure is created as a result of negligent or intentional misrepresentations or a failure to disclose a material condition of the building.

The Minnesota Supreme Court in Bahr v. Capella Univ., No. A08-1367 (Minn. Sept. 9, 2010), by a recent four-member majority opinion, rejected an employee’s retaliation claim based on the pleadings, in which she alleged that she was terminated after refusing to treat an African-American female employee more favorably than others under her supervision.

In the current economy, an increasing number of otherwise good customers are falling behind on their bills.

Larkin Hoffman is providing a four-part series on how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("PPACA") intends to make changes in the workforces of physicians, nurses, dentists, geriatrics, long-term care, Allied Health, and mental and behavioral health.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has decided two recent cases that will remove a layer of governmental review from zoning requests by property owners in the Lower St. Croix River valley.

Two years ago, the United States Supreme Court held that plaintiffs claiming age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA") must show by a preponderance of the evidence that age was the "but for" cause of the adverse employment action.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) released new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), which became effective June 1, 2025 and will impact franchisors, particularly those utilizing SBA-backed loan programs.

Larkin Hoffman is providing a four-part series on how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("PPACA") intends to make changes in the workforce of health care professionals.

Over the years, companies have developed alternative working arrangements with their workers. In one popular working arrangement, the company engages the services of an individual as an independent contractor rather than as an employee.

The big question on many people’s minds is where will the money come from to fund the deficit reduction and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the PPACA will cost $940 billion over the next 10 years.