Criminal Expungement Rights Expanded

For years, Indiana has allowed certain arrest and juvenile records to be expunged.  Expungement is the act of causing certain information to be removed or limited from a government record.  Recently, the General Assembly enacted legislation extending the potential to expunge certain criminal convictions, rather than just arrests.  One of the effects of this new law is to allow more employment opportunities to those with prior convictions.Continue reading

Minimum Distributions Back for 2010

When retirement plans suffered big losses in 2008, Congress enacted a one‑year moratorium, for 2009, on the requirement that retirees over the age of 70‑1/2 withdraw a certain amount from their individual retirement and 401(k) accounts. Since the distributions are subject to taxation, retirees could avoid the taxman in 2009 by not having to take the usual minimum distributions, not to mention avoiding the investment mistake of “buying high and selling low.”Continue reading

Overtime Pay Update

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers must pay an employee an overtime rate of at least one and one‑half times the regular pay rate for any hours in excess of 40 hours a week. There are exemptions from this requirement for several types of employees, including employees in executive, administrative, or professional capacities.Continue reading

E-mailed documents allowed

Shortly before he left the employment of a residential treatment center for addicted persons, an employee e‑mailed some of his employer’s documents to his and his wife’s personal e‑mail accounts. The employee operated two consulting businesses of his own concerning addiction rehabilitation services. The employer’s documents, including its financial statement and the names of past and current patients at the center, could have been useful to those businesses.Continue reading