New York Recent Legal Answers from Lawyers

Hi Barry, New York has very favorable anti-discrimination and hostile work environment laws. You need to start with a consultation, or rather your son does. He's an adult, so if he doesn't want to pursue it, you cannot force it. Likewise, he will be the client and needs privileged conversations with counsel to be in the driver's seat.  The prevailing legal burden in NY for hostile work environment is to prove the the employee was treated differently than other similarly situated employees because of a protected classification. NYS law also has lower disability thresholds than the ADA and protects virtually every diagnosible medical conditino or impairment. ... Read More

Hi Irene...I am sorry to hear what happened to you.  I would need to know more about the background to be able to answer your question.  Feel free to reach out to me at kkerner@kernerlaw.com or 212-964-1098 if you would like to discuss further.   Thank you.   Ken Kerner   ... Read More

Starting and working in your own separate business while on H-1B status is a violation of that status. It is not legal for you to work and bill for the work when you obtain your EAD. I do note that illegal work will not adversely affect you in the adjudication of a marriage based green card application to a US citizen. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

No one can legally buy your house without your knowledge, but they can steal it. Online title fraud is a thing.  If someone has made a demand in writing claiming they own your home, you need to find an attorney ASAP for a consultation. You can also head down to the County or Town Clerk's office and find a copy of your deed. You'll need the block and lot number off your title policy. The current deed recorded will show if someone forged your signature to transfer the property. ... Read More

No one can legally buy your house without your knowledge, but they can steal it. Online title fraud is a thing.  If someone has made a demand in writing claiming they own your home, you need to find an attorney ASAP for a consultation. You can also head down to the County or Town Clerk's office and find a copy of your deed. You'll need the block and lot number off your title policy. The current deed recorded will show if someone forged your signature to transfer the property. ... Read More

No one can legally buy your house without your knowledge, but they can steal it. Online title fraud is a thing.  If someone has made a demand in writing claiming they own your home, you need to find an attorney ASAP for a consultation. You can also head down to the County or Town Clerk's office and find a copy of your deed. You'll need the block and lot number off your title policy. The current deed recorded will show if someone forged your signature to transfer the property. ... Read More

The expiration of your tourist visa should not have any effect upon your ability to adjust status to the green card in the US. If you decide for some reason that you would like to consular process your case rather than adjust status, you would be barred from coming back for 10 years because of your having been illegal in the US for over one year. To adjust status, you would file Forms I-130 petition for alien relative, I-485 adjustment of status application, and if you wish to obtain employment authorization or advance parole to leave the US during the time of the adjustment application, Forms I-765 and I-131. Documents required would generally be proof of your spouse’s US citizenship, marriage certificate, proof of dissolutions of all prior unions of either one of you, your birth certificate, passport, and optionally (at the time of filing) proof of bona fide marriage and Form I-693 medical examination. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

Maybe. Our at will employment system doesn't require an employer to reveal the reasons for a terminatino or lay off, but they must comply with Union Collective Bargaining Agreements and statutory law. If you're not in a Union, that means the only protects you have are those the Legislature created under the WARN Act, anti-discrimination laws. and the Whistleblower protection laws. If you were the only person laid off, the WARN Act does not apply. That only applies to reductions in force that trigger the statute. If you did not engage in protected conduct, such as objecting to or complaining unsafe or illegal operations, payroll practices, harassment, or discrimination, there is not retaliation protection. That leaves protected classifications like race, age, disability, religion, sex/orientation/identity, uniform service status, marital status and things of that nature. If membership in a protected class partially motivated your lay-off, or a complaint to HR, or a dispute about illegal operations with your supervisor, preceded your lay-off, get a consult. If business is down and you've no basis to quesiont the motive, the law provides no recourse for legitimate operational decisions. ... Read More

If your company has an overseas office which you have been employed in for more than a certain amount of time, then you would be entitled to obtain an L visa and work as an intra-company transferee after you set up a satellite office here in the United States. You should discuss your immigration case with an attorney for further guidance. ... Read More

Congratulations! Less than 25% of filed complaints with the New York State Division of Human Rights receive a finding of probable cause. But that does not mean that you are home free or win. The actual reality is that most employment law or employment discrimination cases settle. The ones which eventually are lost are ones where the parties did not calculate or assess the actual damages correctly or did not present all of the necessary evidence such as witnesses or documents into the record at hearing. If your facts are strong you should retain an employment lawyer. That is because the Division or more accurately an administrative law judge now has the power to force an employer to pay the employee's own private attorney's fees. That only happens when the employee wins at a hearing. But attorneys' fees paid by the employer are not that common because strong cases settle. If a skilled lawyer argues the facts persuasively almost all cases settle. The main reason they don't is because one or both sides have not calculated damages correctly. That is one reason why some of us New York employment lawyers have made videos on YouTube explaining these issues. Employment Law Reality Check is a common problem for many of these complaints. We wish the damages were huge for every case but it takes strong facts and solid witnesses to obtain sizeable damage awards. The Division schedules pre-hearing settlement conferences and when both sides have lawyers providing an Employment Law Reality Check they often meet somewhere in the middle and resolve the matter. Mediation or conciliation is best. A hearing means the likely potential of losing or of having the decision or final order go up on appeal for years. A big reason to negotiate and settle is to avoid the appeals and stress of years of litigation. Call some employment lawyers who can invest the time into your claim. Division lawyers are great but they have hundreds of cases and only so many hours in a day. Also, they sometimes may not want to provide an employment law reality check. It's not their fault. They just have to follow the law and may not want to predict best or worst case scenarios not to upset you. Private lawyers don't have an issue upsetting their own clients because their own paychecks and livelihood depend on getting the best results for each client instead of serving all of New York's citizens and doing what's best for everyone. Those goals are similar bit not identical and neither goal is wrong.... Read More

You can definitely apply only for your father and not for your stepmother as you are petitioning under the immediate relative category, which does not allow dependents. For you to petition for your stepmother, you would have to file a separate petition. That being said, once your father immigrates to the US, he can file a separate petition under the F-2A category for spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21 of permanent residents and have his wife join him later in this country. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

Yes, of course. I'm working on a Third Department vaccine appeal presently. I dont follow your post, however. April 233 to perfect  your appeal? There's not notice of claim to the Appellate Division. The general timeline goes initial determination, request a hearing within 30 days, ALJ hearing, agency appeal within 30 days, Board Appeal, Notice of Appeal (Third Dept) within 30 days, then you perfect the appeal by filing your brief. The Notice of Appeal tells the Appellate Division what you are appealing and why. The brief expalins why the court should grant the appeal described in the Notice of Appeal. If you left something out of the Notice, you're generally screwed. I'm not sure where you are on that timeline or what you have told the Appellate Division.  There is a huge differnce between arguing against the application of a vaccine mandate and arguing the ALJ made a mistake by believing an employer who was, according to you, lying. All of that needs to be sorted. ... Read More

Greetings.  It appears you would like to know what to do if you have learned that you are a named defendant in a lawsuit, but have not yet been served with that lawsuit.  When a person knows, at any time, that they may be a named defendant in a lawsuit, they should immediately contact a good New York lawyer.  Why immediately?  Because the lawyer will be able to determine the seriousness of the lawsuit and properly plan and guide the client with next steps.  These may be to preserve information, memorialize witness statements, pre-emptively file certain documents, etc.  The lawyer will also be able to determine certain deadlines and ensure the client does not miss them.  It is unadvisable to take an ostrich in the sand approach when you know you are a named defendant.  Please contact a good New York lawyer as soon as possible.... Read More

Provided the employer is front loading your minimum mandatory sick leave under NYC and State law as of January 1, this will likely be legal. If they're not going to replenish your minimum sick leave, they can't force you to use it.  Unless the employees have a contract or union collective bargaining agreement, I'm not aware of any law that forces a small employer to conduct business.  If the employer has at least 50 employees, the reduction in force laws (New York State Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification or WARN Act) notices may apply to mass layoffs.... Read More

You can purchase a retroactive date for many types of liability insurance policies, but no insurer will retroactively cover a known exposure. When buying a retro date, you need to verify that that you have no known lossess or occurences. You can count on known lossess, claims or even occurences being excluded specifically from coverage. Find an attorney with insurance experience to address the particulars of your situation.... Read More

You can't find a lawyer to convert a NPC to an LLC directly because it can't be done. By law, the managers of the NPC do not own its assets. To accomplish your objective, you need to prepare and adopt a Plan of Dissolution and Distribution of Assets, which has to be approved by the AG. To do that, you'll likely need counsel to assess your charter and assets. If you're holding assets in trust, you they have to be distributed accordingly.... Read More

It would be advisable to have an assignment agreement in writing. An assignment agreement is created to transfer all copyright interest to another. If you don't do this, at least you should have a work for hire a agreement, so that it serves as evidence of copyright ownership.  DISCLAIMER. This is not legal advice. ... Read More

It appears that you have the necessary residence in the US (five years with at least two of which were after the age of 14) to transmit US citizenship to your legitimate children. You should make an application to the consulate or embassy on form DS-2029 Application for Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a US citizen child. For your wife, you would have to file an I-130 relative petition for her, have that approved, and she would ultimately interview for an immigrant visa at the American consulate or embassy having jurisdiction in the home country to issue immigrant visas. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More

At the very least, a H-1B transfer to another employer if approvable can be approved up to the end of June 2026 if the employer agrees to sponsor up to that period of time. H-1B visa status is generally good for a maximum of six years. You can probably get the entire three years by showing that you have a valid I-140 petition approval which has not been revoked and in which the priority date has not long passed your country’s availability date. If not through that method, you can also get the full three years by showing that you were out of the US for the period of time that you mentioned since time spent outside the United States while under H-1B visa status can be recaptured. Due to the limitations of the Lawyers.com Forums, Alan Lee & Arthur Lee, Esqs.’ (the "Firm") participation in responding to questions posted herein does not constitute legal advice, nor legal representation of the person or entity posting a question. No Attorney/Client relationship is or shall be construed to be created hereby. The information provided herein by the Firm is general, and requires that the poster obtain specific legal advice from an attorney. The poster shall not rely upon the information provided herein as legal advice nor as the basis for making any decisions of legal consequence.... Read More