New York Recent Legal Answers from Lawyers

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 Answer

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 Answer

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 Answer

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 Answer

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 Answer

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 Answer

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 Answer

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 Answer

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 Answer

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 Answer

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 Answer

In the first place you need to understand that one thing is the expiration of your visa and another is your authorization to stay in the US. Usually B1/B2 holders receive a 6 months authorization. Additionally, you would need an employer sponsor. H1B visas are subject to a lottery. Finally, there maybe other options like doing some study first. ... Read Answer

You cannot handle this without spending money. You need a lawyer. If your website is ADA compliant and you refuse to settle out of principle, you must pay to defend yourself. If you'd rather make a cost-benefit decision to pay the nuisance plaintiff to go away an amount less than it will take to defend yourself, it'll be quick but there will still be money involved. Your representatives wrote these laws and they can fix them. Until they do, this a cost of doing business.... Read Answer

Yes, you have a case. That's wage theft. It's completely illegal. You're entitled to the wages worked and liquidated damages, meaning the employer will probably have to pay double. Lawyer up and educate yourself. The NYS Department of Labor has resources available including agency complaints. https://dol.ny.gov/unpaidwithheld-wages-and-wage-supplements... Read Answer

Could you have performed "physical labor instead of my administrative duties as shift leader"? If not, why not? Do you suffer with some physical condition or limitation in performing physical labor? Did your employer know of such limitations? If yes, have you signed any contracts or agreements in the past 7 days which you might be able to rescind or take back? Have you discussed any of these facts with labor and employment lawyers? Will you keep looking for work and continue to work? Have you applied for unemployment benefits? Did the employer know that you were considering retiring or had you shared that you wanted to retire? There are way too many questions which an employment lawyer might ask you. But being forced out, what we call constructively discharged, has a very specific legal meaning. And what you told your employer and what they knew about you is key. None of these claims are straight forward or easy. But they all depend on the specific facts of the potential client. And the only way to flush them out is to speak with an experienced labor and employment lawyer. In today's remote world there are many competent employment lawyers across New York State and some will even talk with you no charge. Good luck.... Read Answer

Not legal advice but Unclean Hands Doctrine applies to most employment matters. If an employee has done something unlawful, for example taking property / money which does not belong to them, misrepresented material facts on an employment application (i.e. including relevant training, education or experience which the employee knows to be false but represents as true), or committing some other relevant and material act which calls into question whether the employee is trustworthy with essential job duties which include collecting money it's often a problem. There are exceptions, such as being paid below minimum wage, but those are very limited and require a careful analysis of the specific facts of each situation. In your case, you admit that you were not entitled to the money and no other allegations point to wrongdoing or unlawful pay practices by that employer. New York has many unique to New York Labor Laws. The food industry includes many practices which may rise to being unlawful. Reaching out to a labor and employment lawyer might be a good idea. They will need to collect more information about the details of how you were paid, your pay history, the agreement you and your employer made, and the actual hours you regularly worked. If other pay laws were not followed by the employer a demand letter might be an option but your "stealing" admission will not disappear. If everyone on the interstate was driving 90 mph but you were the only one pulled over by the state police would your carelessness be excused? Probably not right?... Read Answer

Yes. Employees diagnosed with such conditions can still request (and are entitled to) reasonable accomodations. Employers in NY State must engage in an good-faith dialogue to provide a reasonable accomodation and can only reject accomodation when it creates an undue hardship. Work with your physician to assess what types of accomodations may be appropriate. A word of caution, the brief information you shared sounds more like a ruse than good-faith business necessity. Such a dramatic change in the personnel managment can correleate to age discrimination. The more senior an employee, generally the more they are earning, the more benefits, etc. By increasing the pressure and driving them out for performance, they can be replaced with cheaper and younger cogs. So get a consultation as well with an emploment attorney. Know your rights and work with your physician to discuss how to continue in what may be a hostile work environment. ... Read Answer

Depending the status of your position (at-will free market, union, civil service), managment can generally change your shift, subject to whatever contractual or union protections rights you may have to a particular shift (non-union at-will positions generally have none).  But under no circumstances can the employer dock your earned pay for not picking up extra shift or declining voluntary work.... Read Answer