New York Recent Legal Answers from Lawyers

You'll have to wait until after you get an appointment with a specialist.  The DMV wants to make sure that you do not suffer from a medical condition that causes you to suddenly fall asleep (or lose consciousness) at the wheel. Best regards, Jonathan R. Ratchik, Esq. Kramer, Dunleavy & Ratchik, PLLC 61 Broadway, Suite 2220 New York, NY  10006 (212) 226-6662 www.kdrpilawyers.com  ... Read More

Objective observations of articulable symptoms of impairment. Just smelling is not enough. Just observing bloodshot eyes is not enough. It really depends on how he or others observed you performing your duties. And maybe your supervisor only noticed you make an error or mistake and required a drug test. An employer is unlikely to argue smell prompted testing. Your best test of whether you did not commit gross negligence will probably be when you apply for unemployment. Almost anyone qualifies for unemployment in New York so if you are denied that will speak volumes about any potential discrimination claim which you have not referenced. Employers can and do make mistakes and unless they discriminate by doing so, what's the cause of action?  You might be protected if you were once addicted to drugs or alcohol, were in rehabilitation and no longer abused drugs or alcohol, and you were fired. Or maybe your supervisor thought you were under the influence, sent you for testing based solely on his smelling marijuana, and your test produced a false positive, and your performance was not impaired with or without testing, you might have a claim. You state that you used to do the night time shift with him and it wasn't an issue because almost everybody smokes weed. Assuming that was before marijuana legalization how would that help? Employers can change policies or change how they enforce policies as long as everyone is treated similarly. If you were driving 85 mph down the interstate and were pulled over could you argue that 10 cars just passed you going more that 85 so the cop should have pulled them or everyone over? You drove the car a cop thought "I have enough on this guy to uphold a ticket" and only you were pulled over, so how does that argument work? When everyone violates a presumed policy against impairment at work everyone has to work without fault to avoid discipline, erst the first person who is observed performing below "standards" may lose their job even when others unseen performed worse. The employee must have facts which support a plausible theory of discrimination. Having your manager know you smoke weed anywhere is never a good thing, legal or not. Sharing personal information at work often causes bad outcomes. See this link: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/nysdol-issues-guidance-regarding-the-9960323/ ... Read More

Maybe. It's tough to say for sure. Any time you have a situation where an employee is not following a manager's instruction the manager should follow the procedure in the employer's handbook or employee policies. Often that involves a verbal or written notice, suspension, possibly termination. If you verbally warned the employee, maybe writing them up would have been the next step. Most employers are not excited about calling the police unless it looks like safety is an issue. A guess would be that this employee might have a history of being problematic. Some employees need to be removed or suspended when it looks like they might get out of control. It's hard to say whether you should have called the police first. The employer may allege that you did not follow its policies or the handbook. It looks like you may have acted reasonably but that might not support discrimination. You know the hardest part of our jobs? Tellling employees that: 1) If they have no written employment agreement like a union contract or a private employment contract AND 2) The terminated employee has no facts to support a plausible (not just a guess or a hunch) theory of discrimination, unless is unpaid wages, we often cannot help. Courts are not super personnel boards. That means that a court will not come in and tell a poorly managed company how to run its business. Sometimes a company has no idea who was at fault and it just fires everyone. That's not necessarily illegal unless an employee has evidence of some form of discrimination against recovering addicts, persons with disabiliites, or other protected classes of employees. You should recover unemployment benefits unless you committed gross misconduct. If you touched the employee first, even if he taunted you to do so, that might be gross misconduct and benefits recovery questionable. Keep looking for another job. All employees have duties to mitigate or find new work and you are in an industry that needs skilled managers and employees.... Read More

You can file for a replacement card by filling out an address change if you have not received it in the mail. If you have been married for more than two years at the time of the consular interview then it's likely you received the permanent card. If you received the temporary 2 year card then it's going to be challenging to remove the conditions to get the permanent card when it expires. Retain counsel for representation. ... Read More

The status check information is unofficial and, in your case, obviously confusing. If you properly appealed the denial, you will receive a decision in writing. I suggest that you wait for it. 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

Andrew M. Jaffe Attorney at Law 2375 Covington Rd, Suite 315 Fairlawn, Ohio 44313-4358 (330) 983-4842 attorneyjaffe@aol.com www.LawyerJaffe.com  I do not see a problem with continuing your normal processes for your page and continuing to log-in   You mentioned that it was a business page.  That implies that you have ongoing relationships with customers - As well as the others who have the right to sign in.   You may want to consider an agreement between those who sign and are still active in the business to create a contract that clearly relates your relationships and how the business is to be run.   You may want to discuss your situation with a lawyer in more detail. Many lawyers, including myself, offer a free phone consultation.... Read More

There is no companion visa that you can sponsor someone for. The only real possibility of her coming here is either through a fiancée visa or a spousal visa. You should retain counsel to assist you sponsoring her for her green card either through a fiancé or through spousal visa.   ... Read More

Maybe. But not for the reasons you mentioned. If a colleague / co-worker discriminates against you or causes you to suffer adverse terms, conditions of employment then you may have a claim against both the employee and your employer. Think Title VII, because of race, religion, national origin, color, sex, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, age, and more. A hostile workplace, more than petty slights or trivial inconveniences, may be actionable across New York State. But you will likely want to work with an employment lawyer and may have to gather evidence to support such a claim. We rarely if ever suggest that anyone resign. Quitting is a last resort and almost never suggested. Work with an employment lawyer. Some of us work with clients or potential clients for a couple years to gather evidence and try to help the employee stay on the job while gathering evidence. Employees who hang in there, record information, and truly endure hostile, sometimes abusive workplaces, can recover respectable damages. Call some employment lawyers before you take it on yourself. Never easy claims.... Read More

No one can force you to sign anything. But without a contract or policy severance is not required of any employer. So if your employer pays you lawful consideration, which can be almost anything, you may be giving up rights to challenge agreements which otherwise might not be enforceable. No lawyer can advise you on noncompetition provisions without knowing much more about what you do, who you do it for, and by reviewing the terms of the agreement you might sign. One thing that is almost certain is that in most cases employees have 7 days to rescind or revoke a signed agreement. In most cases employees have 21 days to review severance provisions, at least in New York, plus another 7 days to decide not to accept the terms. Your best option would be to pay an employment lawyer to review the agreement before you sign it. Today, many of us do so for flat rates and we do that for clients statewide. Seeing a lawyer in person is becoming more rare for many of us. Good luck. Retain an employment lawyer is your best option before signing. ... Read More

Sometimes, not often (and maybe never in NY; I have seen it once or twice in other jurisdictions) buyers and sellers use the same attorney.  In my opinion, both the parties and the attorneys are out of their minds to do so.  Maybe you can do that if the buyers and sellers are close family members and there are no issues, but if you need an attorney at all, you need your own,not one trying to represent conflicting interests.... Read More

For the month of October 2021, the F4 category for sponsored siblings of US citizens is available for immigration visas for those who filed before March 22, 2007 for all countries of the world except for India, Mexico, and Philippines natives who must wait longer. If born in all other countries, the waiting time is thus 14 years currently. 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

In applying for a discretionary visa like J-1, there are generally no guarantees that the visa will be issued by the consulate or embassy. Although your wife is not the direct beneficiary of the I-140 petition, she may be asked whether you have filed any immigration petitions. A good factor for your wife to point to if such comes up is that you have elected consular processing instead of an adjustment of status application. On the question of an impact to the immigration visa process, your wife’s applying for the J-1 visa would not impact it as long as she does not make any misrepresentations on form or speech before the consular officer. Under recent guidance, a dependent family member does not have to state on the nonimmigrant visa form that he or she has applied for a visa petition. You have indicated the better strategy if deciding to apply for the J-1 visa to make the application first and then continue paying the IVP fees and completing the DS-260 form. 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

Your sister can apply for you while you are here in the States, but her petition does not give you any rights to stay in the country while your case for immigration is pending. For the month of October 2021, the F-4 category for sponsored siblings of US citizens is available for immigration visas for those who filed before March 22, 2007 for all countries of the world except for India, Mexico, and Philippines natives who must wait longer. If born in all other countries, the waiting time is thus 14 years currently. 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

Practically speaking, it would not appear to make much consequential difference as to what you do vis-à-vis your work where USCIS has already approved your I-485 adjustment of status application. If the unofficial online notice is correct, you should receive the official notice and green card shortly thereafter. The date should coincide with the unofficial online notice date. Technically speaking, however, employment authorization on the green card does not begin until you receive the green card itself. Your C9 card which I understand that you did not use is expiring next week, so you are authorized to work under that until next week. You have said that your OPT is expiring in 2022. So if you have not yet received the green card, you should technically be able to continue work on your OPT until you actually receive the physical green card. I do not believe that this is a fish or fowl situation. Interesting question. 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

If the tenant has no lease, you are best off terminating the tenant. Depending on the length of time that the tenant has been in occupancy, you will either have to serve a 30, 60 or 90 day notice of termination. Once the notice expires you can start a holover eviction action to remove the tenant and collect the rental arrears owed to you.... Read More

Whenever a government regulation or policy impacts a suspect class like race or a fundamental right, like marriage,  it is subjected to the strict scrutiny test in court which means that the government has the burden of proving that the regulation is necessary to achieve a compelling state policy objective. However whenever a government regulation impacts or discriminates based on the category of age, The burden of proof to uphold the Constitutionality of that law is the rational basis test, which only requires proof that the regulation is Rationally related to achieve any legitimate state purpose. Because children have a much lower incidence to contract Covid and if they contract Covid, they have a far higher recovery rate than an adult, the regulation would pass the rational basis test because the age discrimination is rationally relate to Protect both children and adults from the virus. But because children have more of a natural immunity from the virus than adults it isn't necessary for them to have a vaccine. Accordingly, The court would most likely uphold the law even though it discriminate based on age, because it is rationally related to the legitimate purpose as discussed above.... Read More

An 8 point violation can have a significant impact on your insurance, and there will likely be a high fine included with it. You don't mention where you got the ticket, but if you got it outside of NYC then you may be able to have your attorney negotiate with the prosecutor to reduce your violation to a lesser violation which will include less points, fine, etc. If it was in NYC please be aware that NYC Traffic Violations Bureau does not negotiate pleas. Instead, you can have your lawyer fight the ticket for you there at your traffic court trial. As far as how this will impact your parent's insurance, you will have to speak with the insurance company to look at your policy. With that being said it seems like you were covered by the policy at the time of the violation, and either way you were driving the vehicle so I suspect that it will have some impact on the insurance premium.    I hope this information is helpful. ... Read More

In looking over our cases since the beginning of the year (which we do not separate by service center), only one employment authorization application based on adjustment of status has been approved. Nebraska has a posted EAD processing time of between 7.5 –9 months. 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

First of all, it sounds like you're talking about someone that you only met online, so I will assume that for the purposes of my response. The short answer is No, you cannot be arrested for denying someone access to nude photos of yourself. Quite frankly it sounds like the person you are speaking to may be pretending to be "his friend" in order to give you a hard time. I suspect their next course of action may be to say they won't go to the police if you do in fact send them photographs. I can't stress this enough, but you have no obligation to provide someone with naked photos of yourself. Additionally, it does not sound like you harassed the person you were speaking to, or promoted a suicide (PL 120.30) which effectively means helped someone commit suicide. These would be criminal offenses.    With that being said, if you do find a legitimate police officer contacting you, your best course of action would be to contact a Criminal Defense Attorney immediately. If the police contact you, be aware that you have the right to have an attorney present during any conversation with police, and their questioning of you should cease as soon as you let them know that you want an attorney present. I hope this is helpful.    This information is for general informational purposes only, and is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship. This information should not be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. Legal jurisdictions often differ on major and minor aspects of the law, and each legal situation is unique; requiring that all legal situations be addressed with competent legal counsel. My practice is based in New York, and the law of other jurisdictions may differ.... Read More

I'm not sure whether you're saying you were cited for VTL 511 or VTL 509.1. Generally speaking officers can use discretion if they cited you for a VTL 509.1 infraction and may even use discretion if they cited you for VTL 511 which is a misdemeanor offense. There are a number of defenses to both of this infractions that a criminal defense attorney could assist you with. With that being said, an argument where you confirm you were driving the vehicle while unlicensed, but the officer let you drive away, is not one that is going to assist you with your defense. Whether the officer let you drive away MAY call into question his credibility or the fact that he may have been unsure if you were in fact unlicensed. However, what the prosecution needs to prove in a VTL 511 or VTL 509.1 case is that you were in fact operating a motor vehicle, and that you were doing so with a suspended/revoked license (VTL 511) or while you were not licensed to operate a motor vehicle (VTL 509.1). I hope this information is helpful.     This information is for general informational purposes only, and is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship. This information should not be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. Legal jurisdictions often differ on major and minor aspects of the law, and each legal situation is unique; requiring that all legal situations be addressed with competent legal counsel. My practice is based in New York, and the law of other jurisdictions may differ.... Read More

As far as whether or not he should take the plea - your best bet is going to be to speak with your Criminal Defense attorney regarding that. You should also consult with an immigration attorney as well, so that they can assess the specifics of your husband's situation to determine how the disorderly conduct would impact his immigration status. There's a number of things that can factor into this, including a potential order of protection, whether he has criminal history, what his immigration status is (LPR or undocumented) etc.    With that being said, as far as some general information - misdemeanor assault (assault in the third degree) is a class "A" misdemeanor offense and can subject your husband to up to to a year in jail, as well as three years probation. Disorderly conduct on the other hand is a violation with a maximum penalty of 15 days in jail. Obviously the disorderly conduct is significantly less serious than the misdemeanor charge both from a Criminal and Immigration standpoint. With that being said, you can ask your defense attorney whether an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal is possible - if they're offering a disorderly conduct they may consider offering an ACD which essentially would adjourn his case for six months (on a non-family case) or a year (on a family case) and at the end it would be dismissed and sealed as if it never happened. With that being said, in certain circumstances, such as if he has an immigration hearing coming up during that ACD period, he may be better off with the disorderly conduct - again it all depends on his specific circumstances so your best bet is going to be to contact an Immigration lawyer and go over the specifics with them. I hope this information was helpful though. ... Read More