Montana Business Legal Questions

What does your agreement with direct tv say?  Does it authorize direct tv to take fees directly from your credit card?  If so, it can do so; direct tv is not a party to, and is therefore not bound by, your agreement with the cable company.  Presumably, if the cable company agreed to pay the early termination fee, it will reimburse you for the amount paid from your credit card.... Read More

They're allowed to ask, but unless your contract requires you to reveal this information, they must pay the contract price without having such information disclosed to them. In other words, if they have not contracted for revelation of your profit, it is a breach of their contract for them to attempt to condition their payment on provision of the requested information. Of course, if they don't pay you, you'll end up having to sue them, and the amount of your profit will come out during the course of discovery. Moreover, whatever profit you have (or don't have) will be reduced by the cost of litigation. So, ultimately you will want to think about what is the best and quickest course to getting paid. It may simply be that revealing your profit is the best business judgment, even if you have no duty to do so.... Read More

Federal labor laws apply to this situation; Montana state law is less restrictive. As a general matter, an employee who is on call whether by beeper or proximity to a telephone; who is required to be able to report for duty in a sober state within a reasonable response period (e.g. 20-30 minutes); who is not called so frequently as to significantly interfere with personal use of the time; and who is given periodic relief from on-call duty, will not have to be compensated for on-call time. Since you are compensated, and likely at a rate in excess of the minimum wage, it sounds as if your employer has thought this program through with the advice of counsel. It is not clear what you mean by "personal time is greatly affected." These determinations are extremely fact-intensive, so you will need to go over the details with an attorney to discuss whether you may be entitled to any relief.... Read More