Lafayette Legal Blog

As an employer, you bear an important responsibility to provide sufficient workers' compensation coverage to your employees. Ideally, this coverage provides for their needs when they suffer job-related injuries while shielding you from lengthy, costly lawsuits. Unfortunately, many workers' compensation claims are not legitimate, and seek compensation that the substance of the claim does not justify.

If you suspect that an employee filed a claim that does not hold up to scrutiny, you may have grounds to challenge the claim, ensuring that you don't shoulder unnecessary costs that may harm your business as a whole.

Coming up with a custody arrangement that can please both parents is never easy. It's likely that one of you will be unhappy with the arrangement unless you can agree to something outside of court. Once you head to court, it's up to the judge to make the final decision after hearing both sides. Once the arrangement is approved, it's time to help your children adjust.

The first thing you should do is help them decorate their bedroom in both homes just like it was decorated in the family home prior to the divorce. This will provide them with establishing some sort of familiarity and comfort. It can also help them get used to the situation a lot quicker.

If you are planning on starting a business in Louisiana, there are plenty of options available for you when it comes to the formation process. It's best that you research all of your options and how they would benefit or hurt your potential business before coming to a decision. This is a legal process that will also affect your taxes, so be sure you choose properly.

The business formation options available for you in Louisiana are as follows:

• Corporation
• Sole proprietorship
• Limited liability company
• Partnership
• Limited liability partnership

If you have signed a contract for employment, have read employment law or have read employment posters hung in the workplace, you have likely come across the word ERISA. You might be wondering what ERISA stands for and why it is so important. ERISA is short for the Employment Retirement Income Security Act, which was passed in 1974. Let's take a deeper look at ERISA in today's post.

The law was created to protect individuals who are enrolled in various health and pension plans in the private industries across the country. The law set the minimum standards for these pension and health plans that are voluntarily created by employers. ERISA requires the following of employers:

• Sets the minimum standards for employees to participate
• Provide employees with plan information regarding funding and features
• Information about vesting
• Information about how benefits accrue
• Establish a plan for individuals to file grievances and appeals
• Allows participants the right to sue for breach of fiduciary duty and for benefits
• Created the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
• Names the fiduciary duties for those who are responsible for managing these benefit and pension plans