Are You an Employee or an Independent Contractor?

Written by Editorial Team on February 24, 2025. Posted in Employment Law, Latest from Scocco Law. No Comments on Are You an Employee or an Independent Contractor?

Let’s start with an example. Suppose Mrs. Johnson next door hires you to help her paint her fence. She asks if you are available, you tell her a quote and how long you think it will take, and she agrees. You purchase the paint, the brushes, the drop cloths, and everything else that you’ll need. She doesn’t mind when you come to work, so long as the job gets done. Moreover, Mrs. Johnson does not really care how you do the job. If you want to buy an expensive piece of machinery to get the work done quickly? You can do that! If you want to subcontract 3 buddies to make the work go...

AI Assisted Fraud: Approaching the Scammer Singularity

Written by Editorial Team on February 10, 2025. Posted in Consumer Protection, Latest from Scocco Law. No Comments on AI Assisted Fraud: Approaching the Scammer Singularity

Fraud is a practice that has constantly evolved with the times. New forms of communicationinevitably become new mediums for fraudsters to scam people out of money and valuables.Like an arms race, as new methods of fraud are developed, so too are new methods ofdetection and prevention. Artificial Intelligence (AI) represents a new paradigm for fraud. While technology enables newways to commit and avoid fraud, it ultimately comes down to influencing a person to dosomething not in their best interest, and the ultimate weapon for fraudsters remains socialengineering. Social engineering...

It’s Bonus Time…Right?

Written by Editorial Team on January 27, 2025. Posted in Employment Law, Latest from Scocco Law. No Comments on It’s Bonus Time…Right?

As we look towards the start of the New Year, most employees’ minds are turning to one thing and one thing only. Unfortunately for you, it’s not the company’s Q1 strategy, or the plans for growth in the coming months. In their minds, it’s bonus time. While companies at one time were known for giving employees a small token holiday bonus, for most employers today the bonus has become an integral part of compensation. Most are awarded in the first few months of the new year and are based upon a combination of the employee’s performance, and the company’s performance, in the...

How to Start Your Year off Right

Written by Editorial Team on January 13, 2025. Posted in Employment Law, Latest from Scocco Law. No Comments on How to Start Your Year off Right

A new year inevitably brings new opportunities. Businesses grow, strategic plans are implemented, and prospects are hopefully converting to clients and customers. You’ve set out goals for 2025, and now you’re firmly putting the plans in place to reach those goals. Unfortunately, the reality as an employer is that it’s often the things that you miss that can become your unexpected expenses. You may think that you still have all of your employment law pieces sorted out from when you started the business. Much like your business, though, the law also grows and changes over time. The...

What Should Your Exit Packages Look Like

Written by Editorial Team on December 30, 2024. Posted in Employment Law, Latest from Scocco Law. No Comments on What Should Your Exit Packages Look Like

Employment terminations can be straightforward, or they can be complicated, but they are ultimately something of a chess game. The one move that remains in your control, though, is the exit package. We’ve previously written about times when you may not owe an employee anything, but what about the money that you do owe them, and how should it be paid out to avoid potential litigation and let everyone walk away satisfied? Where Law Meets Contracts The first guide to what you may owe an employee upon termination comes from their employment contract. If you have a written employment...

What’s Actually In Those Employment Contracts and Policies

Written by Editorial Team on December 16, 2024. Posted in Employment Law, Latest from Scocco Law. No Comments on What’s Actually In Those Employment Contracts and Policies

When you start a new job, you’re usually handed an array of paperwork – even digital-first companies still resort to paper for some of these items. They may include a copy of your employment contract that you had signed, information about how to claim employee health benefits, and some opaque-sounding booklet known as an employment manual. While job-specific training may be given one-on-one or in small groups, these employee manuals often apply to the whole company and, at first glance, often sound very generic. Of course, you know not to miss work, not to come into the office in...