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Business owners should review year-end tax planning steps they can take as individuals, in addition to the following moves that can be helpful for their companies.

A maintenance worker filed a lawsuit against his employer, alleging discrimination, unpaid wages and other violations of state labor laws. Shortly thereafter, at his employer’s request, he signed an agreement mandating arbitration of all employment-related disputes. Could he continue to litigate his claims, or did he have to submit them to binding arbitration?

Three people can keep a secret, declared Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanack – if two of them are dead. Lawyers are more optimistic, and believe those who sign a confidentiality agreement will keep their mouths shut. That includes attorneys.

California law requires most employers to give workers a 30-minute meal break during which they are “relieved of all duty.” In some jobs, such as when caring for the disabled, workers can be required to be “on duty” while they eat. But that doesn’t mean these employees get less than a full half hour for their meals.

When James Madison drafted the First Amendment, he wasn’t thinking about a squabble between neighbors about the value of a home in Bel Air. But that venerated clause in our nation’s Constitution was a key issue when that disagreement ended up before the California Court of Appeal.

What happens when members of a partnership make careful plans for what will happen when one of the partners dies – but later, when one of them does pass away, they don’t like the outcome? A likely result is that the matter will end up in court, and one such case was recently the subject of a ruling by the California Court of Appeal (Han v. Hallberg.)