If you are employed by a small employer in Pennsylvania and you lose your job, do you automatically lose your employer provided health insurance? Up until 2009, the answer to this question was yes you would lose your health insurance. However, in 2009 the Pennsylvania legislature passed legislation known as the mini-COBRA law. This law requires that small employers that have 2 to 19 employees offer extended health insurance coverage for a limited period of time to most separated employees at the expense of the separated employee. The law is called mini-COBRA because there already existed a Federal law called COBRA that covered employers who had 20 or more employees.
Healthcare for the Unemployed
Our Client Information
Keeping information about our clients and their cases confidential has always been a great priority for our firm. In the 38 years we have been in business, we have seen great changes in the way we communicate with clients and those involved in their cases. As more and more people choose to communicate by email with our attorneys and staff, we have decided to increase the security of the messages by sending them in an encrypted format. Although we know this will be a small inconvenience to you as it adds an extra step to opening the emails, we feel the greater protection and security of your information outweighs the extra step. Each day brings new stories in the media about computer hackers and we feel it is our responsibility to keep our computer system and information as secure as possible.
Check out before you checkout!
You might want to think twice about using the electronic self checkout facilities at the big box stores. We have had clients who made an innocent mistake by missing an item when checking out who were then accused by store security of attempted shoplifting. Most of these mistakes were made when the item was not recognized by the electronic scanner and the customer did not realize it. Security personnel at these stores seem unwilling to listen to any explanation provided by the customer. Criminal charges are rarely brought as a result of these incidents but the customer may receive a letter from the stores's attorney demanding a $150 civil penalty be paid by the customer.
Marijuana Laws Are in a State of Flux
On Monday, April 1, 2014 the Mayor of Washington, DC, Vincent Gray, signed a bill that decriminalizes possession of up to one ounce of marijuana in the Unites States Capitol. The new law makes possession a civil violation with a penalty of $25.00 which is lower than most city parking tickets. Up until this time possession had been a criminal misdemeanor carrying a penalty of up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.00. The Constitution of the United States grants review of Washington, D.C.'s laws to the U.S. Congress. It will be interesting to see how Congress reacts because marijuana remains a criminal substance under federal law. It will take Congress up to sixty days to review Washington, D.C.'s actions.
