All Articles — page 6
Every Beacon article, grouped by section. Use the filters or search to narrow it down.
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Employment Law
Protected Concerted Activity: Speech and Group Action Without a Union
Federal labor law protects employees who act together over pay, hours or safety even where no union exists. The protection is real, narrower than it sounds, and easy to forfeit.
8 min readAnalysis -
Employment Law
COBRA Continuation Coverage After Employment Ends
COBRA keeps the same health plan running after a job ends, at the full cost plus an administrative charge. The deadlines are short and missing one usually ends the option.
8 min readExplainer -
Employment Law
Tip Pooling, Service Charges, and the Rules That Govern Them
A mandatory service charge is not a tip, and the difference changes who may keep the money, how overtime is calculated, and what has to be disclosed.
8 min readExplainer -
Employment Law
Paid Family and Medical Leave: State Programs Alongside Federal Leave
A state paid leave benefit and federal job protection are separate rights with separate eligibility rules. Qualifying for one says nothing about qualifying for the other.
8 min readExplainer -
Employment Law
Dress Codes and Grooming Policies: Where Employer Discretion Ends
An employer can require a uniform, ban visible tattoos and set a hairstyle rule. It cannot apply those standards in ways that collide with protected characteristics.
7 min readAnalysis -
Employment Law
Employee Handbooks: What They Create and What They Should Avoid
Handbooks are written as guidance and read as commitments. In many states the wrong sentence converts a policy into a contractual expectation the employer has to honour.
8 min readGuide -
Family Law
Divorce and the Family Home: Buyouts, Sales, and Mortgage Realities
A marital home ends up bought out, sold now, or sold later. Whichever route a couple takes, the divorce decree binds the spouses and does nothing at all to the lender.
7 min readGuide -
Family Law
Annulment: Grounds, Timing, and Effect on Property and Children
An annulment says a marriage was never validly formed. The grounds are narrow, the filing windows are often short, and the effect on property and children is smaller than most people expect.
8 min readExplainer -
Family Law
Address Confidentiality Programs and Keeping an Address Out of Court Records
A state address confidentiality program gives a participant a substitute legal address for public records and mail. Keeping an address out of an existing court file is a separate request.
7 min readGuide -
Family Law
Dividing Debt in a Divorce: Joint Accounts, Mortgages, and Creditors
A divorce court can decide which spouse pays a debt. It cannot tell the creditor to stop looking at the other spouse, which is why account clean-up matters more than the wording of the decree.
7 min readGuide -
Family Law
De Facto Parent Claims by Non-Biological Caregivers
A caregiver with no biological or adoptive tie can sometimes be recognized as a parent for custody purposes. The doctrine is real, state-specific, and deliberately hard to satisfy.
8 min readAnalysis -
Family Law
College Expenses and Support for Adult Children: When Courts Order It
Child support usually ends at adulthood, but not always. A handful of states can order college contributions, several extend support for a disabled adult child, and agreements fill the gap elsewhere.
7 min readExplainer
