As I write this in December 2018, the news is being flooded with articles on farm bankruptcies and the looming crisis for farmers and their lenders due to various economic situations outside of each farmer’s control. Farm divorces are estimated to increase.

For anyone who ...Read More

Instead of hiring employees to perform all work on the farm, many pork producers contract with independent contractors to perform certain services.  For example, a pork producer may contract with an independent trucker to transport pigs from a nursery to a finishing barn or ...Read More

Access to a safe deposit box upon death can be accomplished in a number of ways. Commonly, documents such as a will, insurance policies, and burial plan documents may be contained in the contents of a safe deposit box. Access to the safe deposit ...Read More

Almost every area of finance and business has dramatically changed as a result of the digital revolution. Notarization has not been among them. If a document needed a notarized signature, it required an in-person meeting with a notary public present where the notary watches ...Read More

It has been more than ten years since the Minnesota Supreme Court decided a case which addressed antenuptial agreements in a significant way. This May, in Kremer v. Kremer, the Supreme Court further clarified the standards which apply to antenuptial agreements which address both ...Read More

It’s no secret that during the 2016 campaign, political candidates harnessed the power of social media more than ever before.  It is also no secret that the President of the United States has continued to use social media as a political forum.  With tech-savvy ...Read More

What is a document retention policy?

A document retention policy is a plan outlining (1) what sorts of documents the operation will keep, (2) how they will be stored, and (3) how and when they will be destroyed.

Why is a document retention policy important?

Documents can ...Read More

It’s 10:30 on a Tuesday morning.  You’ve finished the morning Staff Meeting, answered twenty seven emails, checked Facebook and are now sitting down to write some employee reviews.

Then you get it.  A letter from an attorney.  Not your attorney.  An attorney representing the employee ...Read More

Proposed changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime white-collar exemptions have not made headlines in recent months. However, this unfortunately (or fortunately) does not mean the discussion regarding the FLSA exemptions has ended. Earlier this year, the United States Department of Labor ...Read More

On April 26, 2018, a jury in North Carolina awarded a judgment against Murphy-Brown LLC (an affiliate of Smithfield Foods) for more than $50 million in a nuisance lawsuit arising from the operation of a hog confinement facility. This judgment was later reduced by ...Read More