Business & Finance

Seven Steps Toward Staying Out of Court

William C. Davell
17 Jul 2024
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The Good News provides a monthly column with important content having to do with topics from the legal community. This month features a conversation with Paul Lopez, COO, Tripp Scott.   “Murphy’s Law” – “If anything can go wrong, it will” – originated in science but also applies to human relationships, including business dealings. Even partners or contracting parties with the best relationships and intentions often run into misunderstandings and failures to meet expectations that lead to legal disputes, making it critical to identify, preclude and prepare for highly probable bumps – and barriers – in the road. So here […]

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Seven Steps Toward Staying Out of Court

William C. Davell
15 Jul 2024
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The Good News provides a monthly column with important content having to do with topics from the legal community. This month features a conversation with Paul Lopez, COO, Tripp Scott. “Murphy’s Law” – “If anything can go wrong, it will” – originated in science but also applies to human relationships, including business dealings. Even partners or contracting parties with the best relationships and intentions often run into misunderstandings and failures to meet expectations that lead to legal disputes, making it critical to identify, preclude and prepare for highly probable bumps – and barriers – in the road. So here are […]

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court

Does Your Business Employ Noncompete Agreements? You Need to Know About a New Federal Rule

William C. Davell
4 Jun 2024
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noncompete

The Good News provides a monthly column with important content having to do with topics from the legal community. This month features a conversation with Paul Lopez, COO, Tripp Scott. Florida employers, and those of 45 other states and the District of Columbia, have routinely made use of noncompete agreements (noncompetes), non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and non-solicit agreements (non-solicits) in employee contracts to protect their business interests. These agreements, grouped in Sunshine State statutory law as “restrictive covenants,” have been permitted here with various restraints on time and scope.  But in April the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a U.S. government agency, […]

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Own A Small Business? You Need to Know About the Corporate Transparency Act

William C. Davell
8 May 2024
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The Good News provides a monthly column with important content having to do with topics from the legal community. This month features a conversation with Marianna Seiler DeJager, director with Tripp Scott. ——————————– Do you own a small business – that is not a sole proprietorship – in Florida or anywhere else in the US (or its territories)? You almost certainly need to know about – and comply with – the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), a new federal law that took effect January 1 of this year, despite a recent successful – but limited – court challenge.   Bill Davell […]

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transparency

What to Do If You Owe Taxes: Don’t Panic. Do Act

William C. Davell
3 Apr 2024
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taxes

April 15 is rolling around again, and according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, more Americans are finding that instead of receiving a refund, they owe taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In all, the Journal reports, 18.6 million individual taxpayers were on the hook for $316 billion at the end of 2022. Two big reasons: not enough withholding from paychecks due to a second earner or outside income, for example from investments or a “side hustle,” and increased participation in the gig economy, where workers must estimate their annual income and submit quarterly payments.   Bill Davell: […]

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Employee or Contractor? Businesses Must Beware of Changing Rules

William C. Davell
14 Mar 2024
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The Good News provides a monthly column with important content having to do with topics from the legal community. This month features a conversation with Paul Lopez, director and COO of Tripp Scott. When is a worker with your business an employee – or an independent contractor? The answer is critical and can vary for the same worker depending on what agency you’re dealing with, in which state or with the federal government. And oh, yeah: it’s ever-changing. On March 11, it will change again. A Biden Department of Labor (DOL) rule will take effect with guidelines on determining who […]

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employee

Yes, Copyright Laws Do Apply to Churches (and Other Non-Profits)

William C. Davell
20 Feb 2024
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copyright laws

The Good News provides a monthly column with important content having to do with topics from the legal community. This month features a conversation with Stephanie Mazzola, a director at Tripp Scott. Even given the growing media sophistication of people of all ages and walks of life, the assertion continues to be made: copyright laws don’t apply to churches. But they do, so let’s examine the increasingly complex application of copyright laws in the church context.   Bill Davell: Why should our church worry about copyright laws?   Stephanie Mazzola: Christians more than anyone else should respect copyright laws. The […]

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AI and You: Let’s Be Careful Out There

William C. Davell
19 Dec 2023
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The Good News provides a monthly column with important content having to do with topics from the legal community. This month features a conversation with Paul Lopez, COO of Tripp Scott. The ChatGPT artificial intelligence app and its competitors can do very cool things.  More than 100 million consumer and business users have reportedly employed these AI tools to compose articles, letters, essays, scripts, academic papers, resumes and job applications, work assignments and homework; generate images; develop code and software; analyze customer data; and create business plans and strategies. People in our profession have even used AI apps to write […]

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AI

Charitable Giving Strategies: How To Be A Bigger Blessing

William C. Davell
16 Nov 2023
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“It is more blessed to give than to receive,” said the Lord Jesus. And Americans – and especially people of faith – take that exhortation seriously. Our contributions of nearly half a trillion dollars in 2020 alone were greater than the entire gross domestic products of most European countries. And more than 80 percent of giving is done by individuals, much of it to faith-based organizations. A question too few generous Americans ask, however, is how they should give. Charitable giving strategies exist to give more, and more effectively, and they are not just for the wealthy: surprisingly, according to […]

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Palm Beach Atlantic University to Celebrate American Free Enterprise Day

Dr. Debra A. Schwinn
8 Nov 2023
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American Free Enterprise (AFE) Day has been a tradition at Palm Beach Atlantic (PBA) University for nearly 40 years, dating back to 1984. Since its founding, this event has celebrated our American heritage and freedoms and promoted our free enterprise system. All about free enterprise PBA’s commitment to our free enterprise system is unique within higher education today; nowhere else is this distinctive recognition of the American free enterprise system so immersed in the traditions of a university. PBA not only requires a course on the American free enterprise system, but it also sponsors this grand celebration annually to honor […]

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free enterprise