ATLAS/BRIEFINGLaw, organized for consequential decisions.

ALL BRIEFS · PAGE 3

Brief index

Every ATLAS brief, in desk order. Use the desk rail to filter by practice area, or the research console for a direct query.

IMMImmigration Strategy & StatusIMM desk →FINFinancial Regulation & Digital AssetsFIN desk →CORPCorporate Operations & RiskCORP desk →LITLitigation & Dispute ResolutionLIT desk →EMPEmployment & WorkforceEMP desk →FAMFamily TransitionsFAM desk →PROPProperty & DevelopmentPROP desk →PRIVPrivacy, Cyber & AIPRIV desk →IPIntellectual Property & MediaIP desk →ESTEstate, Tax & SuccessionEST desk →CRIMConsumer & Criminal ProcedureCRIM desk →

EMP-02 · 29

Employee Background Checks Under the FCRA: Disclosure and Adverse Action

8 MIN · EMP

Most employment screening claims are about paperwork, not about the underlying decision. This brief sets out the FCRA sequence and the points where employers most often break it.

  • Section 604(b) of the FCRA requires a clear disclosure in a document consisting solely of that disclosure, plus the applicant's written authorization, before a report is obtained.
  • Adverse action is a two-step process: a pre-adverse-action notice with a copy of the report and the CFPB summary of rights, then a separate final notice.
  • No statute fixes the waiting period between the two notices; a reasonable interval, commonly five business days, is market practice rather than law.
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EMP-03 · 30

Wage Deductions and Business-Expense Reimbursement Rules

8 MIN · EMP

Federal law sets a floor on paycheck deductions and says almost nothing about expenses; state law does the opposite. This brief separates the two layers and applies them to the deductions employers actually attempt.

  • Under the free-and-clear rule at 29 CFR 531.35, required wages must reach the employee unconditionally, with no direct or indirect kickback.
  • Deductions for items primarily benefiting the employer may not push pay below the minimum wage, and may not cut into overtime compensation at all.
  • Improper deductions from an exempt employee's salary can defeat the exemption; 29 CFR 541.602 lists the narrow permitted categories.
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EMP-04 · 31

Conducting a Workplace Investigation: Scope, Interviews, Records, and Fairness

8 MIN · EMP

A workplace investigation is judged later on how it was run, not on how it felt at the time. This brief sets out scope, interview discipline, confidentiality limits, and the file that survives review.

  • Employer harassment defenses turn on whether the response was prompt, thorough, and impartial — the standard EEOC guidance and courts both use.
  • Separate the fact-finder from the decision-maker. One person finds what happened; another decides discipline. The file reads far better afterward.
  • Blanket confidentiality instructions carry labor-law risk. Board precedent on investigation-confidentiality rules shifted in 2019 and again in 2023.
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FAM-01 · 32

Temporary Orders During Divorce: Housing, Finances, Support, and Parenting

8 MIN · FAM

Interim orders decide who lives where, who pays what, and when each parent sees the children while the case is pending. They are decided fast, on paper, and they tend to stick.

  • Divorce is state law. What a court can order on an interim basis, and how fast, differs materially from one state to the next.
  • Temporary orders are usually decided on affidavits and documents rather than live testimony, which makes exhibit quality the deciding factor.
  • Several states attach automatic restraining provisions to the divorce summons, freezing asset transfers and insurance changes without any hearing.
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FAM-02 · 33

Finding and Valuing Assets in Divorce Discovery

8 MIN · FAM

Assets are usually found on paper before they are found by subpoena. This brief works the tax-return trail first, then the formal discovery tools, then the valuation fights that follow.

  • Start with tax returns and their schedules. Interest, dividends, capital gains, and K-1 entries name accounts and entities nobody disclosed.
  • Most states require sworn financial disclosure before any formal discovery is served, and a false disclosure carries consequences beyond the asset itself.
  • Business valuation turns on the standard of value the state applies and on whether goodwill is treated as personal or enterprise property.
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FAM-03 · 34

Custody Evaluations, Guardians ad Litem, and Child Representatives

8 MIN · FAM

Three different appointments get confused with each other constantly. This brief separates the evaluator, the guardian ad litem, and the child's attorney, then walks the evaluation itself.

  • These are three distinct roles with different duties. Some states define all three by statute; others use one label for functions that vary by county.
  • Custody evaluations are normally conducted by licensed mental-health professionals under state rules plus professional guidelines that are not themselves law.
  • A guardian ad litem advocates for the child's best interests; an attorney for the child usually advocates for what the child wants.
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FAM-04 · 35

Grandparent and Third-Party Visitation: Constitutional and State-Law Limits

8 MIN · FAM

A fit parent's decision about who sees their child carries constitutional weight. This brief sets the ceiling Troxel established, then the state statutes that operate beneath it.

  • Troxel v. Granville (2000) struck down a Washington third-party visitation statute as applied and required special weight for a fit parent's decision.
  • Troxel produced no majority opinion and left open whether a showing of harm to the child is constitutionally required.
  • States rewrote their statutes around Troxel and now differ on standing, threshold conditions, burden of proof, and available remedies.
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PROP-01 · 36

Title Insurance and Surveys: What Each Protects in a Real Estate Purchase

8 MIN · PROP

A title policy insures the record; a survey establishes the ground. This brief maps what each one covers, which standard exceptions a survey can remove, and where both leave the buyer exposed.

  • A title policy is an indemnity contract covering defects that existed on the policy date — it does not insure against future events or physical conditions.
  • The lender's policy protects the lender's lien for the loan balance only; a buyer who wants protection must buy a separate owner's policy.
  • ALTA forms carry standard exceptions for survey matters, parties in possession, unrecorded easements, unrecorded mechanics' liens, and taxes not yet shown of record.
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PROP-02 · 37

Easements and Boundary Disputes: Documents, Use, and Available Remedies

8 MIN · PROP

Neighbor disputes over crossings, fences, and driveways are decided by how the right arose. This brief sorts the origins first, then matches each one to the remedy that actually fits.

  • An easement is a nonpossessory right to use someone else's land; it can arise by grant, reservation, implication, necessity, prescription, estoppel, or dedication.
  • A prescriptive easement gives use rights only; adverse possession transfers ownership and generally requires exclusive possession that prescription does not.
  • Statutory periods, tax-payment requirements, and boundary doctrines such as acquiescence and agreed boundary differ substantially from state to state.
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PROP-03 · 38

Construction Change Orders: Scope, Price, Schedule, and Documentation

9 MIN · PROP

Most construction payment fights are not about whether the work was done. They are about whether the paperwork that authorized it exists. This brief maps the sequence that decides those claims.

  • Work changes three ways: a signed change order, a unilateral directive the contractor must follow while price is unresolved, and conduct that changes the work without paper.
  • A constructive change is extra or different work compelled by owner conduct rather than a formal order; it is provable, but only with contemporaneous documentation.
  • Standard general conditions, including the AIA A201 family, impose short written-notice periods for claims — commonly measured in days from the triggering event.
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PROP-04 · 39

Commercial Real Estate Due Diligence Before Closing

8 MIN · PROP

A diligence period is short and the findings that end deals are not evenly distributed. This brief sequences the work so the discoveries that kill a transaction surface first.

  • Order diligence by kill risk: environmental, title and access, zoning and entitlement, then lease and income verification, then condition and cost items.
  • A Phase I environmental site assessment performed to ASTM E1527-21 is the route to satisfying EPA's All Appropriate Inquiries rule and the CERCLA landowner liability protections.
  • Those protections require continuing obligations after closing, and they do not reach every contaminant, every statute, or common-law claims by neighbors.
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PRIV-01 · 40

Data-Breach Response: Privilege, Notification Deadlines, and Regulator Notice

9 MIN · PRIV

Breach response forces legally binding decisions before the facts are known. This brief sets out the first-days sequence, the privilege structure courts actually test, and the notification clocks that run in parallel.

  • Privilege over a forensic report depends on how the engagement was structured and why it was created; courts split, and the 2020 Capital One ruling denied protection.
  • HIPAA requires individual notice without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovery, plus HHS notice and media notice at defined thresholds.
  • All 50 states have breach notification statutes with differing triggers, deadlines, and attorney general duties — there is no single national deadline to rely on.
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PRIV-02 · 41

Biometric Privacy Laws: Consent, Retention, Security, and Litigation Exposure

9 MIN · PRIV

Biometric rules are state law, and only Illinois gives private plaintiffs a broad right to sue. This brief maps what is regulated, what consent must look like, and where the money risk concentrates.

  • Illinois BIPA is the only major biometric statute with a broad private right of action, which is why class filings concentrate there.
  • Rosenbach v. Six Flags (Ill. 2019) held that a plaintiff need not prove actual injury beyond the statutory violation itself.
  • Cothron v. White Castle (Ill. 2023) made claims accrue per scan; an August 2024 amendment limits repeated scans to one recovery.
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PRIV-03 · 42

Children's Online Privacy: COPPA Coverage, Parental Consent, and Age-Assurance Questions

8 MIN · PRIV

Most children's privacy disputes begin with whether the rule applies at all. This brief works the coverage test first, then consent mechanics, the recently amended FTC Rule, and the unsettled state layer.

  • COPPA reaches operators of services directed to children under 13 and operators with actual knowledge they collect a child's personal information.
  • Verifiable parental consent must precede collection, and the FTC recognizes specific methods rather than any reasonable-looking age gate.
  • The FTC finalized amendments to the COPPA Rule in 2025, effective that year with certain compliance obligations extending into 2026.
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