ATLAS/BRIEFINGLaw, organized for consequential decisions.

ALL BRIEFS · PAGE 7

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 →

LIT-10 · 85

Removal and Remand: Moving a Case Between State and Federal Court

9 MIN · LIT

Removal is a mechanical process with unforgiving deadlines and a one-way appeal rule. This brief covers the grounds, the clocks, the consent requirement, and how a remand motion is framed.

  • A notice of removal must generally be filed within 30 days after the defendant receives the initial pleading, through service or otherwise.
  • The forum-defendant rule blocks removal based solely on diversity when a properly joined and served defendant is a citizen of the state where suit was brought.
  • A remand for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction may be ordered at any time before final judgment; other defects must be raised within 30 days.
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LIT-11 · 86

Settlement Agreements: Releases, Conditions, and Enforcement

9 MIN · LIT

Almost every civil case ends in a settlement, and almost every settlement dispute comes down to three questions: which claims, which parties, and whether unknown claims were included.

  • A release is defined by three variables — the claims covered, the people and entities released, and whether claims unknown at signing are included.
  • Federal courts generally cannot enforce a settlement after dismissal unless the order retains jurisdiction or incorporates the settlement terms.
  • Waivers of federal age-discrimination claims must meet statutory requirements including a consideration period and a seven-day revocation right.
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EMP-05 · 87

Payroll Records and Wage-Hour Audits: What Investigators Examine

8 MIN · EMP

Recordkeeping is the one wage-hour obligation that has no good-faith defense: either the record exists or it does not. This brief sets out what must be kept, for how long, and what an investigator does with it.

  • FLSA section 11(c) and 29 CFR Part 516 require specified payroll records to be kept three years, with wage-computation records kept two years.
  • A Wage and Hour investigation typically reviews records, interviews employees privately, and can seek back wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages.
  • Missing or unreliable time records shift the practical burden: employees may prove hours by reasonable inference rather than by documentation.
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EMP-06 · 88

ERISA Plan Compliance: Documents, Reporting, and Fiduciary Duties

8 MIN · EMP

Most ERISA failures are administrative rather than financial: a plan running on an insurer's booklet, a summary nobody distributed, or a filing that stopped. This brief maps the obligations and who carries them.

  • ERISA requires a covered plan to be established and maintained by a written instrument, with a named fiduciary identified as responsible for plan operation.
  • Participants must receive a summary plan description, and most covered plans file an annual Form 5500 return with related schedules.
  • Fiduciaries owe duties of prudence and loyalty, must follow plan documents, and must act for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits.
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EMP-07 · 89

Worker Misclassification Audits and Voluntary Settlement Options

8 MIN · EMP

One worker can be an independent contractor for one agency and an employee for another, because each applies a different test. This brief maps the tests, the audit triggers, and the settlement routes that exist.

  • The IRS applies a common-law control test, the FLSA applies an economic reality analysis, and many states apply a stricter ABC test.
  • Audits usually begin from a single event: an unemployment claim, an injury, a worker's status-determination request, or an agency information-sharing referral.
  • The IRS Voluntary Classification Settlement Program and Section 530 relief are real routes, each with strict eligibility conditions that must be met first.
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EMP-08 · 90

Arbitration Agreements at Work: Scope, Carve-Outs, and Enforceability

8 MIN · EMP

An employment arbitration program is enforceable in outline and contested at the edges. This brief separates what the federal statute secures from the carve-outs and defects that defeat individual agreements.

  • The Federal Arbitration Act makes written arbitration agreements enforceable and directs courts to compel arbitration of disputes within the agreement's scope.
  • A 2022 federal amendment lets a claimant elect to avoid arbitration of sexual assault and sexual harassment disputes, and a court decides that question.
  • Class and collective action waivers in employment agreements are generally enforceable under the federal statute as construed by the Supreme Court.
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EMP-09 · 91

Employment References: Defamation Risk and Service-Letter Rules

8 MIN · EMP

The dates-and-title policy exists because of a risk most employers have never examined. This brief sets out the elements of a reference claim, the privileges that defeat it, and the states requiring more than silence.

  • Defamation requires a false statement of fact published to a third party with the required fault, so truthful statements and pure opinion are not actionable.
  • Many states provide a qualified privilege or a statutory immunity for good-faith job references, usually rebuttable by proof of malice or knowing falsity.
  • A minority of states have service-letter statutes requiring an employer to give a departing employee a written statement of the reason for separation.
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EMP-10 · 92

Joint Employer Liability: Staffing, Franchising, and Shared Control

9 MIN · EMP

Joint employment is not one test. Each statute asks its own question, and a company can be a joint employer for wage purposes and not for bargaining purposes on identical facts. This brief separates the regimes.

  • Joint employment is analysed differently under the FLSA, the NLRA, and Title VII, so one set of facts can produce different answers under each.
  • Under the FLSA, joint employers are jointly and severally liable for minimum wage and overtime, and hours worked for both are aggregated.
  • The NLRB's joint-employer standard has changed repeatedly with Board composition and litigation; as of mid-2026 the 2020 regulation remains operative after the 2023 rule was vacated.
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FAM-05 · 93

Finding Digital and Crypto Assets in a Family Case

8 MIN · FAM

Digital holdings are traceable more often than people assume, but the trail runs through tax filings, bank records, and party production rather than through the blockchain alone.

  • Property division is state law. No federal statute tells a divorce court how to classify or divide a crypto holding or a monetized account.
  • Federal tax filings are the cheapest starting point: the digital asset question and reported dispositions both create documented, sworn admissions.
  • The Stored Communications Act generally stops a civil subpoena from reaching message or email content held by a provider; production comes from the party.
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FAM-06 · 94

Valuing a Closely Held Business in Divorce

8 MIN · FAM

Two competent appraisers can value the same company months apart and land a third of the way from each other. The gap is almost never arithmetic; it is the legal assumptions the appraiser was told to use.

  • The standard of value — fair market value or fair value — is a legal question decided by state law, not a choice the appraiser makes.
  • Whether personal goodwill is marital property varies by state and often decides most of the value in a professional practice.
  • Marketability and minority discounts can move a number by a third; several states restrict or bar them in the divorce context.
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FAM-07 · 95

Enforcing a Parenting Order: Contempt, Make-Up Time, and Remedies

8 MIN · FAM

Most enforcement motions fail on the record rather than on the law. This brief covers what remedies exist, what proof each one needs, and which problems a court will not solve.

  • Custody and parenting time are governed by state law. Remedies, standards of proof, and expedited procedures differ substantially between states.
  • Civil contempt is coercive and requires a present ability to comply; criminal contempt punishes past conduct and carries criminal procedural protections.
  • Make-up parenting time, cost reimbursement, and fee awards are ordered far more often than any sanction involving custody.
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FAM-08 · 96

Interstate Support Enforcement Under UIFSA

8 MIN · FAM

A move across a state line does not create a second support order or a second chance to relitigate. UIFSA keeps one order controlling and gives it a route into the new state.

  • UIFSA has been adopted in every state as a condition of federal funding, producing one controlling order rather than competing orders in each state.
  • The issuing state keeps continuing exclusive jurisdiction while a party or the child still lives there, so another state may enforce but not modify.
  • An income-withholding order can be sent directly to an out-of-state employer without any filing in the employer's state.
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FAM-09 · 97

Fee Awards in Family Cases: Need, Conduct, and Sanctions

8 MIN · FAM

Family law is one of the few areas where a court routinely orders one private party to fund the other's lawyer. Three different theories support that, and they need different proof.

  • The default rule is that each side pays its own lawyer; family fee awards exist only because state statutes create exceptions to it.
  • Some states award fees on need and ability to pay, others on litigation conduct, and many statutes allow both on different showings.
  • Interim awards exist so that access to counsel does not track the income split, and they are usually a contribution rather than full coverage.
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FAM-10 · 98

Modifying or Terminating Spousal Support After Judgment

8 MIN · FAM

Before arguing that circumstances changed, answer a prior question: is this award modifiable at all? Many are not, and the answer usually sits in the agreement rather than the statute.

  • Spousal support is state law. Grounds, standards, durational rules, and termination events differ substantially from one state to the next.
  • Many settlement agreements make support non-modifiable in amount, duration, or both, and courts in most states enforce that choice.
  • Where modification is available, the usual threshold is a substantial change in circumstances not anticipated when the order was made.
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