STRAYER LEG100 FULL COURSE [ ALL DISCUSSIONS ALL QUIZES AND ALL ASSIGNMENTS ]

Due Week 6 and worth 150 points

Note: The company mentioned herein is merely a hypothetical organization with characteristics developed to enable students to respond to the assignment. You may create and / or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.

After Good Grocers, Inc. expanded its organic produce section and adopted a “buy local” policy, sales increased. The Virginia-based chain expanded its retail locations from seven to twelve (7 to 12) over the last three (3) years.

As the Assistant Human Resources Manager, your job is to advise store managers about legal and personnel matters. The leadership at Good Grocers, Inc. considers you to be a legally astute manager, who consults with the corporation’s attorney, as necessary. The corporation’s leadership has tasked you with managing two (2) situations have come across your desk. Please respond with support that is backed by the law.

Write a three to four (3-4) page paper which addresses the two (2) situations from two (2) store managers.

Situation 1

Last week, my produce manager reported the following incident:

As I came out from the bakery, I saw a woman lying on the floor of the produce department. Her husband started yelling at me, saying, “She slipped on a banana peel and fell. My wife is the anchorwoman for NEWSNOW, and we are going to sue you!”

She didn’t look hurt, but I called 911 and filed an incident report that contained the facts of the situation. When viewing the area, I did, in fact, see a banana peel on the floor, but it was still yellow and lying on top of a ribbed rubber mat. The woman in question was wearing five-inch high heels. But I wasn’t sure what to say, other than the woman would be hearing from us.

1. Explain whether this situation is best handled by litigation or by a particular form of alternative dispute resolution.
2. Based on how you would handle this situation, either through litigation or a particular form of alternative dispute resolution, outline the key next steps involved in seeking a resolution. Justify your response.

Situation 2

Last week, my bakery manager was short an employee over Mother’s Day weekend when the bakery is always busy. To make up for being shorthanded, the bakery manager called in Ms. Greene, an independent contractor. Generally, Ms. Greene comes in on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights between 6 to 9 p.m. just to decorate cakes; she has her own bakery business. We furnish all of her equipment, and we pay her by the cake.

Ms. Greene worked eight (8) hours on Saturday and another eight (8) hours on Sunday over Mother’s Day weekend. We paid her $15.00 per hour. On the following Monday when Ms. Greene came in, she told me that she wanted to receive the same benefits as the other Good Grocers part-time employees, such as paid time off and employee discounts. Ms. Greene asserted that she really is a part-time employee who deserves the usual employee benefits.

3. Determine whether Ms. Greene is an independent contractor or a part-time employee. Provide a rationale for your response.

4. Explain the reasoning supporting whether or not Ms. Greene should receive the same benefits as part-time employees.

Suggested resources for this assignment:

1. Access your Learning Resource Center (LRC) at the top of your iCampus screen. Search by keyword for business articles on arbitration, mediation, or independent contractors. You may also use your LRC to access legal topics and articles through the Lexis Nexis database.
2. At FindLaw, located at http://www.findlaw.com/, you may search by legal topic or enter a keyword(s) into a search box to find relevant information and articles.
3. You may use the following additional resources:

·

• Internal Revenue Service (IRS): http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Independent-Contractor-Self-Employed-or-Employee
• The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry: http://www.doli.virginia.gov/laborlaw/laborlaw.html

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Use at least two (2) quality academic resources in this assignment, such as a government Website, and include internal citations. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.
• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Describe the legal environment of business, the sources of American law, and the basis of authority for government to regulate business.
• Explain basic court procedures, types of courts, and alternative dispute resolution methods.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in business law.
• Write clearly and concisely about business law using proper writing mechanics.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric found here.

Assignment 2: Using Your Manager Skills

Due Week 10 and worth 240 points

Note: The companies mentioned herein are merely hypothetical organizations with characteristics developed to enable students to respond to the assignment. You may create and / or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.

In this assignment, you, in the role of a risk manager at Simply Green Products, will draft a document that is commonly used in the business world—a memorandum to your boss.

Simply Green Products is a $10 million company that produces biodegradable packing materials that orchards use in the Shenandoah Valley to transport their apples, peaches, and pears nationwide. Biodegradable materials are more eco-friendly because they break down into the environment. Such packing materials are marketed under the name “SafePack,” which is heavily advertised in trade journals. Simply Green Products have had the name “SafePack” imprinted on all of their packing material since 2008; however, they never filed for either state or federal trademark protection. With the movement toward more eco-friendly agricultural production, the fact that such packing materials are biodegradable provides a primary marketing advantage over non-biodegradable competitors.

The company president, Shep Howard, has recently become aware of several issues that may require referral to the company’s outside counsel. Because you serve as the company’s risk manager, Howard has asked you to leverage your legal and managerial skills to draft a memorandum that addresses one (1) of the two (2) situations described below:

• An environmental group is asserting that SafePack materials are not biodegradable. In fact, the group claims that these materials are causing an environmental hazard that is seeping from a local landfill into a nearby stream. An environmental group, SafePack Materials Pollute, has sprung up and launched an Internet campaign geared toward compelling fruit producers to stop purchasing your packing materials. The situation at hand raises environmental issues that relate to the Clean Water Act and the Solid Waste Disposal Act.

• A company called Safe Choices, Inc. has accused Simply Green Products of trademark infringement, and has sent a cease and desist letter to President Howard, demanding that Simply Green Products stop using the name “SafePack”. The letter asserts that a) Safe Choices uses the SafePack name to market an emergency weather kit in the form of a backpack; and that b) Safe Choices had received a federal registration for the mark from the Patent and Trademark Office in 2002. This backpack is sold both online at safepack.com and in sporting goods stores nationwide. The letter goes on to suggest that Simply Green Product's use of this name “constitutes a false designation of origin which is likely to confuse customers as to the source of the goods”. The intellectual property issue at hand involves the Lanham Act.

For one (1) of the two (2) situations set out above, write a three to four (3-4) page memorandum to President Howard. Ensure that you address each of the questions below within your memo so that President Howard may assess whether or not Simply Green Products needs to hire outside counsel to address the matter at hand.

1. Discuss the elements that must be present in order for one to prove a valid claim under the law(s) specified (i.e., the Clean Water Act, the Solid Waste Disposal Act, or the Lanham Act).
2. Determine whether or not the activity of Simply Green Products amounts to a violation of the applicable law (i.e., the Clean Water Act, the Solid Waste Disposal Act, or the Lanham Act). If you chose the environmental issue, determine whether or not seepage from your products into a stream would violate the Clean Water Act, the Solid Waste Disposal Act, or both. Explain your rationale. If you chose the intellectual property matter, determine whether or not continued use of the SafePack name by your company would violate the Lanham Act. Explain your rationale.
3. Decide whether or not President Howard should refer this chosen matter to the company's outside counsel. Provide a rationale for your decision.
4. Use at least three (3) high-quality academic references. As the cases discussed within the assignment are hypothetical, you will not find any solutions to them on the Internet. Further, note that Wikipedia, blogs, and such Websites as Free Dictionary do not qualify as academic resources, whereas your textbook does. Use the Strayer Learning Resource Center (LRC) to locate high-quality academic references.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, your name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date.

• Draft this in the form of a letter that is typed, double-spaced, and uses Times New Roman font (size 12) with one-inch margins on all sides.

• Include your citations in the body of your letter and include your list of references at the end. All citations must follow the APA.

• Be sure to follow all additional instructions provided by your professor.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Describe the legal environment of business, the sources of American law, and the basis of authority for government to regulate business.

• Use technology and information resources to research issues in business law.

• Write clearly and concisely about business law using proper writing mechanics.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric found here.