| Volume 143 Number 89 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Shameless scammers want to help themselves to your money. And they’re competing with legitimate charities, taking advantage of your generosity. So, as you open your heart and wallet to help people and causes, be sure to consider these tips for safe giving: Click here for more.
Restrictions against TikTok and WeChat to begin this Sunday in U.S.
Come Sunday, the mobile apps TikTok and WeChat will be restricted in response to President Trump’s Executive Orders signed in August. The reason the U.S. Department of Commerce gave was simple: to “safeguard the national security of the United States."
Everything related to restricting the two apps’ use won’t happen all at once. There are two dates that WeChat and TikTok users should be aware of.
Effective Sunday, September 20, 2020, the Department of Commerce is prohibiting the following transactions:
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Your Money
When it comes to filing income taxes, it's essential to understand your adjusted gross income, or AGI, and its relationship to certain tax benefits. Americans' eligibility for COVID-19 stimulus checks was tied to adjusted gross income reported in 2018 or 2019. The final amount taxpayers receive will depend on their 2020 AGI. Ready to understand this essential tax concept? Here's what to know about AGI, how it's calculated and strategies to reduce your adjusted gross income. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
FAA does not apply to independent contractor’s class action wage claims. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled on the transportation worker exemption contained in Section 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The court upheld a district court’s decision not to compel Amazon “AmFlex” delivery drivers (who are independent contractors) to arbitrate their wage claims. The Federal Arbitration Act sets forth a procedural framework that requires courts to treat arbitration agreements as “valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such grounds as exist at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract.” While the FAA applies broadly, Section 1 of the statute renders its provisions inapplicable to contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, and other transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce. The First Circuit addressed the question whether AmFlex drivers who do not cross state lines themselves, but who deliver goods that have crossed state lines, qualify as transportation workers “engaged in foreign or interstate commerce” who are exempt from the FAA under Section 1. The court then addressed Amazon’s argument that Waithaka and the other AmFlex delivery drivers in his putative class were not engaged in interstate commerce, and thus were not covered by the transportation worker exemption, because they operated entirely within Massachusetts and did not themselves carry goods across state lines. The court rejected Amazon’s “cramped construction” of the transportation worker exemption, reasoning that “regardless of whether the workers themselves physically cross state lines[,] … [b]y virtue of their work transporting goods or people ‘within the flow of interstate commerce,’ … Waithaka and other AmFlex workers are ‘a class of workers engaged in … interstate commerce.’” Waithaka v. Amazon.com, Inc., 966 F.3d 10 (1st Cir. 2020) Click here for more.