About Independent Contractor Misclassification and Compliance Legal Blog

This legal blog is published by Richard Reibstein, a partner with Locke Lord LLP, a resident in the firm’s New York office. The blog is part of the Locke Lord suite of preeminent legal blogs.  The blog’s managing editor is Janet Barsky, a counsel with Locke Lord, who is also resident in the firm’s New York office.

Ever since it was launched in 2010, this has been the only legal blog in the country devoted solely to publishing original content on the subject of independent contractor compliance and misclassification.

What types of blog posts are provided?  This blog is designed for informational and educational purposes. Each blog post contains a comprehensive analysis of one or more legal developments in this niche area of the law and provides the reader with one or more takeaways.  Oftentimes, this blog is the “first out of the box” to report key legal developments such as groundbreaking court decisions and settlements, newly-enacted legislation, and proposed and final administrative regulations and rule-making. The blog includes a monthly update of judicial, administrative, and legislative developments affecting businesses that use independent contractors as part of their business model.

What issues does the Blog cover?

This blog addresses issues related to the defense of misclassification claims and class actions as well as audits and investigations by federal and state tax and workforce agencies dealing with wages, taxes, unemployment, and workers compensation, and is also dedicated to providing information to assist companies enhance their compliance with federal and state labor, tax, benefits, and other laws impacting the use of independent contractors and individuals paid on a 1099 basis. Comments from readers about this blog or individual blog posts are invited.

What resources does the Blog offer? 

The blog contains a set of Resources including a list of over 55 articles authored by the publisher and references to each of the over 100 quotes by the publisher in legal and business publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, New York Times, New York Law Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, and Law360.

We also provide in the Resources section a curated list of all state and municipal independent contractor laws passed from July 2007 and all Congressional bills introduced (none of which were passed) since that date.

The Resources section include a description of our proprietary IC Diagnostics™ process for enhancing compliance with federal and state independent contractors laws by restructuring, re-documenting, and/or reimplementing independent contractor relationships in a customized and sustainable manner.  Companies have chosen to use IC Diagnostics™ to minimize exposure to misclassification liability.

Our Resources also include a link to our oft-read White Paper on how companies can minimize the risk of independent contractor misclassification liability, as well as a commentary by the publisher on what we refer to as IC-Neutral and IC-Minus legislation, administrative rule-making, and court decisions.