On February 13, 2019, the NYS legislature took testimony to examine proposals to strengthen NYS's sexual harassment laws, which are already the toughest in the Country.

The testimony is available for viewing here.

Employers - remember October 9, 2019 is your deadline to train all of your employees on sexual harassment pursuant to the requirements of Labor Law 201-g. Failure to train is a misdemeanor with many adverse consequences.

Comply with your requirements today at sexualharassmenttrainingny.com.

In the era of #MeToo, NYS' mandatory sexual harassment trainings (labor law 201-g), NYC's mandatory sexual harassment trainings (local law 96) and CA's expanded training requirement requirement (SB 1343), Facebook has gotten into the game.

This week, Facebook Advertisers are being required to certify that they "[h]ave reviewed and will abide by our Advertising Policies and all applicable laws" and "[w]ill not use Facebook Advertising for any wrongfully discriminatory practices." It is noted that Facebook's list of protected classes does not cover all classes protected by employment / housing discrimination laws and Facebook acknowledges this fact by stating "[s]ince non-discrimination laws vary by region, be sure to comply with our policy and relevant laws in your location and the location you're targeting."

Of note, Facebook is likely causing advertisers to agree in an attempt to insulate the platform from suit for hosting a hostile environment. However, agreeing to the policy certainly doesn't insulate the advertiser from suit.

So, be warned, your advertisements are being watched by Plaintiffs' counsel and you will be sued if you discriminate in any fashion. As such, targeting demographics is off limits and you should sell your product's / position's benefit and target user's prior preferences / searches, not specific users by their demographics (e.g., "race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family/marital status, disability or medical or genetic condition") and how those demographics are correlated to predicted desires.

Buyers can pay cash at closing and reap the benefits of obtaining a loan on the property by purchasing a 90-day post-closing loan.

This can be helpful for buyers who want to make competitive cash offers, close quickly and subsequently obtain mortgage interest deduction benefits of the loan according to the IRS, Publication 936.

Read the full article by Andrew Lieb, Esq. published in The Suffolk Lawyer here.