Jennifer Mueller

Establishing custody for your children provides stability if you don't live with the other parent. While the specific details vary somewhat among states, you typically need an order from the family court located in the county where your children live. Often, custody will be decided during a divorce. However, if you weren't married to the other parent, you'll have to file a petition with the court to get the case started. Then you'll attend a hearing where the judge will decide on a parenting ...

Confidentiality agreements are used in many contexts. Perhaps you've hired or contracted someone to work for you and worry about the security of your client lists and proprietary processes. On the other hand, you may have a computer program or other invention that you need to share with others so you can get necessary funding or distribution, but you want to ensure that investors won't steal your design or destroy your patent rights. Regardless of your reason, if you have information you don'...

Business entities such as corporations or LLCs must register with the Montana Secretary of State if they want to operate in Montana. If you need to know the legal name for a business because you want to file a lawsuit against it, you can look it up on the Secretary of State's website. That search provides basic information about a business including its official legal name. You can use that to gain more detailed information including financial reports and statistics if you choose to do so.
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You may want to use newspaper articles as references for information you include in a research paper. Newspaper articles can be especially helpful if you're writing about events that have happened too recently for there to be books or scholarly articles devoted to the topic. When you paraphrase or quote from the article, a citation tells your readers that the information came from somewhere else. The American Psychological Association (APA) has a specific format for you to use both in your re...

Wouldn't it be nice if you could get free money from the government to pay your bills, learn a new trade, start a business, or launch a project to help your community? Unfortunately, for most of these things, the federal government isn't going to just give you money. However, if you have a strong idea for a research or public benefit project, you might be able to get funded through a grant from the federal government. Here, we've gathered answers to your most common questions about how to app...

Having to evict a tenant is one of the most difficult parts of being a landlord. However, sometimes it's necessary. While the specific rules vary greatly among states, in general, you must first give your tenant notice and the opportunity to resolve the issue that has led you to want to evict them. If they fail to resolve the problem, you may need to let a judge rule on the situation. Typically, you must file this eviction notice with the court to let them know that the tenant has had this op...

If you're writing a research paper, it's likely that many of the articles you use as sources will come from the internet. If you're using the citation style of the American Psychological Association (APA), the format of your Reference List entry will differ if you're citing an online article as opposed to a print article. Any time you quote or paraphrase from the source, you'll also need to include an in-text citation at the end of the sentence.
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Start your entry with the name of the author....

If you’re starting a business in New Jersey, you may be interested in organizing it as a limited liability company. LLCs formed under New Jersey law have similar tax treatment and ease of operation that sole proprietorships do, but shield owners’ personal assets if the company has legal or financial problems. This gives an LLC many of the benefits of a corporation, but without the complications and extensive record-keeping requirements of formal incorporation.
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Search the NJ business name ...

Construction engineering, or civil engineering, is a practice governed by the licensing laws of the state in which you plan to live and work. While state requirements may differ in some respects, the basic process to get a construction or civil engineering license is roughly the same throughout the United States. First you must meet the eligibility requirements, including graduating with an engineering degree and working for four years. Then you're ready to begin the licensure process, which ...

For some research projects, you need to review court records for cases filed in state or federal courts. Whether you're tracing your ancestry or looking into a particular scandal or crisis in the context of a larger research project, you may need to research court records. Since court documents generally are public records in the United States, researching court records often is as simple as knowing what documents you need and where they are located. Keep in mind, however, that you may have t...

A contract occurs when you make a deal with someone else to do things for each other. Contracts don’t have to be written. Rather, a contract exists whenever both sides give something up to get something of value. For example, if you agree to help a friend move in exchange for a batch of homemade cookies, you and your friend have a contract. If the other side fails to live up to her side of the bargain, you can sue for breach of contract.
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Check the claims limits of the small claims court nea...

Going through a divorce is difficult. You may find yourself vacillating between just wanting to get it over with one day and wanting to give the relationship another try the next. In part for this reason, North Carolina law requires spouses to live separate and apart for 1 year before filing for divorce. However, you aren't required by law to have a written separation agreement, or to file anything with the court. Even though it's not required, a separation agreement can be useful to help def...

If you have contractors or employees with access to trade secrets or confidential information, such as business processes or client lists, you may want them to sign a non-compete clause. That way, even after they’ve left your company, they will be restricted from competing with you in certain ways, or from taking advantage of the training and information they’ve received from you. Courts generally don’t view non-compete clauses favorably because of their tendency to restrict trade, so your cl...

Whether someone hasn't repaid money you loaned, or you're trying to get your money back for an unsatisfactory product or service, you may be contemplating suing that person in small claims court to win a legal judgment for the money. However, many small claims courts require you to first send the person a demand letter asking for payment. Even if the court where you file your claim doesn't require proof that a payment demand letter was sent, you typically will have to explain to the judge why...

Build your strategic thinking skills by cracking this popular 2-person game
Co-authored by Jennifer Mueller, JD Reviewed by Ashton Wu
Starting the Game
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Reading Your Opponent
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Building Traps
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Video
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Q&A
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Tips
Connect 4 is a popular game with an unbeatable winning strategy. Learn that strategy and you'll win every game of Connect 4 you ever play—provided you make no mistakes. But nobody's perfect, and that's why people keep playing this deceptively challenging game. Read on to learn how t...