A couple of weeks ago, Judge Andrea Wood of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division issued a memorandum opinion denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss in the all-important case of Moehrl v. NAR. You can find the opinion here. As many of you know, I’ve been interested in … Read more
As longtime readers know, I have often written about the issue of misclassification of employees as independent contractors, since that is the key linchpin of contemporary real estate practice. For example, you can start here: On California’s New Gig Economy Law: Don’t Relax Just Yet and just google the rest. So this is a brief … Read more
It’s good to be home and be able to write and think out loud on issues that might impact the industry. It’s doubly good to be able to do it with the best audience out of the most informed readership in the industry. I’m actually a bit surprised that others who are far more tech-focused … Read more
NAR is in the news, but for a positive reason for a change. Hoooray! It appears that the leadership team at NAR met in Washington DC on January 8th to formulate a plan on fair housing. From NAR’s website: The leadership of the National Association of REALTORS® met in Washington today where they unanimously passed … Read more
In case you haven’t already heard, the U.S. Department of Justice has taken the rare step of intervening in a civil case with a Statement of Interest on Behalf of the United States of America. Interesting note: the intervention was in the Sitzer case out of Missouri rather than the Moehrl case in Illinois, which … Read more
I feel pretty certain that anybody that is reading Notorious likely already knows that the legislature of California has passed Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) that tries to rein in the so-called “gig economy” workers. The bill is headed to Gov. Newsom for signature, and it appears that he will indeed sign it, especially given statements … Read more
If you haven’t done so already, or were not present when the panel happened, go watch the Inman News video on the big commissions lawsuit(s) panel discussion. Inman Select membership is required. I thought it was great, especially since Jack Bierig, one of NAR’s outside attorneys on this case, was present to provide some insight … Read more
Recently, I saw someone on Facebook bring up this case, Hyland v. HomeServices of America, Inc., 771 F. 3d 310 – Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit 2014, as pretty much ending the threat from the series of lawsuits filed against NAR, large brokerages and franchises, and a number of MLSs. (If you are a large … Read more
In the all-important Moehrl v. NAR case, NAR has filed a motion to dismiss, and submitted a brief in support of that motion. I’ll embed it below. This is all but guaranteed in just about any serious civil litigation these days involving serious lawyers who get paid by the hour. I remember my Civil Procedures … Read more