1. The employment-at-will doctrine allows employees to quit at any time for any reason and employers to fire employees at any time for any legal reason. How does an employment contract change the relationship between employers and employees from the relationship established under the employment-at-will doctrine? Is an employment contract better for employees than the employment-at-will situation? Is it better for employers?

2. Tiny Software Company creates software security applications intended to protect point-of-sale terminals in retail stores from being hacked. While Tiny Software hires talented and experienced employees, it provides a significant amount of training for those employees. There are two other companies that produce similar software and that compete with Tiny Software, and there are often rumors of other companies that are being formed to compete with Tiny Software.

Should Tiny Software have its employees sign non-compete agreements? Can Tiny Software require that current employees sign non-compete agreements, or will Tiny Software only be able to require that new employees sign non-compete agreements? What should the terms of the non-compete agreements be so that they will be enforceable?

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that employers obtain permission from an employee before the employer hires a third party to conduct a background check on the employee, but it does not require the employer to get the employee's permission if the employer is going to conduct the background investigation? Why does the employer need the employee's permission to hire someone to conduct the background investigation but not need that permission if the employer conducts the investigation? Whose rights are being protected by the Fair Credit Reporting Act?

Accounting, Inc. is a full-service accounting practice that does work for businesses and individuals and, during the months of January through June, consults with clients and prepares their tax returns. Best Accounting has two owners who are accountants, three staff accountants, and five administrative assistants. At the end of 2012, the owners of Best Accounting realized that the volume of tax returns that it expected to have to prepare during the 2013 tax season exceeded the ability of its staff to do the work. However, the owners of Best Accounting also realized that the business did not have enough work during the rest of the year to justify hiring another full time employee. To address this situation, Best Accounting hired T. J. Moody, an experienced tax return preparer, for the six months from January to June, 2013.

T.J. Moody worked from his home office, using his own computer, but the returns that he prepared were prepared on software owned by Best Accounting and maintained on servers owned by Best Accounting. The tax returns were assigned by Best Accounting to T. J., and T. J. was expected to complete eight tax returns per week. Depending on the complexity of the tax return, T. J. was paid between $150 and $500 per tax return.

Was T. J. Moody an employee or an independent contractor of Best Accounting? What factors should be considered in making that determination? What do each of those factors suggest as to whether T. J. Moody was an employee or an independent contractor? What difference does it make to Best Accounting whether T. J. Moody is an employee or an independent contractor? What difference does it make to T. J. Moody?