Somehow, despite this summer’s fight over whether Democrats or Republicans controlled the New York State Legislature, members of the Assembly and Senate and Gov. David Paterson found time to amend the New York State Human Rights Law. Effective July 6, 2009, the law expanded the application of civil fines and penalties in cases of employment discrimination occurring on or after that date. The change means the stakes for making an employment law mistake have dramatically risen.

Q. My company is considering requiring employees to agree to an arbitration clause to resolve any employment disputes, including discrimination complaints. I have been told it is a good risk-management tool for avoiding high legal defense costs and big jury verdicts. Do you agree?

Q. We have noticed some of our inventory is missing, and we believe it might be leaving our facility via our employees. Can we search them and their belongings?

Q. We have terminated an employee who has moved out of state and requested we mail his last check to him. Do we have to mail it? If so, when?

Q. An applicant, citing reasons of privacy, has refused to sign the written authorization to permit a background check. What can we do?

Q. We are considering using an investigative agency to verify applicants’ prior employment, education and possible criminal background. Are there any New York laws that are applicable?

During a workplace investigation, you, as an HR investigator, can take a number of practical steps to improve the reliability and objectivity of your witness credibility assessments. Four factors are critical to assessing witness credibility: demeanor, consistency, chronology, and past history and motivations.

Q. An employee objected to us putting her name (just her first name!) on our company’s “Holiday Greetings from Our Staff” card. She said she doesn’t celebrate holidays for religious reasons and using her name without permission was illegal. The boss said she should “get over it.” Did we set ourselves up for a lawsuit?

Q. Can we ask an applicant or employee how long his ‘‘green card’’ is good for?

It’s becoming a common problem: An employer discovers disparaging comments on an employee’s Facebook, MySpace or personal blog. Maybe a post reveals internal company information. Can the employer take disciplinary action? It depends.

During a workplace investigation, there are a number of practical steps that you, as an HR investigator, can take to improve the reliability and objectivity of your witness credibility assessments. Four factors are critical to assessing witness credibility: demeanor, consistency, chronology, and past history and motivations.

An employer made a job offer to someone, but then rescinded it. Then the employer hired another applicant two months later. Is there anything illegal about that?

Q. We have field employees who use their own cell phones on the job. Do we need to establish a policy on cell phone usage, even though the phones aren’t ours and aren’t required by us?

Q. An employee objected to us putting her name (just her first name!) on our company’s “Holiday Greetings from Our Staff” card. She said she doesn’t celebrate holidays for religious reasons and using her name without permission was illegal. The boss said she should “get over it.” Did we set ourselves up for a lawsuit?

Q. We have field employees who use their own cell phones on the job. Do we need to establish a policy on cell phone usage, even though the phones aren’t ours and aren’t required by us?

The calendar turns to spring, and you know what’s coming. It’s that time of year when employers are swamped with requests from college students for unpaid internships. The benefits of the symbiotic relationship are obvious. But the legal risks are not ...

Q. Can we ask an applicant or employee how long his ‘‘green card’’ is good for?

Q. Say an employee driving his own car on company business to make a bank deposit gets into an accident and is slightly injured. Is it his responsibility to go to his own doctor to seek immediate treatment and then to the workers’ comp doctors? And who covers the damage to the car?

Q. Can an employer prohibit employees from sharing confidential wage information with each other, such as rates of pay or the amount of wage increases?

Q. In New York, does a terminated employee have the right to see his personnel file or other documents?

Q. Would a brief clock-out (initiated by the employee) of less than 20 minutes, such as an impromptu smoking break or personal phone call break, need to be paid as work time?

Q. In New York, can an employee be prohibited from engaging in political activity?

Q. Our company offers a health insurance opt-out incentive, paying employees $400 a month if they use their spouses’ insurance plans. We now have an employee going out on FMLA maternity leave. Do we have to keep paying her $400 per month?

Q. We have two offices in two different states. In one office, we have a sick leave policy in place because we have exempt employees, and the FLSA requires us to have the policy if we want to dock exempt employees for sick time after they exhaust their sick days. All employees at the second office are hourly, and they rarely call in sick. Can we have a policy at one location and not at another?

Q. Are we required to give applicants official offer letters? What does a letter have to spell out?