Employment and Labor Relations Law Glossary Terms

The castle doctrine simply creates a presumption that one has acted in self defense.

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, the federal law that allows employees, spouses, and dependent children to continue participating in group health insurance plans, at the employee’s expense, when the employer has 20 or more employees, after a “qualifying event” that causes the employee (or dependents) to lose group health coverage. Qualifying events for employees may be a reduction in number of hours worked or termination for reasons other than gross misconduct. Employee coverage may continue for up to 18 months. For spouses or dependent children, COBRA qualifying events may include any of the employee events in addition to employee divorce, death, or eligibility for Medicare. Spouse/dependent child COBRA coverage can continue up to 36 months. Employees of companies with less than 20 employees who participated in a company’s group health plan may be eligible for up to six months of continuation coverage under applicable state laws.