Workplace, Consumer, and Privacy Law

This unit examines legal rights and responsibilities that affect individuals and small businesses, including employment law, vehicle and public-safety obligations, privacy and identity protections, consumer credit and fraud, and basic business compliance. It builds on introductory legal concepts from Unit 1 and prepares learners to address business compliance, dispute resolution, and entrepreneurship topics in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze employer and employee legal rights and responsibilities—such as discrimination, harassment, workplace safety, background checks, and termination—by applying North Carolina and federal standards to workplace case studies
• Apply consumer protection, credit, and debt-relief laws to evaluate options for obtaining credit, responding to billing or collection issues, pursuing credit repair, and handling warranty or purchase-dispute scenarios
• Evaluate federal privacy and identity-protection statutes (e.g., HIPAA, Financial Privacy Act, Identity Theft laws, Patriot Act provisions) to determine individual rights and organizational obligations in common privacy incidents
• Demonstrate steps to legally establish and operate a small business or home-based enterprise, including tax registration, basic intellectual property safeguards (patents, trademarks, copyrights), vehicle ownership responsibilities, and procedures for responding to legal and financial disputes