While many people begin to work from home in an effort to practice social distancing, it is important to remember that corporate needs still arise for many individuals and their businesses. Effective 5:00 p.m. on March 18, 2020, the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office closed to walk-in services. Additionally, Kentucky government agencies, including the Secretary of State’s office, have been asked to reduce staffing by 50 percent and work remotely ...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced during a March 19, 2020 teleconference for physicians and teaching hospitals that it does not have the authority to postpone the statutory timeline for the Physician Payments Sunshine Act (Sunshine Act) ...
Every state has an Open Meeting Law, or Sunshine Law requiring public bodies to take official action and conduct deliberations in open meetings. Open meetings are defined as an in-person meeting open to the public with a certain number of legislators or board members physically present to establish a quorum and participate in the meeting ...
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced in a press conference on March 17, 2020 that all elective surgeries would be postponed in the State of Ohio effective at 5:00 p.m. on March 18, 2020 until further notice. The Order, issued by Director of the Ohio Department of Health Amy Acton, is available here: (https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/OHOOD/2020/03/17/file_attachments/1403950/Director%27s%20Order%20non-essential%20surgery%203-17-2020.pdf) ...
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Friday on Twitter that the U.S. will extend the tax filing deadline of April 15, 2020 for 2019 individual and business tax returns until July 15, 2020. Earlier this week, the Internal Revenue Service announced that the payment deadline for any 2019 individual income tax due, including 2020 first quarter estimated payments due April 15, 2020, was deferred until July 15, 2020 ...
On March 17, 2020, Governor Newson issued Executive Order N-29-20 ("Executive Order") in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This order supersedes Executive Order N-25-20, which was issued on March 12, and expressly waives all requirements in the Brown Act and Bagley-Keene Act that require a physical presence of Board members, staff or the public as a condition of holding and participating in a local agency governing body or state commission public meeting ...
On March 20, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced by tweet that the April 15 deadline for filing tax returns will be postponed to July 15: "At @realDonaldTrump’s direction, we are moving Tax Day from April 15 to July 15. All taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties." Later on March 20, the IRS published Notice 2020-18 to memorialize the extension ...
On March 17, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an Executive Order suspending some of the notice requirements under the California WARN Act ("Cal-WARN"), the state counterpart to the Federal WARN Act. The order came in response to the sudden onslaught of workplace closings across California due to COVID-19. Under the Cal-WARN, employers with 75 or more employees must give 60-days' written notice to employees and unions before layoffs occur ...
On March 18, 2020, the Senate approved, and President Trump signed H.R. 6201, the "Families First Coronavirus Response Act." The legislation contains a number of provisions related to employees' rights to time off and pay, provides tax credits to employers, and includes expanded health services and unemployment provisions. The provisions related to employees' rights to time off and pay, tax credits, and unemployment are summarized here: Family Medical Leave Act Expansion H.R ...
On March 16, seven Bay Area counties issued "shelter-in-place" restrictions, which create compliance issues for cannabis operations licensed as dispensaries or as delivery services ...
Many jurisdictions in Northern California and throughout the State have ordered individuals who live in those communities to shelter in place to slow the spread of COVID-19. In addition, all businesses except for “Essential Businesses” have been ordered to close. Certain construction activities, however, are exempt from the Shelter-in-Place orders, including housing projects and public works ...
The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic is upending regular commercial activity across the United States and around the world, and that disruption is expected to escalate. Among the issues confronting our clients, the effect of public health orders and other measures to address COVID-19 is threatening, impacting, and in some cases, outright prohibiting the performance of material contractual obligations ...
We have been asked whether businesses should cancel or severely limit business meetings and social engagements due to the Coronavirus pandemic crisis. It is admittedly difficult to run a business while essentially sheltering in place until such time, as the country achieves some sort of reliable testing program and medical treatment availability. Our recommendation is to cancel all but the most critical of meetings and gatherings ...
As a growing number of the workforce is being affected by the COVID-19 virus, employers are being asked to respond to benefit-related questions from employees. In the coming days, the Employee Benefits Group at Hanson Bridgett will be providing updated information on possible issues arising in the benefits area through Benefits Alerts and postings on Hanson Bridgett's Online COVID-19 Resource Center ...
As each day that passes while COVID-19 spreads throughout the country, more businesses are closing their doors to protect their employees, customers, vendors, and other people with whom they come into contact. And many of them are wondering whether there is coverage for their business losses during this time. Business interruption or business income coverage is sometimes included in commercial property coverage ...
Below is a link to the recording of the COVID-19 Webinar Series: Business Continuity Planning, as well as a corresponding PowerPoint presentation. For more information, visit www.bradley.com/coronavirus. This webpage addresses specific concerns and questions related to the impact of the coronavirus including some common Q&As, attorney-authored content on how the coronavirus may impact you or your business, and links to helpful online resources ...
On March 18, 2020, Governor Jim Justice suspended the rule prohibiting bars and restaurants from providing beer and wine for off-premises consumption. Restaurants and bars with Class A licenses are now permitted to sell sealed bottles or cans of beer in their original containers and bottles of wine to-go so long as they are accompanied by food orders. The rule does not authorize the sale of beer growlers unless the individual possesses a beer growler license ...
We realize employers continue to have pressing questions during this growing COVID-19 pandemic. Our COVID-19 Task Force is ready to assist with those questions and will continue providing updates in hopes of answering some of the more pressing questions you are likely to encounter as we move forward in this unprecedented situation ...
In IRS Notice 2020-18, the IRS extended the deadline for specified U.S. federal income tax payments and federal income tax returns due April 15, 2020 to July 15, 2020.IRS Notice 2020-18 supersedes IRS Notice 2020-17 which only extended the deadline for specified tax payments (see our prior coverage here). The extension applies to any person with a federal income tax payment and/or federal income tax return due April 15, 2020 ...
Businesses who are covered by the CARES Act and who are planning to make large-scale layoffs this week might consider pressing pause. The Senate is presently debating the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the CARES Act), originally introduced late on March 19, 2020 ...
On March 23, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an FAQ on Medicare provider enrollment relief, noting several key changes aimed at streamlining and expediting provider enrollment in light of COVID-19. Physicians and non-physician practitioners may now enroll and receive temporary billing privileges without certain fingerprint-based criminal background checks and site visits ...
Sunday morning, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued an executive order limiting restaurants, bars and similar food or drink establishments to drive-through, carry-out and delivery service only. Read the order here. Restaurants, limited-service restaurants and wine-only restaurants can sell take-out and deliver alcoholic beverages and beer. There is no additional license or permission needed to deliver ...
Two schools of thought have emerged on business interruption insurance coverage for coronavirus, either (a) it is a total panacea that will shift the risk of coronavirus revenue losses to insurance carriers or (b) there is no possible coverage for losses caused by coronavirus. As with most things in life and insurance, the truth lies somewhere in between and will depend on the specific policy at issue and the jurisdiction interpreting the policy ...
The FDIC and other banking and credit agencies provided specific guidance to FDIC-supervised financial institutions that are working with borrowers affected by COVID-19. The Interagency Statement on Loan Modifications and Reporting by Financial Institutions Working with Customers Affected by the Coronavirus, issued on March 22, encourages lenders to “work constructively with borrowers” and offers the following guidance ...
