On October 19, 2022, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) released the “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal” poster, replacing the “EEO is the Law” poster. The “Know Your Rights” poster provides updated guidance on federal anti-discrimination laws to applicants, employees, and employers. Covered employers are required to prominently display the “Know Your Rights” poster at their worksites ...
On Oct. 25, 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its technical guidance for employers addressing questions regarding religious objections to employer COVID-19 vaccine requirements and how those requirements interact with federal equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws ...
Recently, in Beal v. Outfield Brew House, LLC, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 7748 (8th Cir. Mar. 24, 2022) the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld two district court decisions, each of which found that the marketing software called “Txt Live” used by the defendants to send promotional text messages to phone numbers randomly selected from a customer database is not an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) ...
The Eleventh Circuit’s recent decision in United States ex rel. Hunt v. Cochise Consultancy, Inc., has further complicated the answer to what should be a simple question: What is the statute of limitations in qui tam action when the government declines to intervene? There are currently three different answers to that seemingly simple question depending on the forum in which a case is filed ...
Under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act (MSPA), a Medicare Secondary Payer is the entity which has an obligation to pay medical expenses before Medicare. In the face of rising costs, legislation was passed in 1980 making Medicare a secondary payer to various primary plans in order to shift medical expenses to those Medicare believed should be the primary source of payment ...
An Eleventh Circuit panel has breathed new life into a long-running, $248 million False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case, United States ex rel. Bibby v. Mortgage Investors Corp.,[1] reversing the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the defendants.[2] Materiality lay at the heart of the case, which involved allegations that the defendant finance companies misled the U.S ...
An Eleventh Circuit panel has breathed new life into a long-running, $248 million False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case, United States ex rel. Bibby v. Mortgage Investors Corp.,[1] reversing the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the defendants.[2] Materiality lay at the heart of the case, which involved allegations that the defendant finance companies misled the U.S ...
The dangers of workers developing silicosis amid the fabrication of engineered stone has become a topic heavily discussed in the news and elsewhere recently. Silicosis is a lung disease that develops from the exposure and inhalation of silica particles. On October 2, National Public Radio (“NPR”) aired a story entitled “Workers Are Falling Ill, Even Dying, After Making Kitchen Countertops ...
On Feb. 25, 2022, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) relaxed its masking recommendations. Under the new guidance, the CDC only recommends individuals mask while indoors in public if their community is categorized as high risk. The CDC is no longer recommending masks for individuals in low- or medium-risk communities ...
Effective Tuesday, May 19, 2020, the Department of Labor issued a new rule to provide greater simplicity and flexibility to retail and service-industry employers. The rule relaxes the regulatory framework underpinning Section 7(i) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, also known as the “retail service exemption ...
Due to recent federal regulation, employers must follow new disclosure procedures before performing background checks. Effective September 21, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued updated model disclosure forms mandated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The new forms may be accessed here. The last time the CFPB provided a model disclosure form for use by employers performing background checks was 2012 ...
In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme Court recently addressed the standard to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee in wage and hour disputes under California’s Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) wage orders. In Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v ...
Earlier this year the enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact (eNLC) was implemented in all 29 participating states including Colorado, West Virginia and Kentucky. Illinois[1] and Michigan[2] are among the states with current legislation pending to adopt the eNLC, while Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California and a handful of other states do not yet have pending legislation ...
Not all matters will be appropriate for mediation. There are situations in which mediation is likely to fail: When parties let their egos control. When there is a misunderstanding of the facts. When there is a misunderstanding of the law. There is no incentive for settlement. When parties do not respect the process ...
On February 22, 2018, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) sent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a notice of intent to sue letter for failure to approve Kentucky’s air quality plan for limiting fine particulate (PM2.5) emissions in the Louisville, Kentucky area. Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet submitted a revision to the Jefferson County portion of the Kentucky State Implementation Plan (SIP) to EPA December 21, 2016 ...
On October 16, 2017, EPA Administrator Pruitt issued the “Directive Promoting Transparency and Public Participation in Consent Decrees and Settlement Agreements.” At the same time, Pruitt issued a memorandum to EPA assistant administrators, regional administrators and the office of general counsel explaining the rejection of “sue and settle” tactics by his administration ...
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a new rule that will impact the operations of a wide-range of health care facilities and the manner in which those facilities manage hazardous waste pharmaceuticals ...
For many years EPA has taken the position it could take enforcement action based on agency review and calculation of projected emissions in determining New Source Review (NSR) applicability for pre-construction permitting for modification of an existing source ...
On October 16, 2017, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt signed an order reversing a long-standing EPA position that EPA has the authority to review previous state decisions on new source permitting applicability when reviewing Title V permits. The order denied a petition by Sierra Club requesting that EPA object to the issuance of a Title V operating permit to the Hunter Power Plant in Castle Dale, Utah ...
EPA Administrator Pruitt recently issued another policy to help streamline the New Source Review (NSR) Program. After receiving comments from many industry sources that the NSR Program should be reformed given its heavy time and cost burden, the Trump EPA has made reforming the NSR Program a priority ...
On Nov. 20, 2019, United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed the Risk Management Program Reconsideration Rule (Reconsideration Rule), which finalized changes to the 2017 Risk Management Program Amendments. The Reconsideration Rule reflects EPA’s reconsideration of its 2017 Amendments based on objections from three petitions and based on its own review. The Reconsideration Rule was effective on Dec ...
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") recently updated its guidance in July of 2022. According to the new guidance, the COVID-19 pandemic no longer automatically meets the business necessity requirement for medical examinations i.e. COVID-19 testing. This means that employers are now required to conduct an individualized assessment to determine whether COVID testing is warranted based on "evolving pandemic circumstances ...
As seen in Law Journal Newsletters The False Claims Act (FCA or Act) can be a real punch in the gut for businesses on the wrong side of an FCA claim. The Act, codified at 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729-3733, is designed to prevent private companies contracting with the government from knowingly submitting false or fraudulent claims for their services ...
Over the past month, the SEC has signaled the primacy of ESG in its mission for 2021 and beyond. Seemingly daily, there have been updates regarding ESG initiatives, whether from the Division of Enforcement or the Division of Corporation Finance. This week, it was the Division of Investment Management’s turn ...
Dinsmore's Richik Sarkar was published in the American Bar Association's Business Law Today this week discussing a few lawsuits alleging that lack of board and management diversity constitutes a breach of fiduciary duty. An excerpt from the article, "ESG In Action: Diversifying Corporate Governance," is below. "While the purpose of these suits is laudable, significant threshold legal questions exist ...
