As detailed in our previous alert, Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently committed to begin the gradual process of reopening businesses in Texas. On April 17, 2020, Governor Abbott issued two Executive Orders that relate to the strategic reopening of select services as the first step to open Texas in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Impact on Retail Employers Executive Order GA 16 (“E.O ...
On August 31, 2017, Judge Amos L. Mazzant of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas struck down a Department of Labor rule that would have raised the minimum salary for an individual to be exempt from overtime pay from $455 per week ($23,660 annually) to $913 per week ($47,476 annually). The final version of the overtime rule was announced last May and was set to take effect on Dec ...
During the 2011 legislative session that just ended, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed into law a bill that allows rural hospitals to employ physicians, known as the “corporate practice of medicine,” despite the state’s long-standing ban on such practices. This legislation, along with similar recent legislation, signals that Texas might eventually do away with its ban on corporate employment of physicians altogether ...
The 83rd Texas Legislature passed legislation to simplify the process by which physicians supervise and delegate to Physician Assistants (PAs) and Advance Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs). This article summarizes the rules recently adopted by the Texas Medical Board (TMB) to implement SB 406 (83R) ...
Texas is increasingly a purple political state. The motto of the state's capital city implores its citizens to keep it weird.[1] Recent polling shows that Texans overwhelmingly support medical cannabis.[2] Every one of Texas' neighboring states has a real medical cannabis program ...
Governor Perry recently signed four bills into law designed to combat Medicaid fraud, waste, and abuse. The bills are a mixed bag of enhanced enforcement capabilities for the state and a few new protections for healthcare providers. Most notably, the legislature made several changes to the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act (TMFPA), bringing the statute more in line with the federal False Claims Act. Changes to the Medicaid Fraud Laws On the enforcement side, S.B ...
On September 25, 2015, the Texas Board of Pharmacy (“TBP”) issued proposed rules that will allow pharmacists to substitute interchangeable biological products for brand name drugs. Currently, Texas regulations only allow for the substitution of lower-priced, generically equivalent drugs instead of certain brand name drugs. In contrast, the proposed rules allow pharmacists to dispense interchangeable biological products ...
On Friday, June 29, 2012, the Texas Supreme Court denied a petition for mandamus relief in In re XL Specialty Insurance Company and Cambridge Integrated Services, Group, Inc., No. 10-0960 (Tex. June 29, 2012), clarifying the scope of the joint defense and common interest privilege doctrines under Texas law. (The opinion is available here ...
The Texas Supreme Court denied a petition for review stemming from the Houston Court of Appeals’Barzoukas v. Found. Design, Ltd. decision.1 The case is significant because of its application of the economic loss rule (under Texas law) in the context of an owner-subcontractor dispute ...
In an opinion that will make vacating arbitration awards even more challenging, the Texas Supreme Court unanimously held that the Texas Arbitration Act (“TAA”) sets out the exclusive grounds for vacating arbitration awards arising from agreements governed by that statute, and that common law vacatur grounds are no longer viable. Hoskins v. Hoskins, No. 15-0046, --- S.W.3d --- (Tex. May 20, 2016). Read the full alert ...
On July 1, the Texas Supreme Court handed down an opinion that has the potential to impact any case where medical or health expenses are at issue. In the wake of the Court’s ruling, a plaintiff may not recover medical expenses for amounts that the plaintiff’s health providers bill but have no right to be paid. In addition, the Court held that such bills are inadmissible - including to show pain and suffering. Case Background and Issues Presented Haygood v ...
In a significant decision affecting Texas corporate law, the Texas Supreme Court decided on June 20th there is no common law claim for shareholder oppression in Texas; the court also set the standards and remedies available for oppression claims brought pursuant to the rehabilitative receiver statute in the Texas Business Organizations Code ...
When a governmental entity believes that information requested from it under the Texas Public Information Act (“PIA”) is exempt from disclosure, the PIA requires the entity to request an attorney general’s opinion within 10 business days after receiving the request. However, the PIA also allows the governmental entity to ask the requestor to clarify a request it finds to be unclear ...
[!<CDATA[ Effective September 1, 2021: HB 1578 closes the loophole of the previous version of Chapter 38 of the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code so that parties will be able to recover attorneys’ fees from LLCs, LLPs, LPs, or other organizations in lawsuits for breach of contract. Generally, Texas law provides that each party to a lawsuit is responsible for her attorneys’ fees ...
On 23 November 2021 The Thai Cabinet passed a resolution permitting the amendment of Ministerial Regulation No. 13 (the “Regulation”) under the Exchange Control Act (1942) which relaxes a lot of the rules on cross-border transactions, online activities and e-commerce matters. The amendments, among other things, includes: Allowing permitted persons (business operators) to accept foreign currency via sources other than bank notes (i.e ...
On September 14, 2022, the Parliament approved the draft of the Act Amending the Thai Civil and Commercial Code (the “Amendment Act”) covering Title XXII on Partnerships and Limited Companies. Under this Amendment Act, a new M&A scheme and amended corporate governance requirements have been introduced for limited companies ...
In the midst of a new wave of COVID-19 infections, the Cabinet of Thailand approved the draft of a new regulation on March 1, 2022, referred as the Draft Announcement of the Eastern Economic Corridor Policy Committee (“EEPC”) Re: Incentives for Business Operator in the Promotion Zone for Specific Industries B.E … ...
This article was first published in AmCham Thailand T-AB Magazine (March 2022 Issue): https://www.amchamthailand.com/t-ab-magazine/ After nearly two decades in the making, the Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2561 (“PDPA“) was published on May 27, 2019. Ostensibly inspired by the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the PDPA was slated to go fully effective in June 2022 following a two-year delay due to COVID-19 outbreak ...
On 1 September 2020, the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”)’s new regulations regarding the advertisements of digital asset business operators became effective. Prior to the issuance, the SEC observed that digital asset business operators heavily advertised their digital asset services on various platforms, such as digital media and billboards ...
Background On 23 May 2022, the latest amendment to the Public Limited Companies Act (No. 4), B.E. 2565 (2022) (the “PLC Amendment”) was published in the Government Gazette and it became effective on May 24, 2022. The PLC Amendment aims to facilitate public limited companies by allowing greater use of electronic communications in their business operations ...
