Mortgage servicers are currently being inundated with requests from borrowers impacted by COVID-19 for forbearance and other types of payment relief. Tracking, making sense of, and then complying with the guidance and requirements that are being issued and then modified – seemingly on a daily basis – by the federal government, the GSEs, and various states is proving to be a challenge for many, especially at a time when resources may already be limited or stretched thin ...
The economic turmoil stemming from the outbreak of COVID-19 has forced small business owners to take drastic measures to save their companies. Unfortunately, government subsidized loans, loan deferrals, and temporary rent relief may not be enough to save all small businesses. Bankruptcy should never be the first choice for a business in financial distress, but it may be the best choice for all interested parties ...
As clients and counsel wrestle with the changing dynamics within litigation and trial work, Bradley has assembled trial lawyers with experience from hundreds of trials and a jury consultant of national standing to present on what is happening in courts across the country and how it is impacting the judicial system as we know it ...
Please join Bradley and the Business Council of Alabama for a live webinar addressing key questions our clients are asking about navigating the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) ...
Now that it appears the COVID-19 quarantine may be on the verge of ending, there are issues to consider before re-starting collection operations. When is too soon? Are there any special notices that could or should be sent? What about voluntary surrender of collateral during shelter in place? We will address these issues as well as lien priority and credit reporting ...
With the recent and rapid spread of COVID-19 in the United States, it is only a matter of time before government contractors experience contract-performance delays — whether ordered by the government or not — that inevitably will have a significant financial impact. Accordingly, federal contractors should prepare now for COVID-19-related contract delays and be prepared to establish that such delays are compensable as well as excusable. I ...
COVID-19 came upon us all like a tsunami, leveling life as we knew it and causing an entirely new paradigm of behavior to be necessary. No segment of the population was hit harder than seniors, both in our communities and in senior care facilities. Long-term care facilities were on the frontlines of the battle, being one of the first industries to be required to wholly alter traditional behaviors to try to stop the inevitable spread of this deadly virus ...
The landmark CARES Act, signed into law by the President on March 27, provides many employers with several options to increase liquidity and cash flow during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. And only 9 days before that legislation was enacted, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) also created two other payroll tax-related incentives for certain employers, and to self-employed individuals ...
The California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA), also known as CCPA 2.0, was approved by California voters on November 3, 2020. The new law builds on CCPA and forecasts an even stricter regulatory data privacy environment for businesses. Please join Bradley cybersecurity and privacy attorneys Erin Illman, Junaid Odubeko, and Steve Snyder for a discussion of areas that companies need to address before CPRA goes into effect ...
On April 15, 2024, the Department of Justice released its “Criminal Division’s Pilot Program on Voluntary Self-Disclosures for Individuals.” Similar in many ways to programs introduced earlier this year by the U.S ...
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up? I grew up in a small town of about 3,500 in rural North Carolina, nestled in the middle of the Uwharrie National Forest. Like many small towns, it fostered a close-knit community of people who supported and encouraged me to dream big ...
"The Package” The day begins like any other. Your client opens for business at 9:00 a.m. All employees are at their desks as customers begin calling, emailing, and walking in with various questions and needs. Except this time, when the employees attempt to access customer records from your client’s computer network, they immediately notice something is wrong. None of the customer files will open. The data is a garbled mess ...
The onslaught of ransomware attacks by cybercriminals increases unabated every year, affecting everyone from mom and pop shops on Main Street to corporate lions of Wall Street. Hackers infiltrate an organization's computer network through social engineering tactics like phishing emails or by exploiting network security weaknesses, allowing vital digital information to be hijacked and held for ransom ...
In a sign that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission continues to ramp up its enforcement efforts, the SEC last week in In re: Healthcare Services Group Inc. charged a health care services company and its chief financial officer and controller as part of the Division of Enforcement's Earnings Per Share, or EPS, Initiative. A Sept ...
While the calling restrictions are sure to get the most publicity from the CFPB’s new debt collection rule, a number of the less discussed aspects of the rule may present just as many operational challenges. For instance, the CFPB’s prohibition on the sale or transfer of certain types of debt, as well as the record retention requirements in the rule will likely present a number of hurdles of their own ...
As promised, the CFPB released the second part of its FDCPA rulemaking covering debt validation notices, collection of time-barred debts, and certain credit reporting restrictions. As with the first rulemaking, these changes could require significant changes to a company’s policies and procedures as well as significant technology upgrades ...
In the advent of DNA testing, companies such as Ancestry.com and 23andMe have made it easy and convenient to submit DNA samples for testing from your own home. This type of genetic—also known as genomic—testing has been applied to a variety of uses, including paternity determinations and the discovery of genetic ancestors and relatives ...
The United States Court of Federal Claims recently dismissed multiple challenges to the accuracy of a Contract Performance Assessment Report (CPAR), not based on merit but based on jurisdiction. This serves as a reminder to all that the proper mechanism to challenge a CPAR must be obeyed for the claims to be heard. In Colonna’s Shipyard, Inc. v. United States, Colonna sought to challenge the accuracy of its CPAR from a previous Navy contract, the Narragansett Contract ...
The overturning of Roe v. Wade, combined with a largely unknown workers' compensation case presented to the U.S. Supreme Court — for which certiorari was recently denied — reveal the Biden administration's position on cannabis: The Biden administration doesn't care about cannabis issues ...
The way one handles documentation can make or break claims and defenses. Good documentation may increase your chances of prevailing in disputes that could arise down the road and may help avoid embarrassing landmines in general. When a party files a lawsuit or arbitration demand, parties may use rules of procedure to request documentation from parties in the dispute, and from entities outside the dispute that they otherwise may not be able to obtain ...
[!<CDATA[ On September 7, the CFPB issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding Dodd Frank Section 1071. This provision of the Dodd-Frank Act will require that financial services providers making loans to small businesses, women-owned businesses, and minority-owned businesses collect and report HMDA-like data points to the CFPB. The Bureau, in turn, will make some of this data publicly available ...
Electronic cigarettes and vaping have been heralded by many as a safer alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes. An outbreak of illnesses last fall allegedly related to vaping, however, ignited public hysteria and will almost certainly lead to substantial mass tort litigation aimed at manufacturers of e-cigarette devices and vaping liquids ...
The Department of Justice is stepping up its scrutiny of health-care fraud, especially in testing laboratories, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Former federal prosecutor Jason Mehta, a partner with Bradley, says now is not the time to tout profits over patient care and offers insights on compliance. In the midst of a global pandemic, much attention and praise is rightfully being showered on health-care providers ...
In EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2021-01, the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a critical interpretation of prior guidance that extended certain deadlines for employee benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries due to COVID-19. We discussed the original guidance in this prior article ...
Domestic extremism is not new, but heightened law enforcement scrutiny in the wake of the Capitol riots has added yet another layer of complexity to the jobs of already challenged AML compliance professionals and investigators ...
