Virginia is the First State in the Nation to Approve COVID-19 Workplace Safety Standards
Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC, July 2020

Yesterday, Virginia approved temporary emergency workplace safety standards related to COVID-19, making it the first state in the nation to do so. While final language has yet to be approved, the standards are expected to go into effect in late July and will remain in effect for six months unless extended pursuant to state law. A current draft of the regulations is available here.   In large measure, the regulations codify and make mandatory certain safety standards that experts have been recommending for some time...

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Unprecedented: COVID-19 Litigation Trends, Issue 15
Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC, July 2020

This 15th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, showcases new and evolving trends. This week we note how COVID-19 has accelerated a pre-existing trend toward class action litigation. And we discuss specific trends involving workplace safety, mask requirements, shutdown orders, quarantine enforcement, and prisoners’ rights. These cases, and others like them, show no signs of cooling down as the summer heats up. We hope you find these cases, and the questions they raise, to be informative...

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Unprecedented: COVID-19 Litigation Trends, Issue 14
Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC, July 2020

This 14th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, showcases new and evolving trends. Employers are facing claims for both doing too much and too little in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shutdown litigation is increasingly focusing on alleged disparate treatment between businesses and protesters, as well as broadening to encompass challenges to mask requirements. Landlords have experienced a setback in early efforts challenging eviction moratoria, in addition to the adoption of a particularly tenant-friendly law in San Francisco...

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An Employer's Guide for Handling Vacation Issues in the Time of COVID-19
Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC, June 2020

Even in more traditional times, summer posed staffing issues for most employers, as employers juggled employee vacation requests while working to maintain a functional workplace. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in stay-at-home orders in most states which either limited the ability of some businesses to operate or resulted in businesses furloughing employees or having them work from home. As businesses reopen, many employers have imposed vacation restrictions to address pent-up demand. These restrictions are generally legal, if problematic from an HR standpoint, so long as the overall balance of vacation time is unaffected...

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Unprecedented: COVID-19 Litigation Trends, Issue 13
Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC, June 2020

This 13th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation brings new developments in everything from constitutional law to tort liability. Shutdown cases show no signs of slowing down, and it seems probable that more will follow as some states reverse reopening plans in response to coronavirus outbreaks. Indeed, the restrictions are likely to hit businesses particularly hard, and a recent lease dispute filed by the couture manufacturer Valentino shows that even high-end retailers are not immune...

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