President Trump recently signed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (also known as the 2018 Farm Bill) and the cannabis industry quickly and widely celebrated passage as clearing the way to sell products containing cannabidiol (better known as CBD). But is it really? As one might expect, this lawyer’s answer is that “it depends.”CBD has become known for its purported health benefits in relation to a wide range of conditions ...
In December of 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) released their much-anticipated draft proposed rule to re-write the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) (“2018 Rule”). The definition of WOTUS establishes the scope of agency jurisdiction over waters and wetlands under the Clean Water Act (CWA) ...
The National Farmers Union, Scotland (NFUS) Joint Venture Hub is designed to act as a match-maker, bringing together enterprising individuals – some of whom have land and some of whom don’t – with a view to pooling their resources to farm together for profit. The Hub can be accessed online via this link. One of the possible vehicles for pursuing a joint venture is by entering into a share farming agreement ...
On December 11, 2018, Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene A. Depasquale released a long-awaited report discussing the role of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in Pennsylvania’s health care system ...
The end is near. 2018 is fast coming to a close, and it is that time of year when corporate lawyers are counting—not the number of shopping days left until Christmas, but the number weeks, days and hours left before the end of the fiscal year. Admittedly, in the scramble to close deals, insurance requirements and indemnity provisions may not be at the top of the list of critical deal points for clients and counsel ...
The Supreme Court has handed down one of the most anticipated Endangered Species Act (ESA) rulings in recent years. In Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serv., the Supreme Court unanimously overruled the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, holding that the Fish and Wildlife Service can only designate property that is “habitat” as critical habitat under the ESA ...
The deadline for meeting the previously issued nursing home compliance mandate is approaching. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the mandate in 2016 and gave facilities three years to become compliant. On November 28, 2019, skilled nursing facilities (SNF) and nursing homes will be required to adopt and implement a compliance program as a condition for participation in Medicare and Medicaid ...
Educational institutions (“recipient” or “recipient institutions”) have been waiting for the Department of Education to issue formal Title IX regulations after it issued interim guidance in September 2017. This interim guidance rescinded previous Obama-era guidance that called for strict enforcement of Title IX and indicated that new formal guidance would be forthcoming ...
In a letter to state Medicaid directors on Nov.13, 2018, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Alexander Azar, announced a new demonstration opportunity that will allow states to provide improved care for adults with a serious mental illness (SMI) and children with serious emotional disturbance (SED) ...
In the last quarter of 2018, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) announced that ImmediaDent of Indiana, LLC (ImmediaDent), which operates nine dental care practices, and Samson Dental Partners, LLC (SDP), which provides administrative support to Immediadent, have agreed to pay the United States and the state of Indiana $5.1 million to resolve allegations that they improperly billed Indiana’s Medicaid program ...
In Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation Trust Ltd v Lakehouse Contracts Ltd [2018] EWHC 558 (TCC), England’s Technology and Construction Court had to decide on the extent of coverage (or inclusion) of a project insurance policy for a construction project and how that coverage was affected by a sub-contractor having its own insurance cover ...
To coincide with its 250th anniversary, Shepherd and Wedderburn commissioned the University of Strathclyde’s Fraser of Allander Institute to consider the future challenges and, more importantly, opportunities for Scotland’s economy ...
In Scots law, it is possible to acquire certain rights to land – access, for instance – simply by the passage of time. This process is known as “prescription” and is outlined in the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973. There are two forms of prescription: positive and negative. Negative prescription extinguishes certain rights after a period of time ...
The Ohio Supreme Court yesterday reversed the decision of a lower court of appeals and held that a general contractor is not entitled to insurance coverage for property damage arising out of its subcontractor’s faulty work, even when the general contractor purchased a CGL insurance policy with a rider pertaining to coverage related to a subcontractor’s faulty work ...
The Ohio Supreme Court yesterday reversed the decision of a lower court of appeals and held that a general contractor is not entitled to insurance coverage for property damage arising out of its subcontractor’s faulty work, even when the general contractor purchased a CGL insurance policy with a rider pertaining to coverage related to a subcontractor’s faulty work ...
A new round of U.S. tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports became effective on September 24, 2018.1The 10 percent tax on Chinese consumer products is only the latest escalation in an ever-widening trade war between the United States and its global trading partners. While it appears that, subject to Congressional approval, trade disputes between the U.S ...
A new round of U.S. tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports became effective on September 24, 2018.1 The 10 percent tax on Chinese consumer products is only the latest escalation in an ever-widening trade war between the United States and its global trading partners. While it appears that, subject to Congressional approval, trade disputes between the U.S ...
Not-for-profit Reforesting Scotland’s "Thousand Huts" campaign has spearheaded the regrowth of the hutting community, previously almost entirely eradicated by increasingly strict building regulations. The new Building (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2017 sets out the framework for ecologically sustainable hut development. What is a Hut? A hut must be a single storey building used as recreational accommodation ...
Although Hurricane Lane’s substantial weakening from a Category 5 storm as it approached land likely spared Hawaii a disaster, the storm still caused much harm. Areas of the Big Island got inundated with well over three feet of rain, causing landslides and major road closures, and high winds stoked brush fires on Maui, burning 2,300 acres of land, damaging multiple homes, and forcing hundreds of evacuations ...
Earlier this year, the government released a proposal paper: Extending Unfair Contract Terms Protections to Insurance Contracts outlining a model to extend unfair contract term (UCT) provisions to insurance contracts regulated under the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) (IC Act) for consultation. The consultation period closes on 27 July. A high level summary of the proposed model is below ...
The international trading market is currently quite favorable to commodity-producing countries such as Brazil. In recent months, the Bloomberg Commodity Index, which tracks daily the performance of main commodities, closed at US$89.49, 1.5% higher than it was at lhe end of 2017 and 6.73% higher than it was 12 months ago ...
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CoJ) handed down an important judgment last week on the protection of geographical indications of spirit drinks in a preliminary ruling under Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) v Michael Klotz (Case C-44/17)). Facts: Mr Klotz markets a whisky under the designation ‘Glen Buchenbach’, which is produced by a distillery located in Berglen in the Buchenbach valley in Germany ...
As the Trump administration is pushing forward on its deregulatory agenda and, in particular, its efforts to improve the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and its implementation by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (together, the Services), the Supreme Court is poised to hear a landmark case on designation of critical habitat under the ESA that could provide some guideposts for the Services’ new regulations ...
