Rail firms have announced proposals to close hundreds of ticket offices across England and Wales over the next three years, potentially creating redundancy situations. Could the offer of alternative roles provide a way of avoiding redundancy dismissals? When does a redundancy situation arise and what obligations does an employer have? Redundancy is one of a limited number of potentially fair reasons for which an employer can dismiss an employee ...
Just weeks into the new Administration, perhaps the only certain thing is that there will be uncertainty as the Administration makes its mark and works to fulfill campaign promises. Meanwhile, restaurant chains and food companies are trying to allocate resources to best address business priorities and hot legal issues ...
Twenty months in, Covid-19 continues to demand that we exercise flexibility and adaptation as it identifies winners and losers. The pandemic has had a significant impact on the practice of law and businesses that are involved in, or contemplating, litigation. Those who have been involved in litigation know that it can be expensive in “normal” times. Here are three ways the pandemic has impacted the costs associated with litigation. Time to trial ...
Much of the media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic over the last two months has focused on the loss of business sustained by restaurants, hotels and retail. Little attention has been paid to healthcare providers—at least those who are not valiantly staffing emergency rooms and intensive care units treating those patients stricken by the coronavirus ...
Coming to Grips with Hospital Price Transparency – DC Circuit Rejects American Hospital Association’s Effort to Invalidate Price Transparency Requirements Rule Since 2010, Section 2718(e) of the Public Health Service Act has required hospitals to establish and publish annually “a list of the hospital’s standard charges for items and services provided by the hospital ...
At a time when tolerance seems to be an increasingly precious commodity, society can celebrate an awakening intolerance for sexual harassment. For all of the scandal and salacious detail dominating the media in recent months, there is the hope that victims of depravity can find empowerment and healing, if not justice, too ...
The Affordable Care Act ("ACA") is alive and well, despite renewed legal challenges and the elimination of the “individual mandate” beginning next year. While the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduced the tax penalty for individuals who don’t have health coverage to $0, effective for 2019, employers continue to be subject to penalties for failing to comply with certain ACA rules ...
Yesterday, in Romag Fasteners, Inc. v. Fossil, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that a plaintiff in a trademark infringement suit is not required to show that the infringing defendant acted “willfully” to avail itself of the Lanham Act’s disgorgement remedy ...
Three recent Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) enforcement actions underscore the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) focus on prosecuting companies and individuals for improper gifts, meals, travel, and entertainment provided to foreign officials. Avon Products, Inc ...
Virtually every merger or acquisition includes representations or requirements regarding insurance. Every corporate counsel knows that warranties regarding the adequacy of insurance coverage must be verified. Every sophisticated director and officer will require ongoing insurance coverage and indemnification after the closing of a merger. Many experienced counsel are savvy enough to watch out for basic insurance traps like anti-assignment provisions ...
Employers should recognize three common mistakes in determining a valid workers’ compensation claim and in preparing to defend an invalid claim: 1. Failure to Investigate Thoroughly An initial thorough investigation of a workers’ compensation claim can be the key to determining a valid claim or a successful defense to an invalid claim at hearing. Early investigation allows for comprehensive documents-gathering and discovery ...
THREE KEY THINGS IN HEALTH CAREFrom the Health Care Practice of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP HCA Healthcare’s announcement that it will be returning $1.6 billion in Provider Relief Funds illustrates the challenges facing providers in accounting for PRFs under shifting guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ...
Congress reached agreement on the third round of coronavirus-related relief measures (totaling approximately $900 Billion) as this issue was being written. The relevant statutory language is part of the massive Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “Act”) and was released on December 21, 2020. Passage by the House and Senate was swift, and approval by the President is expected ...
as published in the Fall 2021 issue of West Virginia Banker magazine As the world (hopefully) comes out of the COVID-19 pandemic later this year, the way we conduct business is changing. The banking industry, described by one commentator as “the most old-school of the old-school professions,” is criticized as being resistant to change. As one article described it, “the fundamental ways that financial institutions function have not changed with the times ...
Over the past year, the Tribunal administratif du Québec (TAQ) has issued several rulings dealing with oversight of the medical practice of professionals working in health and social services institutions. Several of these rulings will be of interest to institutions since they set out principles that tend to confirm the existence of a form of management rights over physicians, despite the lack of the traditional relationship of subordination between such institutions and their physicians ...
Medical Cannabis approvals in the City have been the subject of intense negotiations, hearings, and appeals in the last two months. First, our law firm assisted the Apothecarium - Sunset (an additional location in the Sunset District for the medical cannabis dispensary called The Apothecarium currently near the Castro), in obtaining an approval at the Planning Commission ...
Individuals who participated in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (“CMS”) Quality Payment Program Merit-based Incentive Payment System (“MIPS”) in 2019 may request a Targeted Review of their performance feedback, including their MIPS final score and payment adjustment factor at the Quality Payment Program website. In July, CMS released the MIPS Performance Feedback and scores for eligible providers ...
On September 20, 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced settlements with three Boston hospitals for disclosing Protected Health Information (PHI) to ABC News documentary filmcrews.[i] In total, the hospitals paid OCR $999,000 to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule ...
Lauren Bowkett is a fraud and financial crime expert in the Business Crime and Compliance Team at Shoosmiths. She is an expert in confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (‘POCA’) and has successfully intervened in numerous POCA cases to assert her clients third party interest rights ...
Most employers know that they have a legal obligation to protect employees from harassment at work and to prevent it from recurring. Many employers assume that this obligation relates to harassment by employees and managers; however, it actually extends to harassment by third parties, including customers or vendors. Several recent cases brought by the U.S ...
An important, and often overlooked, arrow in the quiver of any company defending itself against potentially devastating class litigation is the implicit requirement of “ascertainability.” Before a class can be certified, a plaintiff must demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that the members of the class are currently and readily identifiable based on objective criteria ...
Most commentary around AI looks at the big picture or the future of work, but in this article we look at some practical data protection implications for businesses that are considering implementing AI systems. 1. Automated Decision-Making There are specific rules in both the EU and UK GDPR (in this article we will refer to both together) covering individuals’ rights when processing involves solely automated decision-making, including profiling ...
