Introduction In the recent Industrial Court Award of Harry Wong Wei Chen v Petroliam Nasional Berhad [Award No.11 of 2021] dated 4 January 2021, the Industrial Court upheld the dismissal of an employee (“the Claimant”) on account of several allegations of sexual and workplace harassment. An interesting point in the instant case was the absence of corroborative witnesses in respect of several of the complaints against the Claimant ...
Some facts and figures that set out the landscape of merger control, antitrust enforcement and competition litigation in Portugal in 2020. Interim Measures The PCA ordered the Portuguese Professional Football League to suspend its decision preventing teams in the First and Second Football Leagues from signing players that have unilaterally terminated their contracts due to the COVID-19 pandemic ...
A change in administrations from Republican to Democratic usually ushers in increased enforcement, regulation and strategic initiatives. Most of the Trump regulations and initiatives will likely be scrapped where possible. They will be replaced by rules and guidance documents that have been held in abeyance during the previous administration, as well as numerous new initiatives ...
It is common knowledge among many human resources professionals that religious organizations generally are protected from religious discrimination lawsuits under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and most state anti-discrimination laws. For example, a Baptist organization may apply a preference for members of the Baptist Church in its hiring decisions ...
An Eleventh Circuit panel has breathed new life into a long-running, $248 million False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case, United States ex rel. Bibby v. Mortgage Investors Corp.,[1] reversing the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the defendants.[2] Materiality lay at the heart of the case, which involved allegations that the defendant finance companies misled the U.S ...
An Eleventh Circuit panel has breathed new life into a long-running, $248 million False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case, United States ex rel. Bibby v. Mortgage Investors Corp.,[1] reversing the district court’s grant of summary judgment for the defendants.[2] Materiality lay at the heart of the case, which involved allegations that the defendant finance companies misled the U.S ...
In recent years, Russia has focused on regulating its IT area. In particular, this has been needed due to the increasing number of cases, when prohibited information has been distributed on various large Internet resources, such as a social network. However, according to Russian government agencies, despite the risks of possible sanctions, many foreign companies still do not respond quickly enough to government requests, or ignore the demands to remove prohibited information ...
For the first quarterly update of the year, we look back at some of the key employment law cases from the past three months and the lessons we can learn from them. Discrimination The case of Higgs v Farmors School considered whether Christian beliefs that gender cannot be fluid and that someone cannot change their biological sex or gender were protected beliefs under the Equality Act 2010. Mrs Higgs is a Christian and was employed in Farmor’s school as a pastoral administrator ...
The UK ceased to be part of the EU customs union at 23:00 GMT on 31 December 2020. The UK is now considered by the EU to be a “third country” and as such VAT treatment of UK pleasure craft in EU waters and EU pleasure craft entering UK waters will be affected. This update seeks to outline the post-Brexit position on the payment of VAT for existing pleasure boat owners in the UK, and for those looking to dip their toes in the water this season ...
Not surprisingly, COVID-19 business interruption insurance disputes dominated media headlines for most of 2020. Nonetheless, there were a number of other insurance rulings that will undoubtedly shape the coverage landscape. Policyholders enjoyed a number of significant wins including significant victories related to COVID-19 business interruption cases. The start of a new year gives us an opportunity to highlight some of 2020’s most notable coverage decisions ...
In a scenario that has played out across the country for nearly a year now, a group of restaurants based in Ohio were ordered by government authorities to close their on-site dining operations to abate the spread of the coronavirus. However, when the restaurants sought insurance coverage for their loss of business income, their insurer, Zurich American Insurance Company, denied coverage. Last week, the U.S ...
Two federal cases in the Northern District of Ohio recently reached very different conclusions on whether the state’s COVID-19 shutdowns of restaurants permit valid claims for business interruption insurance coverage. Reviewing essentially the same facts and policy provisions, one court found for the insurer, holding no coverage to exist. The other found for the policyholder, awarding coverage. The opposite results will no doubt lead to further upcoming appellate activity in Ohio ...
The short answer is yes. Each of the parties to a divorce are under a duty to provide full, frank and clear disclosure of their financial circumstances. However, there are some circumstances where parties can, rightly or wrongly, get around this rule ...
CONGRESS PASSES TRADEMARK MODERNIZATION ACT LEGISLATION In December 2020, the U.S. Congress took action that will have a significant effect on brand holders. At the end of the year, Congress passed the Trademark Modernization Act (“TMA”) that, inter alia, provides additional tools to the USPTO to respond to the rise in improper behavior in trademark filings including filing fraudulent claims of use ...
It is not uncommon to find parents continuing to pay an allowance to their children into adulthood, and in some cases this support continues post-marriage and can include payment of school fees or other financial provision being paid on a regular basis ...
On January 7th 2021, the bankruptcy moratorium, which had been in effect since April last year, expired. The main conditions of the bankruptcy moratorium were described earlier in details: in newsletters “Moratorium on bankruptcy proceedings”and 'Russian bankruptcy moratorium extended until January, 2021” ...
Article PDFJust when businesses thought they had figured out their Proposition 65 compliance strategies, the State of California, through the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), has proposed a substantial change that will drastically limit the use of the short-form safe harbor warning first authorized in 2018 ...
David Hume, the 18th century Scottish philosopher, argued that we cannot be certain the sun will rise tomorrow. Over the past nine-months David Hume has never seemed more right. It has been a tough period, professionally and personally for people from all walks of life, and for businesses from nearly every sector. But, while there has been adversity, there have been many rays of sunlight and causes for optimism ...
There were big changes in 2020 in the world of restructuring and insolvency legislation with the introduction of two new restructuring tools: the Moratorium and the Restructuring Plan, as well as the reintroduction of Crown preference. However, due to the government-imposed moratorium while the pandemic runs its course, we have seen hardly any real effects of those reforms ...
In the state of Ohio, a light-duty job offer is a strategic way to either bring an injured worker back to the workforce or bar temporary total compensation, should the injured worker reject a valid offer. Either way, it can aid employers in eliminating, minimizing, and/or stopping temporary total disability compensation from being paid in a claim ...
The Supreme Court has handed down its much anticipated decision relating to the coverage of business interruption insurance claims made following the COVID-19 pandemic. A key question was whether the Supreme Court ruling would finally provide the clarity that the expedited test case sought to achieve for both policyholders and insurers. The good news for all is that the Supreme Court has indeed provided much more clarity in relation to most issues ...
BackgroundSection 466(1)(a) of the Companies Act 2016 (“CA 2016”) provides that a company is deemed unable to pay its debts if it is indebted in a sum exceeding an amount prescribed and neglects to pay the sums stipulated in the notice of demand within 21 days of being served with the said notice.Through the issuance of the Prescription of Amount of Indebtedness of Company published on 26 January 2017 (“2017 Threshold Order”), this amount was fixed at RM10,000 ...
BackgroundOn 23 October 2020, the Malaysian government gazetted the Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Act 2020 (“Covid-19 Act”). This Act, as evident from its name, is meant to provide temporary measures to ease the impact of Covid-19 on various sectors and industries in Malaysia. Areas addressed by the Covid-19 Act include inability to perform contracts, insolvency and limitation periods ...
The outlook for the year ahead is uncertain with the effects of post-Brexit rules to contend with and COVID-19 continuing to restrict the way we live and work. We look at what the year may have in store for the construction industry. COVID-19 There is no doubt that the pandemic has caused challenges for the construction industry and is likely to have a significant impact into 2021 ...
