The Origin & Cause In 2010, a California jury returned a $671 million verdict in a class action alleging "violation of the rights of residents" under the California Health and Safety Code[1] arising from alleged understaffing at senior care facilities. Before the jury determined whether to award punitive damages, the Lavender, et. al. v.Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc.[2]lawsuit settled ...
The Origin & Cause In 2010, a California jury returned a $671 million verdict in a class action alleging "violation of the rights of residents" under the California Health and Safety Code[1] arising from alleged understaffing at senior care facilities. Before the jury determined whether to award punitive damages, the Lavender, et. al. v.Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc.[2]lawsuit settled ...
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently granted a petition for interlocutory review to decide whether a violation of the FCA’s first-to-file rule can be cured by filing an amended pleading. Both the D.C. Circuit and Fourth Circuit1 recently addressed this issue, concluding that the plain language of the first-to-file rule precludes amending around the rule ...
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) contains minimum security standards that Covered Entities and Business Associates must employ to safeguard protected health information (“PHI”). As part of HIPAA’s security standards, Business Associates are obligated to report all security incidents to the Covered Entity ...
In a world that is becoming increasingly globalized, the law serves as a powerful tool in improving economic and social conditions. In such a world, trans-border judicial proceedings, or, as legal scholars call it, "legal disputes with extraneous elements" demand a certain consistency and predictability ...
As Hurricane Harvey continues to cause far-reaching disruptions, it is important to understand how to effectively assert or respond to assertions of force majeure. This summary outlines the steps to take to assert force majeure, and initial considerations for those who have received several notices of force majeure from counterparties ...
Hurricane Harvey has radically impacted every industry in southeastern Texas, including healthcare providers, who continue to analyze potential next steps in ensuring operations can resume so that they can further assist those in need of healthcare services. Below are several links to resources that may be helpful for healthcare providers attempting to navigate through their options ...
In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, franchisors should take action to avoid potential liability for price gouging committed by franchisees in affected areas. Price gouging occurs when a seller increases prices of goods, services or commodities to a level that is exploitive and unethical. Texas law explicitly prohibits price gouging following a natural disaster, and fines for price gouging can be up to $20,000 per violation ...
Few medical issues are as significant to an employee and an employer as major back surgery. The procedure incapacitates the injured worker for months and leaves the employer short staffed while the employee recovers. Additionally, these surgeries often do not result in the expected outcome, which leads to further impairment and expense ...
California defamation law continues to evolve as the courts synthesize well-settled legal principles with ever-changing technological realities. On July 21, 2017, California’s First District Court of Appeal issued a published opinion in ZL Technologies v. Does 1-7 (July 21, 2017) 2017 DJ DAR 6999 ...
The Israeli Supreme Court Ruling earlier this year, which establishes that, for the purpose of service out of the jurisdiction based on Regulation 500(7) of the Israeli Civil Procedure Regulations, 5744-1984 (“Civil Procedure Regulations“) – it is not sufficient to indicate damage which allegedly occurred within Israel, but rather an act or omission in Israel must be shown ...
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 ...
We previously reported that on March 30, 2017, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and the executive directors of Ohio’s health care licensing agencies announced new standards for prescribing opiates for acute pain ...
It has been four months since the changes to 42 CFR Part 2, the confidentiality regulations that apply to all substance abuse treatment records, became effective. Ensure your policies and forms have been updated. The finalized changes to 42 CFR Part 2 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), took affect March 21, 2017 ...
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (the “SC RF”) has adopted the Resolution of the Plenum No. 23 “On consideration of commercial cases arising from relationships complicated by an international element” (the “Resolution of the Plenum”) ...
The trial of murder-accused Henri van Breda has attracted widespread media attention in recent months. Now, the Supreme Court of Appeal (“SCA”) has delivered an important judgment linked to the case regarding the media’s right to broadcast aspects of court proceedings – not only in the Van Breda case, but in other cases too ...
Earlier this year the Federal Law " On Amendments to Articles 1252 and 1486 of the 4th part of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Articles 4 and 99 of the Arbitrazh Procedural Code of Russia" entered into force.The amendments relate to pre-trial procedure for resolving intellectual property disputes.1 ...
In November of 2016, San Francisco residents voted to pass a new law ("Proposition E"), effective July 1, 2017, that transfers back responsibility from private property owners to the City of San Francisco to maintain and care for street trees and surrounding sidewalks damaged by the trees. The City had taken care of trees several decades ago, but then shifted responsibility back to property owners after that (during a time of budget crisis) ...
It was not until the late 1970s that deep-water offshore oil and gas exploration became significantly viable. The driver was the ever increasing demand for oil and gas products that provided the opportunity to raise the capital necessary to design and then build the incredibly complex floating assets needed to explore for and then to produce oil and gas in such hostile environments ...
In recent months, in a unanimous decision authored by Justice Thomas, the Supreme Court issued its much-awaited decision in Sandoz Inc. v. Amgen Inc. et al., No 15-1039, considering two critical questions in the biosimilar approval mechanisms adopted in the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (“BPCIA” or “Biosimilars Act”) ...
The South African Constitutional Court has found that cabinet ministers can now be held personally liable for the costs of legal proceedings to which they are a party. This finding was made in the case of Black Sash Trust v Minister of Social Development and Others (Freedom Under Law NPC Intervening), in which judgment was delivered on 15 June 2017 ...
Last month, the Supreme Court decided TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, which narrowed the definition of where a corporate defendant "resides" for the purpose of suing it for patent infringement. In doing so, it overturned the 1994 holding of the Federal Circuit of what constitutes proper venue in patent infringement cases. Federal law allows a Plaintiff to bring a patent infringement suit against a defendant in any district where one of two conditions are met ...
Long-term care (LTC) facilities received a boost last week when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reversed its position regarding the use of arbitration agreements in this setting. On June 8, 2017, CMS published a proposed rule amending LTC facilities’ conditions of participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs to remove prohibitions on binding pre-dispute arbitration agreements ...
On May 15, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the long-standing federal policy favoring arbitration agreements. In a lawsuit brought against skilled nursing provider Kindred Nursing Centers, LP, the Court held that states cannot single out arbitration clauses for “disfavored treatment,” because doing so violates the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The case involved two wrongful death lawsuits that were consolidated in the Kentucky Supreme Court ...
