With many medical practices and healthcare practitioners moving to telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, questions abound on legal requirements, privacy, and the future of healthcare. Schwabe’s Healthcare team has taken a closer look at the legal issues surrounding the rise of telemedicine during the pandemic and the implications for our healthcare future in the four articles below ...
Based on the Property Law[1] and the Security Law[2] of the People's Republic of China, the Property section of the Civil Code[3] has made important modifications and added some new principles to the rules of mortgage of property. In this article, we will focus primarily on the interpretation of the new system of mortgage rights in the Civil Code in the following three aspects: pactum commissorium provision, transfer of mortgaged property, and the priority order of security interests ...
On November 17, 2020, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an extension to the commercial eviction moratorium that had been previously enacted and extended on a month-to-month basis by mayoral declaration. The new commercial eviction ordinance (the “Ordinance”) keeps the majority of the terms of the current moratorium in effect, while providing a new four-tiered system for qualified tenants for repayment of deferred rent ...
The German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI) sees the decision as a success: On November 11, 2020, the District Court of Bonn reduced the fine imposed on 1&1 Telekom GmbH for a data protection breach from an original EUR 9.55 million to EUR 990,000.00, thereby fundamentally calling into question the fine practices of the German supervisory authorities ...
The debt collection restrictions and requirements in the FDCPA, which was enacted in 1977, have failed to keep up with or even contemplate modern technologies. In particular, as methods and forms of communication have evolved, the industry has had little guidance on how it can utilize newer communication channels such as emails, text messages, or social media. In many cases, the industry has had to grapple with different and often conflicting court interpretations ...
With the steady emergence of new technologies and disruption of traditional industries, the technology M&A sector is poised to continue to grow and the demand for technology-savvy legal advisers is set to rise. The purpose of this edition of the Getting the Deal Through - Technology M&A 2021 guide is to provide an overview of the various factors affecting technology M&A transactions across various jurisdictions ...
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government passed the CARES Act, which provides a number of protections to homeowners unable to pay their mortgages. The CARES Act prohibits any home foreclosures before December 31, 2020, and allows homeowners to seek forbearance from lenders for a period of 180 days, with one extension of 180 days. The Act applies to all federally backed mortgages ...
The Copyright Office of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has invited comments and suggestions to amend the Copyright Act before November 30, 2020. Mid last year, the DPIIT proposed a set of amendments to the Indian Copyright Rules. While these amendments sought to increase transparency and provide clarity for right holders, many other essential modifications were overlooked ...
On 19 October 2020 the Federal Council's Cyber Committee adopted a report on the advancement of the 2018-2022 national strategy for the protection of Switzerland against cyber risks (2018-2022 NCS) and its gradual implementation. The report focuses mainly on the progress made in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and promoting research and training ...
What will UK data protection look like after Brexit 2.0 on 31 December 2020? Regime 1: the 'UK GDPR': the UK's new bespoke version together with the Data Protection Act 2018 The UK GDPR will be the UK data protection regime based on the 'EU GDPR' (see below) ...
The CARES Act provided historic, temporary relief to mortgage holders facing Covid-19-related financial troubles. R. Aaron Chastain, partner at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, looks at where mortgage lenders and servicers stand as the pandemic continues and federal agencies and state governments continue to adjust compliance requirements and rules ...
The Coronavirus pandemic has caused a shift in the paradigm of modern-day workplaces. Companies across the globe have seen a rapid and widespread shift to remote work, making compliance with the GDPR harder than ever. The Federal Office of Information Security (BSI), in its recent report on the ‘State of IT Security in Germany 2020’, expressed its concern and indicated a ‘tense situation’ for data protection in the country ...
The supply of undeveloped (bare) land is exempt from value added tax (VAT) pursuant to Article 46 (3) of UAE Law No 8 of 2017. Bare land (as opposed to covered land) is defined as ‘land that is not covered by completed, partially completed buildings or civil engineering works’ pursuant to Article 44 of Cabinet Decision 52 of 2017 ...
Michigan has joined the majority of jurisdictions in holding that a general liability policy may provide coverage for claims for property damage allegedly caused by the defective work of a subcontractor ...
The Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (the “Board”) recently held the government liable for design delays where the government prematurely required details in design submissions and failed to provide comments on design submissions within the 14-day period allotted for government comments in the contract. In Appeal of RBC Construction Corp., the contract contemplated the use of fast track design methods ...
It is rare for the holding in a single criminal case to have such far-reaching implications that it affects nearly every industry in a particular state. But that is what happened on July 9, 2020, when the United States Supreme Court overturned Jimcy McGirt’s criminal conviction in Oklahoma state court by holding that Oklahoma did not have jurisdiction to prosecute McGirt (a citizen of the Creek tribe) for a crime committed within the boundaries of the Creek Nation ...
In Appeal of Watts Constructors, LLC, the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (the “Board”) held that a contractor was not excused from following contract plans and specifications despite the observation by government quality assurance inspectors of non-compliant electrical work during installation ...
When crafting a liquidation or “pass-through” agreement for a subcontractor claim against the government, the key provision from the prime contractor’s perspective is a release from liability for the subcontractor’s claim with the exception of amounts recovered from the government related to that claim. If the release language is too broad, however, the agreement may provide the government a legal defense to the pass-through claim known as the Severin doctrine ...
On Sept. 3, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued its final rule on the implementation of the Fair Housing Act’s disparate impact standard. The Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits discrimination in many housing-related activities on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin ...
On page 8 of the September–October issue, we discussed the COVID-19 forbearance landscape and related compliance challenges for mortgage servicers. In this article, we unpack the post-forbearance world, focusing on the transition out of forbearance and into other forms of loss mitigation assistance, including, but not limited to, payment deferrals, repayment plans, loan modifications, etc ...
Introduction On 16 October 2020 the government reinforced the urgent measures to limit the further spread of COVID-19. Teleworking is no longer highly recommended, but has become the standard for all employees whose roles allow for telework. Yet, the new rule is less far-reaching than that in place during the first lockdown in March 2020, as an exception now applies when the continuity of business operations, activities and services does not allow for teleworking ...
Facing Australia's first recession in 30 years, Australian businesses are attempting to steer a course not only for survival but for the growth needed to be a viable long term. But alongside uncertainty comes opportunity. Our new report, prepared in partnership with Acuris, explores the key steps for companies and investors to take advantage of the opportunities – and decisive, informed and proactive action is critical ...
One of the key refrains of national politics recently has been that we need to address, repair, and replace aging infrastructure. Of course, this leads to the core problem of funding as the amount of infrastructure construction and maintenance currently needed in the U.S. is staggering. The federal government recently put off dealing with this growing problem by extending funding for federal highway and public transportation programs for one year ...
A North Carolina court has required Cincinnati Insurance Company to provide business interruption and extra expense coverage to 16 North Carolina restaurants that lost the use of and access to their properties due to COVID-19 civil authority orders (see North State Deli, LLC, et al. v. Cincinnati Insurance Co. et al.) ...
