A recent decision out of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida was very favorable for businesses defending Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA) and Florida Telemarketing Act (FTA) claims. The decision in Adams v. Safelite Group reinforced the May 2023 FTSA amendments, particularly the text message “STOP” safe harbor provision, which applies to uncertified putative class actions pending when the amendments took effect ...
On October 11, 2024, the United States Department of Defense (DOD) published a final rule implementing its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program, which is designed to verify that defense contractors are adequately protecting sensitive information from cybersecurity threats. The CMMC applies to contractors who process, store, or transmit Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) or Federal Contract Information (FCI), which is most DOD contractors ...
As the year winds down, it’s a good time to take stock of your life as both a person and a litigator. Are you going in the direction you want, are you shortchanging one aspect of your life to benefit another? Is it working for you? Guests Anne Marie Seibel and Paula Hinton are experienced and highly successful litigators who explain how they learned to balance family and careers, professional goals, and personal aims ...
Our readers may recall our column in this magazine last Fall involving a SALT malpractice suit filed against a North Carolina CPA firm by its former client, Vista Horticulture, Inc. d/b/a Eden Brothers. If you or your spouse are gardeners, you may know the company as an online seller of flower bulbs and seeds, etc. to customers all over the country ...
Abstract “[I]t is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” 4 William Blackstone, Commentaries *358. “[I]t is better that ten innocent men suffer than that one guilty man escape.” Otto von Bismarck, Germany’s first chancellor, quoted in John W. Wade, Uniform Comparative Fault Act, 14 Forum 379, 385 (1979). Punishing the innocent is considered an “error” that the legal system must minimize ...
Here's a refresher: Discriminating against a subclass of a sex — e.g., older women or black women — may still be discrimination. In a Sept. 19 opinion in McCreight v. AuburnBank, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit clarified a few things for the summary judgment standard and provided a good refresher on "sex-plus" discrimination, or discrimination based on a subclass of sex ...
Hark! A recent Alabama Supreme Court indemnity decision, Mobile Infirmary Association v. Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories, may require you to retrieve your drafting pen. Although not a case involving a construction dispute, Mobile Infirmary does address a key component of risk shifting in construction contracts — the indemnity clause ...
The renewable energy industry in the United States has entered a new era of (relative) policy predictability and unprecedented economic incentives. From a legal perspective, the only certainty in a renewable energy practice is change. An industry founded by entrepreneurs within narrow regulatory exceptions that enabled private developers to experiment with different technology, renewables have often been relegated to the margins of the broader traditional energy industry. That, too, is changing ...
Renewable energy project developers and contractors must be prepared to negotiate novel risks in a quickly changing global market. Technological innovations in renewable energy equipment and decreasing procurement and construction costs have spurred renewable project development at unprecedented scale ...
Novel technologies that seek to improve quality of life or simplify complex processes offer great promise. For example, medical technologies that detect or cure disease or supply chain technologies that allow for real time understanding of the location or destination of a specific product — make our lives easier and safer. They also pose potentially unforeseen complications ...
The Supreme Court's recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, abolishing the Chevron doctrine, provides the False Act Claims defense bar with a potent new weapon. Two critical elements of any FCA claim are the falsity of the claim and scienter, which requires proof that the defendant acted knowingly. The government and relators' counsel often rely heavily on regulatory guidance issued by administrative agencies to establish these elements of their FCA claim ...
You did not get paid for your labor and material, so you ask, what can I do? Alabama’s lien law provides you an opportunity to place a lien on the property for certain unpaid amounts for labor and materials. If you follow the proper procedures to perfect the lien and obtain a judgment in your favor, you may force the sale of the property to collect on your judgment (see Ala. Code § 35-11-226). This article focuses on the procedural basics of Alabama’s lien law ...
Feeling like an imposter can be common for young professionals, especially for those who are the first in their families to enter the legal field. How can first-generation professionals more easily navigate their paths forward? In this episode of The Lawyer’s Edge podcast, Elise Holtzman sits down with Alé Dalton, Partner at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, to explore her path to partnership and the unique challenges faced by first-generation professionals ...
Texas recently enacted a new Workplace Violence Prevention law to protect healthcare employees from violence in Texas healthcare facilities. Texas also implemented a complementary notice requirement applicable to all Texas employers to encourage reporting incidents of workplace violence. Texas implements statutory protec- tions to prevent workplace violence against healthcare workers ...
Nearly two years following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), Treasury and the IRS released the unpublished version of the final rule (Final Rule) for compliance with the IRA’s prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements (PWA requirements). Taxpayers seeking to claim the highest available investment and/or production tax credits for renewable energy projects must comply with the PWA requirements ...
Inflation Reduction Act The most significant developments in the area of alternative energy continue to be related to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), which offers approximately USD270 billion in tax incentives to help combat climate change ...
As a young lawyer, you might be struggling to believe that you can make a difference and to figure out how to do so. You might also be wondering how to gain the courtroom experience seemingly necessary to build a legal practice. If either of these is true, consider how pro bono litigation has impacted our legal system and could impact your career. Even if you read no further, take this advice: volunteer for pro bono cases. In Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S ...
A financial institution recently learned what happens when it does not include language in an arbitration agreement to permit a customer to opt out of the arbitration clause. A U.S. district court denied a motion to compel arbitration based on the flawed provision, concluding that it was unenforceable because the bank failed to give the customer an opportunity to opt-out ...
With its January opinion in Raymond James & Associates Inc. v. Jalbert, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the bankruptcy debtor's indemnification obligations were discharged by the confirmed plan because the indemnified party failed to speak up ...
On April 15, 2024, the Department of Justice released its “Criminal Division’s Pilot Program on Voluntary Self-Disclosures for Individuals.” Similar in many ways to programs introduced earlier this year by the U.S ...
In an opinion written in under 1,000 words, Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal put foreclosure cases across Florida in jeopardy in Desbrunes v. U.S. Bank National Association in February ...
Mealey’s: What is your professional background and how did you both become involved in international arbitration? Miller: I’ve been practicing law with Bradley in its construction group for a little over 10 years. We rep- resent a lot of large contractors and owners of large projects, primarily energy-focused, and those projects are often large, complex, involve international parties and are happening all over the world ...
In recent years, a growing number of construc- tion companies have established employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs).1 The interest in an ESOP is often generated by the need for an exit strat- egy for one or more of the owners of a closely held business, a common scenario in the construction industry ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on March 13 issued a highly consequential decision in U.S. Securities andExchange Commission v. Rashid, interpreting and applying the mental state for liability of investment advisers under the Investment Advisers Act. Over a strong dissent, the court reversed a finding of liability of the defendant investment adviser under basic principles of negligence law, and in doing so, provided a road map for future enforcement actions under the act ...
In its traditional form, the advice of counsel defense can validate conduct that might otherwise be considered criminal. But invocation carries a steep cost: The defendant must waive his privilege with the lawyer who gave the advice in question. An additional prerequisite complicates utilization: The defendant must demonstrate good faith reliance on the advice he sought and received ...
