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 ...
This article forms part of our ‘New How: Perspectives’ report: ‘Home Working not the Panacea’. To access this free report, please click on the download link to the right of this page. Home. Noun. Meaning: “The place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.” Not any longer. Home is now also where many of us work ...
The United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued an order that will take effect on January 26, 2021, requiring all arriving international airline passengers to provide proof of a negative COVID test taken within three days of the flight’s foreign departure. For those who have had it, the CDC will require proof of recovery ...
The year 2020 was turbulent in many ways: the worldwide pandemic slowed down a number of reforms and caused challenges for various industries. Now it is time to look back and remind ourselves of the changes that took place in the field of employment law over the past year. It is also time to glance at the reforms awaiting us in 2021, a year hopefully brighter than its predecessor ...
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) just announced that Provider Relief Fund Program (PRF) recipients will now be required to submit reports regarding their use of these funds later than previously announced. The previous deadline was February 15, 2021. Currently, a specific new timeline was provided, but HHS is encouraging providers to register to receive updates ...
The year 2020 will have been difficult for the vast majority of industries, and in particular for the arts, entertainment and recreation industry. The video game industry, however, is growing in leaps and bounds. For example, Nintendo and PlayStation have each set record sales for their games released in 2020, including Animal Crossing:New Horizons and The Last of UsPart II. Over the past few decades, the number of video game players has never stopped increasing ...
Although the start of 2020 also shook up the M&A world, the market recovered especially in the second half of the year. At Van Doorne, the M&A specialists experienced this in the number of transactions: 32 of them. This puts the firm in 8th place in the Mergermarket Benelux League Table, based on the number of deals. In 2020, in Europe almost $850 billion was spent on a total of 6,658 transactions. This is an increase of 5.6% compared to 2019 ...
If parents cannot agree whether their children should be vaccinated, they can make an application under Section 8 of the Children Act 1989 to ask a judge to determine the issue. In M v H (Private Law Vaccination) [2020], the mother objected to the parties' two children aged six-years-old and four-years-old being given routine childhood vaccines in accordance with the NHS vaccination schedule ...
This is a summary of the Annual Report. Click here to access the full guide. The 2020 proxy season shareholder proposals were already submitted before the COVID-19 shadow loomed large over the season; however, such shadow likely impacted how shareholders voted on the proposals themselves, impacted business throughout 2020, and continues to jolt 2021 and the forthcoming 2021 proxy season ...
In order to reduce community transmission and preserve everyone's safety and that of our healthcare system, the government requires everyone to make extra efforts, both in their private lives and at work. The closure of retail businesses, save for some exceptions, is maintained, the lockdown to prevent gatherings continues and a curfew was added on January 9, 2021, to remain in effect until the currently announced date of February 8, 2021 1 ...
The Court of Protection is a specialist Court, focussing solely on supporting vulnerable individuals. This past year has acutely highlighted the needs of those most vulnerable in our society and their dependency on others to help manage their affairs. The Court has had to adjust its practices in order to ensure that help and solutions are found for those lacking capacity with minimal delay ...
Lockdown 3.0 is upon us and once again schools are closed and working parents find themselves having to balance childcare and home-schooling whilst trying to manage their own work and responsibilities. For those who cannot reasonably work from home, or who may struggle with having to provide childcare at the same time as meeting the demands of their role, employers are able to consider offering furlough leave as an option ...
This article forms part of our ‘New How: Perspectives’ report: ‘Can real estate help solve the productivity puzzle?’. To access this free report, please click on the download link to the right of this page. Contrary to popular belief, the Covid pandemic has not destroyed real estate as an investment class; rather it has accelerated the rate at which it was already evolving ...
The regulatory change proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the recent HIPAA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) is another step toward HHS’s objective to encourage a patient-centric healthcare environment. The HIPAA NPRM proposes to tilt the balance of protecting privacy and facilitating the availability of information toward loosening restrictions on disclosures of patient information ...
As employers adapt to the impacts of COVID-19, wage and hour compliance continues to present unique challenges. To help employers navigate these uncertain times, government enforcement agencies and legislatures have continued to issue new laws, opinion letters, and guidance all employers should understand and act upon ...
Key Points The CARES Act provides that PPP loans may be forgiven without causing the borrower to incur cancellation of debt income, but did not address whether business expenses could be deducted if paid for by PPP loan proceeds. On April 30, 2020, the IRS published Notice 2020-32 clarifying that taxpayers whose PPP loans were forgiven could not deduct business expenses covered by such loan proceeds ...
In light of the spread of the global Covid-19 pandemic and the discovery of a new mutation of the virus, the Israeli government has decided that as of December 23, 2020, the entry of foreigners into Israel will be banned. Further to this decision, the Population and Immigration Authority published guidelines regarding exceptional cases in which foreigners will be allowed to enter the country despite the ban ...
As we face a new period of lockdown, the memories of March come flooding back. However, it is useful to remember that, as a nation, we are better prepared this time, and our shared experiences of the last ten months will help to ensure we tackle the challenge ahead positively, constructively and from a more informed position than before ...
On Dec. 9, Congressional Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), proposed sweeping legislation that would overhaul consumer bankruptcy law. The proposed changes, if adopted, generally would make it easier for consumers to access the bankruptcy system and discharge their debts. Below is a discussion of ten critical changes proposed in the Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2020 (CBRA). 1 ...
On December 28, 2020, New York passed a new law entitled the “COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020.” The act places a moratorium on COVID-19-related residential real property mortgage foreclosure actions and residential eviction proceedings until May 1, 2021, where a tenant or homeowner has submitted a “hardship declaration” to the foreclosing party, landlord, and/or the court ...
The president has signed into law the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020, which includes several temporary special rules aimed at minimizing forfeitures and increasing the utility of health and dependent care flexible spending accounts (FSAs). Plans providing for one or both accounts can take advantage of these participant-friendly rules immediately ...
