In our first piece in this returning to work series, we examined the logistical issues associated with returning employees to work. In this latest segment, we will address the legal considerations underpinning the return-to-work process. 1 ...
Nursing home and other long-term care facilities are bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic because their residents are at the highest risk for contracting the disease. It has been recently reported that 20 percent of all deaths in the United States from the coronavirus are associated with infections developed in nursing homes. Due to the current inconsistencies in reporting procedures, the actual numbers may be higher ...
On April 27, 2020, a group of petitioners asked the Supreme Court of the United States to stay the enforcement of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s March 19, 2020, executive order that closed many of the Commonwealth’s businesses. The case Friends of Danny DeVito et al. v. Wolf et al., No. 19A1032, reaches the Supreme Court from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, where the petitioners’ King’s Bench petition was denied on April 13, 2020 ...
Nursing home and other long-term care facilities are bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic because their residents are at the highest risk for contracting the disease. It has been recently reported that 20 percent of all deaths in the United States from the coronavirus are associated with infections developed in nursing homes. Due to the current inconsistencies in reporting procedures, the actual numbers may be higher ...
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis—infecting more than 2.7 million people worldwide, with almost 870,000 cases in the United States alone as of the writing of this article—has thrown nearly every industry into chaos as the world struggles to adjust to the new reality of social distancing and self-quarantining ...
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis—infecting more than 2.7 million people worldwide, with almost 870,000 cases in the United States alone as of the writing of this article—has thrown nearly every industry into chaos as the world struggles to adjust to the new reality of social distancing and self-quarantining ...
Governor Justice has issued his plan for the scaling back of his “stay-at-home” Executive Order, otherwise known as “reopening the state.” The plan hinges on having three consecutive days where the statewide cumulative percentage of positive COVID-19 test results stays below 3 percent. Once that metric is met, there will be a phased reopening process that is optional to businesses – the plan stresses it is allowing entities to open, NOT requiring them to ...
The Small Business Administration emphasizes that businesses who participate in the Paycheck Protection Program must make a good faith certification that the loan request is “necessary” to support ongoing operations due to the current economic uncertainty ...
Another week brings another round of COVID-19-related lawsuits. We are identifying some early trends and provide a synopsis of the more relevant lawsuits below. Will nursing homes be overwhelmed by wrongful death lawsuits? The daughter of a woman suspected to have died from COVID-19 has filed a wrongful death suit against the company who owns the Life Care Center of Kirkland where her mother was a resident ...
General Provisions When must an Employer’s First Report of Injury be filed? The employer must submit information about the injury to the insurance carrier within five (5) days of the employee's notice of injury. What is the statute of limitations for the filing of an employee’s claim? An employee has six (6) months after suffering a work-related injury to file a workers’ compensation claim ...
Another week brings another round of COVID-19-related lawsuits. We are identifying some early trends and provide a synopsis of the more relevant lawsuits below. Will nursing homes be overwhelmed by wrongful death lawsuits? The daughter of a woman suspected to have died from COVID-19 has filed a wrongful death suit against the company who owns the Life Care Center of Kirkland where her mother was a resident ...
The evening of April 22, Governor Wolf presented his detailed plan for reopening Pennsylvania beginning May 8, 2020. The reopening will be done in three phases: red, yellow, and green. The entire Commonwealth is currently under the red phase, which has the purpose of minimizing the spread of COVID-19 through social distancing, implementing safety protocols, and closing schools and businesses that have been deemed non-life sustaining ...
On Tuesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit departed from opinions issued by the Fourth and Ninth Circuits in ruling that violations of the FDCPA begin to run when the violation occurs. In Rotkiske v. Klemm, et al., plaintiff Rotkiske sued a law firm that, in 2009, had obtained a default judgment against him. The law firm moved to dismiss the FDCPA claim, alleging it was untimely ...
On July 4, 2017, amendments to the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act (“WVCCPA”) took effect. One of those amendments requires a potential plaintiff to give a creditor or collector notice of alleged violations under the statute before the potential plaintiff can file a lawsuit against them. They then have 20 days to make an offer to cure the alleged violations, and the potential plaintiff has 20 days thereafter to decide whether to accept it ...
The 2015 amendments to the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act (‘WVCCPA”) are not retroactive, according to a federal court in West Virginia. In O’Dell v. USAA Federal Savvngs Bank aka USAA, the court rejected a bank’s argument that the WVCCPA statute in effect at the time of trial applies. The court determined the WVCCPA amendments could not be applied to a scenario that predated their effectiveness ...
Earlier this month, a West Virginia federal court ruled a disclosure in a debt collection letter regarding potential tax implications for settling a debt did not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) or the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act (“WVCCPA”). In Garrettson v. Sentry Credit, Inc. et al., a debt collector sent a collection letter to the plaintiff debtor, offering to settle the debt for less than the amount due ...
As we previously mentioned in our last blog post, the West Virginia Legislature passed at least three bills this past session that affect consumers or financial transactions. The first of those bills is HB 2464. HB 2464 amends Article 6 of the WVCCPA, specifically section 46A-6-107, prohibiting the disclaimer of warranties and remedies for goods that are the subject of or intended to be the subject of a consumer transaction ...
The 2018 West Virginia Legislative Session ended last week, and the legislature has rejected two bills that would have modified the Consumer Credit and Protection Act (“WVCCPA”), the primary statute in West Virginia that regulates how lenders, creditors, collectors, and others deal with consumers in financial transactions. House Bill 2768 The legislature knocked down House Bill 2768, which would have amended section 46A-5-101 – the penalties provision of the WVCCPA ...
The West Virginia legislature is considering bills to amend the Consumer Credit and Protection Act (“WVCCPA”) and they can affect how lenders, creditors, collectors, and others interact with consumers in financial transactions. The WVCCPA is the primary statute in West Virginia that regulates how lenders, creditors, collectors, and others deal with consumers in financial transactions ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. While the following CMS recommendations and guidelines identify nursing homes as the target recipients, they are applicable to all facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funds, and are therefore subject to CMS's oversight ...
While the Trump administration looks to pass legislation aimed at Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), a lawsuit involving the extent of the CFPB’s authority and whether it can impose a $109 million penalty on a group of companies is continuing to be fought in a D.C. courtroom. In June 2015, PHH Corporation and a group of other companies asked the D.C ...
Florida legislature passes bill to add virtual currencies to money laundering statute in response to last year’s court ruling that bitcoin can’t be the basis for money laundering charges Last year, a Miami judge dismissed criminal charges against a Florida-based bitcoin seller who had been caught in a sting in which undercover law enforcement officers engaged him to convert cash into bitcoin. They told him they intended to use the bitcoin to buy stolen credit card numbers ...
If you haven’t been paying any attention for the last two weeks, you may have missed that on February 3, 2017 President Trump signed an Executive Order setting forth his administration’s core principles for regulating the United States’ financial system. The order seems to be the first step in fulfilling his campaign promise to change Dodd-Frank, the Obama-era financial law that was enacted after the 2008 financial crisis. The order contains three sections. 1 ...
On February 24, 2017, President Trump issued another executive order designed to further his administration’s agenda to reduce regulations. Entitled “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda,” the executive order continues to make clear that “[i]t is the policy of the United States to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens placed on the American people ...
A West Virginia federal district court recently addressed a plaintiff’s claims that her reverse mortgage violated at least two statutes and West Virginia common law. The plaintiff was one of two borrowers on that mortgage and sued the mortgage lender and its servicing affiliate. The servicer moved to dismiss. The court granted the motion in part and denied it in part ...
