March 24, 2022 By: John Epperson and Peter McGaw UPDATE: At the time Buchalter published its client alert regarding the new ASTM Standard for Phase I Environmental Site Assessments (Phase I ESAs), we noted that the new ASTM Standard would not be considered “All Appropriate Inquires” for purposes of establishing defenses under CERCLA until the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) amended its regulations to incorporate the new Standard ...
March 24, 2022 By: Andrea Musker The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022, signed by President Biden on March 15, 2022, extends federal telehealth flexibilities beyond the expiration date of the public health emergency for a limited time. The public health emergency is currently set to expire on April 16, 2022, but it may be renewed for another ninety days ...
March 24, 2022 By: Karen N. George and Andrew H. Selesnick The DMHC issued its final guidance on the No Surprises Act, confirming that the Knox-Keene Act constitutes a “specified state law” under the Act. The out-of-network reimbursement requirements for emergency services and the dispute resolution process in the NSA will therefore not apply to DMHC claims ...
The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) has recently published a study that it conducted with the largest active insurers in the Quebec insurance industry, entitled ?Critical Illness Insurance Supervisory Report?1 (hereafter the ?Report?) ...
In March of 2021, Dinsmore published a client alert titled “Chapter 19 of HUD’s New MAP Guide – Initial Takeaways for Lenders and Borrowers.” In that article, we offered our observations about new requirements in the MAP Guide and predicted how those requirements might impact the loan closing process ...
Has the company an updated overview of current processing in 2022? The companies must have an overview of their processing activities, and it is important that this is up to date ...
Businesses do not particularly enjoy uncertainty, especially regarding tax matters. The prospect of a tax audit, even when no significant exposure is anticipated, can be daunting. If a problem is known to lurk in the shadows, the prospect of a tax audit can be beyond terrifying. In Cambodia, attempting to wait out the applicable statute of limitations for the General Department of Taxation (“GDT”) to conduct an audit and issue an assessment is often a fool’s errand ...
On 10 March 2022, the Cabinet Office published the long-awaited draft Terms of Reference for the UK COVID-19 Inquiry.1 In this article we consider the implications for businesses impacted by the pandemic and how they may wish to get involved in the Terms’ finalisation. Terms of Reference are critical to a public inquiry as they define its scope and purpose ...
The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act received Royal Assent on 15 March 2022. Its effects will be felt far and wide across the UK real estate industry. We explained in our article Economic Crime Bill – what it means for real estate, that the aim of the new Act is to crack down on foreign criminals using UK property to launder money ...
On 12 August 2020 a tragedy occurred on Scotland’s railways. A passenger train, already turned around due to blockages on the line, derailed. Three people tragically lost their lives. After months of investigation the Rail Accident Investigation Board (“RAIB”) has released its formal report into the incident. The report details a number of failings, which led to the tragedy ...
This article was first published in AmCham Thailand T-AB Magazine (March 2022 Issue): https://www.amchamthailand.com/t-ab-magazine/ After nearly two decades in the making, the Personal Data Protection Act B.E. 2561 (“PDPA“) was published on May 27, 2019. Ostensibly inspired by the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the PDPA was slated to go fully effective in June 2022 following a two-year delay due to COVID-19 outbreak ...
The No Surprises Act (Act), which became effective Jan. 1, 2022, is the latest health care law passed with the best of intent: to create consumer protection from unexpected out-of-network medical bills and to create a federal independent dispute resolution (IDR) process to resolve payment disputes between payers and out-of-network providers. Unfortunately, the Act, especially the U.S ...
The Ohio House of Representatives passed HB 447 in February, 2022 and the bill is now pending approval by the Ohio Senate. If passed, this bill could expand the definition of a work injury to include some injuries sustained in the employee’s own home, provided certain criteria are met. Certainly, the precipitating reason for this proposed bill is the recent increase in remote and telework arrangements as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions ...
On 17 March 2022, the Belgian Act transposing the ECN+ Directive and also introducing further amendments into the Belgian Competition Act entered into force. It has introduced merger filing fees, fines for failure to notify mergers and a number of procedural changes that allow a more efficient enforcement and an improved cooperation within the ECN Network ...
March 21, 2022 By Michelle Meek On March 18, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the CROWN Act (H.R. 2116). The Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act explicitly prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of hair texture or hairstyles commonly associated with a particular race or national origin ...
When faced with an OSHA citation, it is not uncommon for an employer to acknowledge that a rule was violated, accept the citation, pay the penalty, and move on. Often, evidence that a rule was violated is easily obtained by an OSHA inspector ...
Entrepreneurs and investors in cryptocurrencies and other digital assets may finally receive guidance and clarity from the federal government ...
On 14 March 2022 in Philipp v Barclays Bank UK Plc [2022] EWCA Civ 318 the Court of Appeal gave further guidance on the extent of the Quincecare duty owed by banks to their customers. What is a Quincecare duty? It is well established that banks have a duty to use reasonable skill and care in carrying out customers’ orders which includes not complying with instructions if they have reasonable grounds for believing the order was an attempt to misappropriate funds ...
What we know about the cybersecurity risks arising from the Ukraine, steps UK organisations should consider taking now, the insurance position and novel issues that might arise from Ukraine-linked cyber attacks. What has been happening? A few weeks into the war in Ukraine the cybersecurity implications for companies in the UK remain unclear, but some trends are emerging: Initial state sponsored activity seems purely to be targeted by Russian groups at Ukraine and vice versa ...
In association with Macmillan Davies and led by Employment Partner, Emma Morgan and Associate, Lauren Bholé, this webinar focused on the “right to disconnect”. From February 2022, Civil servants in Belgium now have a legal right to disconnect so that they can no longer be contacted by their employer outside of working hours ...
The new year, 2022, will be the year in which cryptocurrencies gain more legitimacy worldwide through government regulation, oversight and further acceptance. Indeed, in December 2021, the Dubai World Trade Centre announced that it will become a crypto zone and a regulator for cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets - including digital assets, products, operators and exchanges. In September 2021, the country of El Salvador officially recognized Bitcoin as legal tender ...
In a defendant-friendly opinion, a split panel held that conduct based on an “objectively reasonable” reading of an ambiguous statute, absent contrary circuit court precedent or agency guidance, cannot constitute “knowing” misconduct under the False Claims Act. In United States ex rel. Sheldon v ...
This year we also have four new individual lawyer rankings; Thomas Olsen, Band 1 and Malin Tønseth, Band 2 (TMT: Data Protection), Mathias Teir, Up & Coming (Corporate/M&A) and Sunniva Kinsella, Up & Coming (Banking and Finance). We are also very grateful that Tor Stokke and Gøran Mjelde Aarvik have strengthen their individual rankings with respectively Band 2 (TMT: Information Technology) and Band 3 (Real Estate) ...
