Alert
Published 01/08/2021
This month’s Friday Five covers cases relating to: what constitutes adequate consideration by an insurer of a disability claimant’s Social Security disability award; an analysis of various factors for consideration when a plaintiff alleges disability based on subjective complaints, including chronic fatigue and pain; offset of disability benefits based on settlement proceeds received by a claimant; dismissal of a claim for LTD benefits where the claimant failed to exhaust STD benefits; and an analysis of whether attorney’s fees are available on remand to state court after removal based on...
Blog Post
Published 01/08/2021
By Erik P. Pramschufer
Alert
Published 01/07/2021
By Mark D. Simpson, Paul Leicht
Services Intellectual Property
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently issued the decision of Simio, LLC. V. FlexSim Software Products, Inc. (Dec. 29, 2020). In upholding the District Court’s decision that the software claims at issue were patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101, the Federal Circuit found that improving a user experience does not constitute an improvement to technology under Step 1 of the patent eligibility test enunciated in Alice , and that the specification’s “focus” is taken into account when determining whether a claim is “directed to” an abstract idea under Step 1 of Alice . This...
Article
Published 01/07/2021
Industries Health Care
Article
Published 01/01/2021
Services Labor and Employment
Blog Post
Published 12/30/2020
By Ronald R. Fieldstone, Rohit Kapuria, Jay Rosen
Alert
Published 12/29/2020
By Sarah Lockwood Church, Andy J. Daly, Dasha G. Brockmeyer
Services Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
The recently-enacted spending package, The Consolidated Appropriations Act (Act), contains additional emergency coronavirus relief including provisions that extend, modify or clarify provisions of both the Family First Coronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). This alert is intended to be an overview of some of the tax provisions of the over 5,500 page Act. The tax credits described below require the satisfaction of certain conditions and some have a limited shelf-life. I. The employer tax credit for paid family and medical leave...
Blog Post
Published 12/29/2020
By Jason Tremblay, Robert L. Duston, Alexander Reich
Blog Post
Published 12/29/2020
By Andrew J. Daly
Alert
Published 12/28/2020
By Bruce Armon, Samantha R. Gross
Industries Health Care | HIPAA / Health Information Privacy and Security
On December 22, 2020, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced a settlement of a thirteenth enforcement action under its HIPAA Right of Access Initiative (the “Initiative”). The Initiative began in 2019 and is an OCR enforcement priority to support an individual’s right to timely and easy access to their health information at a reasonable cost under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) Privacy Rule. In 2020, OCR has announced ten other settlements pursuant to the Initiative: against an Academic...
Article
Published 12/23/2020
On December 11, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration issued emergency use authorization (EUA) for a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer. On December 18, 2020, the FDA granted similar approval to a vaccine developed by Moderna. Approximately 100 million doses are expected to be distributed by the end of February. Wider distribution will occur over the next six months or longer, based upon manufacturing capacity for these and other vaccines still in clinical trials. Read More
Blog Post
Published 12/23/2020
By Ruth A. Rauls, Lelia F. Parker, Jessica L. Meller
Blog Post
Published 12/23/2020
By Ruth A. Rauls, Lelia F. Parker, Jessica L. Meller
Blog Post
Published 12/23/2020
By Robert L. Duston, Carolyn A. Pellegrini
Services : Labor and Employment
Alert
Published 12/22/2020
By Ruth A. Rauls, Lelia F. Parker, Jessica L. Meller
Industries Cannabis Law
Services Labor and Employment
Over the past month, Pennsylvania courts have issued a series of decisions clarifying employee rights for medical cannabis patients—one related to unemployment compensation and others related to private rights of action under its medical cannabis statute. Most recently, in Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review , the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court affirmed a decision by the Unemployment Compensation (“UC”) Board of Review finding that Terrance Suber, a former employee, was entitled to UC benefits following his termination in 2019 for a positive drug...
Alert
Published 12/21/2020
By Patrick F. Nugent
Industries Energy
On December 9, 2020, the Acting Solicitor General filed a brief on behalf of the United States, as amicus curiae, in support of PennEast Pipeline Company’s petition for a writ of certiorari seeking review of a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in a closely-watched eminent domain case that has significant ramifications for interstate natural gas pipelines. Left undisturbed, the Third Circuit’s ruling – as the Third Circuit itself acknowledged – risks disrupting how the natural gas industry has operated for decades in constructing interstate pipelines over...