Article
Published 08/07/2020
Alert
Published 08/07/2020
This month’s Friday Five covers recent cases addressing: (1) a fiduciary’s right to bring an ERISA § 502(a)(3) equitable relief claim against a beneficiary; (2) when a life insurer may avail itself of Florida’s “facility of payment” statute to support a satisfaction defense; (3) timeliness requirements under a disability policy; (4) the scope of ERISA’s preemption of common law claims; and (5) extra-record discovery in ERISA disability cases involving de novo review. The Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr Employee Benefits/ERISA Litigation Team August 7, 2020 | By: Amy Kline , Caitlin Strauss ,...
Article
Published 08/05/2020
Industries Higher Education | Real Estate
Services Real Estate Services
Alert
Published 08/04/2020
By Patrick F. Nugent
Industries Higher Education | Sports and Entertainment
The future of collegiate athletics remains uncertain as colleges and universities head into the fall semester, but whether institutions cancel athletics this term, one thing remains certain for NCAA member institutions: academic conduct and extra benefits rules still apply. Without a doubt, many issues are competing for colleges’ and universities’ attention heading into the new term. For NCAA member institutions using some form of remote instruction, one issue worth considering is how best to maintain compliance with the NCAA’s academic conduct and extra benefits rules in the virtual learning...
Alert
Published 08/03/2020
By Leah Octavio, Kathryn Doyle
Industries Life Sciences
On July 24, 2020, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ("Federal Circuit") in Gensetix, Inc. v. Baylor College of Medicine , No. 19-1424 (Fed. Cir. July 24, 2020) [1] issued an opinion involving the interplay between state sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment [2] and required joinder under Rule 19 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“F.R.C.P.”) [3] . The Court found that the Eleventh Amendment barred joinder under Rule 19(a) of a sovereign patent owner as an involuntary plaintiff to a patent infringement suit, but that the suit could proceed in the absence of the...
Alert
Published 07/30/2020
By Andrew T. Bockis, John R. Dixon, Kevin M. Levy
Industries Energy | Real Estate
Obtaining public records in a timely fashion from government agencies in Pennsylvania can be an arduous task during ordinary times. Enter a worldwide pandemic that forced most workers, including civil servants, to begin working from home and the already-difficult task of promptly obtaining records became almost impossible. After some Commonwealth agencies used the ongoing COVID-19 disaster declaration as a blanket reason to delay responding to record requests, the Pennsylvania General Assembly enacted House Bill 2463 as Act 77 of 2020 (“Act 77”) which will require Commonwealth agencies to...
Alert
Published 07/30/2020
By Nancy A. Hearne
Services Personal Wealth Estates and Trusts
Your kitchen counter has become your child’s home office, your oriental rugs are covered with Legos that you can’t see, and a basketball hoop blocks your view of the TV. If you have a child (and maybe his or her family) living at home after giving up a city apartment lease, perhaps you have begun to think about an alternative living arrangement. There is good news. With interest rates at historic lows, this is a great time to consider making a loan to your kids. They could use the funds to make a down payment on a first home. You can regain sole occupancy of your house. Capitalizing on very...
Alert
Published 07/29/2020
By Richard Forsten, Pamela Scott, Wendie Stabler
Services Land Use
In response to comments from the development and engineering communities and in keeping with Governor Carney’s expressed objective to improve upon processes and procedures within state government, especially as it relates to economic development, the Delaware Department of Transportation (“DelDOT”) has been implementing changes to its Subdivision Plan Review Process in an effort to make the process more streamlined in order to support business and foster economic growth across the state. Several recent changes are worthy of note. DelDOT has shortened the review time for plans to 31 days (a...
Alert
Published 07/28/2020
By Bruce D. Armon, Samantha R. Gross
Industries Health Care | HIPAA / Health Information Privacy and Security
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
On July 27, 2020, the United State Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that Lifespan Health System Affiliated Covered Entity (Lifespan) has agreed to pay $1,040,000 and implement a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules related to the theft of an unencrypted laptop from an employee’s car. Lifespan is a non-profit health system based in Rhode Island which includes many healthcare provider affiliates and has designated itself as a...
Article
Published 07/28/2020
Industries Construction
Services Labor and Employment
Article
Published 07/28/2020
Industries Construction
Alert
Published 07/27/2020
By Bruce D. Armon, Samantha R. Gross
Industries Health Care | HIPAA / Health Information Privacy and Security
Services Cybersecurity and Privacy
On July 23, 2020 the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced a $25,000 Resolution Agreement and Corrective Action Plan (CAP) with Metropolitan Community Health Services d/b/a Agape Health Services (Metro) to resolve potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule. Metro is a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center providing a variety of discounted medical services including on-site pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, gynecology, primary and pediatric care to the...
Blog Post
Published 07/27/2020
By Sarah Lockwood Church, Paul A. Kasicky
Blog Post
Published 07/27/2020
By Ronald R. Fieldstone, Rohit Kapuria
Alert
Published 07/24/2020
By Lauren A. Farruggia, Jonathan A. Havens
Industries Cannabis Law | Food, Beverage and Agribusiness
This summer has been a busy one in the cannabis and cannabis-derived products spaces. On Wednesday, July 22, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA or the Agency) sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review a draft guidance, “Cannabidiol Enforcement Policy.” As the draft guidance has not yet been released, we can only speculate as to its contents. The enforcement policy could be claims based, serving-size based, product standards based, some combination of the three, or something else. Also on July 22nd, FDA announced the availability of a draft guidance...
Blog Post
Published 07/24/2020
By Jonathan A. Havens, Lauren A. Farruggia
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