On March 18, 2019, Bill A-4880 passed the New Jersey Assembly Judiciary Committee.  If the bill becomes law, it will amend the governing statute, N.J.S.2A:14-1, by shortening the statute of limitations for claims of malpractice against certain licensed professionals (including lawyers) from six years to two years.  The amendment will also prohibit the award of …
Read More

On March 19, 2019, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced two major changes to the H-1B visa program. First, USCIS will allow a modified form of premium processing for H-1B visa petitions that are subject to the annual cap (“cap-subject H-1B petitions”). In the past two years, USCIS had suspended premium processing …
Read More

On Oct. 1, 2018, an amendment to the Rules of the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court took effect codifying the Commercial Division’s support of the use of technology assisted review (TAR) during discovery. Specifically, Commercial Division Rule 11-e(f) encourages parties to “use the most efficient means to review documents, including electronically stored information (ESI), …
Read More

On February 29, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission announced that the video social networking app Musical.ly, now known as TikTok, agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle a claim that the company illegally collected personal information from children, the largest such civil penalty to date. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires websites and …
Read More

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which passed in 2018 and goes into effect January 1, 2020, is intended to provide some of the most rigorous privacy protections to California residents but is not limited in application to California companies. What entities fall under the CCPA? The CCPA applies to ”businesses” that are for-profit entities …
Read More

On March 6, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit joined its sister Circuits and held for the first time that hostile work environment claims are cognizable under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), opening the door for employees in New York, Connecticut and Vermont to make such claims. In the case …
Read More

Most people think of spiders as insects.  But my 4th grade teacher taught us otherwise.  Insects have a head, thorax, and abdomen.  And six legs.  Spiders have two body parts (the head and thorax are combined) and have 8 legs.  They belong to a species known as arachnids. So what does this have to do …
Read More

Evan H. Krinick, the managing partner of Rivkin Radler, spoke to the New York Law Journal about the advantages and challenges of being a midsize firm in a supersized city. The firm has 190 attorneys and 172 staff members in Uniondale, New York City, Albany and Poughkeepsie. There is also an office in Hackensack, N.J. “Working …
Read More

On February 27, 2019, in Garza v. Idaho, 586 U.S. _ (2019), the Supreme Court of the United States, in a split decision, eased a client’s burden of establishing harm for the purposes of making an ineffective assistance of counsel argument against his former criminal defense lawyer. The Sixth Amendment provides that a criminal defendant …
Read More

It is now H-1B visa season, meaning that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is accepting H-1B visa applications from April 1st to April 5th. The H-1B visa program has come under intense public scrutiny over the last two years. In response to perceived abuses in the H-1B program, President Trump issued the “Buy …
Read More

Court Denies Motion to Dismiss on Failure to Exhaust Grounds When Plan Documents Were Apparently Silent with Respect to Exhaustion The U.S. district court in Connecticut recently denied a claim administrator’s motion to dismiss a Complaint seeking short-term disability benefits under an employee welfare benefit plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of …
Read More

A stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI) policy is a life insurance policy obtained as an investment for a stranger, rather than for the benefit of the insured’s beneficiaries. Public policy disfavors STOLI policies because, among other things, legislators consider them to be wagers on human life. See, e.g., N.Y. Ins. Law §7815(c) (“No person shall directly …
Read More

First Department Finds Additional Insured Coverage Under Policy Issued To Claimant’s Employer United Interior Renovations contracted with and obtained additional insured coverage for All State Interior Demolition under United’s policy for bodily injury caused, in whole or in part, by United’s acts or omissions. United’s employee was allegedly injured and sued All State, but did …
Read More

On February 20, 2019, The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent the Office of Management and Budget a proposed rule that would eliminate the work authorization for those present on an H-4 visa. The proposed termination of work authorization has the potential to drastically affect the companies that employ H-4 workers. Proactive employers can avoid a disruption …
Read More

As of January 2019, following a months-long break in the cases due to judicial transition, at least 70 lawsuits arising from the accidental destruction of human embryos and eggs were pending in Ohio state courts. The cases highlight the complex questions surrounding the legal status of embryos and, by consequence, theories of liability for the …
Read More