The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a policy memorandum clarifying the one-year foreign employment requirement for an L-1 visa for intracompany transferees. Previously, USCIS inconsistently applied this requirement when a foreign national was in the United States in one status but sought to change to L-1 status. An L-1 visa permits …
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No Additional Insured Coverage For School District Under Named Insured’s Policy Where Named Insured Did Not Cause Its Employee’s Injury, 4th Department Rules An employee of a company that contracted to provide janitorial services to a school district was allegedly injured when she slipped on snow or ice in the school parking lot. The injured …
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The December 31 deadline for certain Medicaid providers and third-party billers to certify as to the effectiveness of their compliance program is fast approaching. New York State Medicaid providers and third-party billing companies who claim, bill, order or receive at least $500,000 in any consecutive 12-month period from the Medicaid Program or Managed Medicaid payors …
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It was a bountiful month in terms of insurance decisions.  And as a result, our November Insurance Update is like a “Thanksgiving Day feast.” With a healthy serving of decisions from state high courts, intermediate appellate courts, and federal circuit courts, our update touches upon first-party issues, third-party issues, and a case insurance brokers will …
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Steven Shapiro authored an article “Making and Using Endorsements” that was published in Natural Products Insider. The article discusses the need for brands working with celebrity or influencer endorsements to share all pertinent information with its consumers. Click here to read the article. …
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Federal Court Remands Case to State Court Because ERISA Did Not Preempt Claims Against Health Insurer for Revealing Plaintiff’s HIV Status A federal district court in California held that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) did not preempt a plaintiff’s claims under California law against his managed health care company for revealing …
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Stuart Gordon’s and Matthew Spero’s article entitled “Creditors Typically May Not Offset Section 303(i) Judgments Against Claims Against Debtors” was published in the November 2018 edition of Pratt’s Journal of Bankruptcy Law. Click here to read the article. …
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There are many different kinds of insurance fraud, as this column regularly observes. There can be fraud contained in applications for insurance policies, fraudulently staged accidents, and fraudulent claims by health care providers treating injured policyholders, among other things. Insurance policies try to eliminate, or at least to cut down on, insurance fraud in a …
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Stop Work Order Deemed Insufficiently Coercive Or Adversarial To Be A “Suit” After excavation work began on a property in Manhattan, the New York City Department of Buildings issued a stop work order to the construction manager and property owners because of damage to an adjacent building. The construction manager and owners sought a defense …
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In September, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Cybersecurity Unit, Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section updated its Best Practices for Victim Response and Reporting of Cyber Incidents. The updated guidance (which is not intended to have any regulatory effect) emphasizes the importance of planning a response before a data breach, ransomware threat or other cyber …
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As a reminder, effective October 29, 2018, New Jersey employers – regardless of size – must provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave in any consecutive 12-month period designated by the employer as the “Benefit Year” pursuant to the New Jersey Paid Sick Leave Act (the “Act”). The Act applies to almost all …
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On October 17, 2018, the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued Formal Opinion No. 483 addressing lawyers’ and law firms’ professional responsibilities during and after a cyber event. A link to the Opinion can be found here. Although advisory in nature and not binding in a court of law, lawyers would do …
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Our October Insurance Update is packed with interesting cases. We begin with a pair of cases addressing whether the insured’s liability was because of property damage. One case deals with future lost profits, the other concerns the failure to award a college degree. In our next pair of cases, the homeowner’s insurer properly denied coverage. Did the …
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It has been nearly 20 years since the federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (the ACPA) was enacted in 1999 to battle what an alarmed Congress understood to be a rising wave of “cybersquatting.” As the Senate Judiciary Committee explained, the ACPA was designed to “protect consumers and American businesses, to promote the growth of online …
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While there may be a no-return policy on the stairway to heaven, no such policy exists with respect to returning a blockbuster jury verdict that dismissed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Led Zeppelin. To be sure, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that a new day will dawn by ordering …
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