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Expert Analysis

• 3rd Circ. Ruling Offers Tools To Manage Exempt Employees

  

  The Third Circuit’s recent opinion in Higgins v. Bayada Home Health, finding the Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to deduct paid time off for missed employee productivity targets, gives companies another resource for managing exempt employee inefficiency or absenteeism, says Laura Lawless at Squire Patton.

• Dormant Commerce Clause Issues Are Evolving In Cannabis

  

  As federal courts across the country wrestle with how the Constitution’s dormant commerce clause applies to state-legal cannabis markets, industry stakeholders will need to watch how the issue evolves in several key contexts, including interstate compacts, say Tommy Tobin and Andrew Kline at Perkins Coie.

• Garmon Defense Finds New Relevance As NLRB Stays Active

  

  With a more muscular National Labor Relations Board at work, employers should recall that they have access to a powerful yet underutilized defense to state law employment and tort claims established under the U.S. Supreme Court decision in San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, say Alex Meier and Cary Reid Burke at Seyfarth.

• The Important Role Of Contra Proferentem In ERISA Cases

  

  A Pennsylvania federal court's recent decision in Stein v. Paul Revere Life Insurance illustrates what happens when ERISA plan terms are unclear, and why the contra proferentem principle should be applied uniformly in all ERISA cases, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.

• New Mich. Cannabis Policy May Lower Costs For Some Cos.

  

  Under a recently issued bulletin from Michigan’s cannabis regulator, certain growers and processors may be able to significantly reduce costs by shifting the balance of their medical and adult-use licenses — but this strategy does entail some complications, says Robert Hendricks at Warner Norcross.

• No Surprises Act Gives Plan Sponsors Savings Opportunities

  

  Under the No Surprises Act, the potential savings for an ERISA group health plan and its participants are significant, and sponsors should focus on the negotiation of third-party administrator service agreements to avoid exposure to breach of fiduciary claims for payment of excessive fees, say attorneys at Hall Benefits.

• Cos. Need Clarity On Divergent FCA Pleading Standard

  

  With the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent denial of certiorari in three cases concerning False Claims Act pleading standards, potential FCA defendants remain subject to forum shopping, greater prosecutorial scrutiny in more lenient circuits and ambiguity that makes crafting multijurisdictional compliance policies nearly impossible, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

• Time Is Ticking For Callers To Address Complex TCPA Rules

  

  The recently published Telephone Consumer Protection Act amendments will be effective in July, giving previously exempt entities only a short time to comply with technical and onerous requirements for prerecorded, nonmarketing calls to landlines, say attorneys at Wiley.

• What Cannabis Cos. Must Know About Strict Product Liability

  

  To evaluate the traditional product liability risks of their products, cannabis companies should understand the common tests used by courts to determine strict liability, as well as how marijuana consumers are educated about product risks, says Ian Stewart at Wilson Elser.

• FCA Knowledge Element: NY Already Got It Right

  

  In April, when the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in U.S. v. Supervalu and U.S. v. Safeway concerning the federal False Claims Act's knowledge component, it should consider the reasoning of a New York state court ruling that already reached the correct understanding, says Randall Fox at Kirby McInerney.

• Evaluating Workplace Accommodations For Service Animals

  

  In Bennett v. Hurley Medical Center, a Michigan federal court ruled in favor of the hospital after a nursing intern filed a disability discrimination lawsuit regarding her service dog, highlighting the importance of engaging in interactive processes and individualized actions in workplace accommodation decisions, say Keith Anderson and Anne Yuengert at Bradley Arant.

• Fla. Bill Would Rein In Personal Injury Litigation Excesses

  

  A recently proposed bill in the Florida House that would change bad-faith laws and the admissibility of medical bills for services performed under a letter of protection would provide reasonable checks on practices that are far too common in personal injury cases in the Sunshine State, say attorneys at Baker Donelson.

• Bankruptcy Ruling Affirms High 9th Circ. Evidentiary Standard

  

  The Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel's recent ruling in Groves demonstrates that Section 363 — which allows a debtor-in-possession to sell their property in order to generate cash — fails as a tool when it’s used to turn a nondebtor entities' property into property of a debtor's bankruptcy estate, says Brian Shaw at Cozen O'Connor.