Legal considerations for stethoscope hygiene in a new era of infection control (COVID-19)
12/21/21
By: Edward Solensky, Jr. A recent article in American Heart Journal Plus: Cardiology Research and Practice discusses how stethoscopes may be implicated in medical malpractice lawsuits as a potential cause of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The authors note that while there is limited evidence demonstrating a direct connection between stethoscope contamination and HAIs, malpractice lawsuits often…
6th Circuit reverses earlier injunction and reinstates OSHA’s Covid-19 vaccine or test mandate
12/20/21
By: Courtney M. Knight On Friday, December 17, 2021, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed an earlier stay by the Fifth Circuit, and allowed OSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”) to move ahead. By way of background, on November 5, 2021, OSHA unveiled its ETS mandating employers with at least 100 employees to develop a…
No mask required: Fifth Circuit grants stay in E.T. v. Paxton
12/16/21
By: Tia J. Combs On July 29, 2021, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas issued Executive Order GA-38, which provided, among other things, that “[n]o governmental entity, including…a school district…and no governmental official may require any person to wear a face covering or to mandate that another person wear a face covering[.].” The provision superseded any requirement by a…
Squeezing blood from stones: an introduction to creditors’ rights
12/15/21
By: Travis Knobbe Creditors’ rights, practiced properly, is a truly unique intersection in the law. When I clerked with the Honorable William F. Stone, Jr., in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Virginia, he said a couple things that stick with me through my practice. First, he told me that he…
Update on upcoming Title IX regulations
12/14/21
By: Candice Jackson The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has updated its plans to issue amendments to Title IX regulations. In a statement by ED’s Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Catherine Lhamon, ED announced that the Department intends to publish proposed regulatory amendments in April 2022. Under the previous Administration, Title IX regulations effective in August 2020 addressed sexual harassment for the first time. Those 2020 regulations currently govern what constitutes sexual…
It just became more difficult for plaintiffs to scream ‘Counter-Offer’
12/13/21
By: Matthew S. Jones The California Court of Appeal for the Sixth Appellate District recently analyzed the issue of an agreed upon amount of a settlement and memorializing the settlement terms. In the case CSAA Ins. Exchange v. Hodroj (2021) Cal.App.LEXIS 1009 (ordered published on December 1, 2021), Plaintiff’s counsel wrote to the insurer stating…
Will a California Court’s ruling on an Anti-SLAPP Motion arising from a revenge-porn case stand?
12/10/21
By: Parisa Saleki In 2017, when Kathryn Hill announced her candidacy for the United States House of Representatives for California’s 25th congressional district, the talk of the town was whether she could beat incumbent representative Steven Knight. In 2018, the topic of conversation was Hill’s victory. Few could have predicted that in 2019, the topic…
Economic loss doctrine bars medical device company’s negligence claim against IT vendor arising out of personal health information data breach
12/9/21
By: William E. Gildea In Zoll Medical Corp. v. Barracuda Networks, Inc., et al, United States District Court, District of Massachusetts Civil Action No. 20-11997-NMG, (D. Mass. Sept. 21, 2021) (Gorton, J) (“Zoll”), Plaintiff Zoll Medical Corp. (“Zoll Medical”) sued a third-party IT vendor over a data breach that exposed protected health information (“PHI”). Zoll Medical did not directly contract with the third-party IT vendor. The District Court of Massachusetts granted the Defendants’ motion…
Animals at large – or, when the cows don’t come home
12/8/21
By: D. Jeffrey Grate Imagine you are the owner of a farm in rural Georgia and were awakened by the knock on your door by a deputy sheriff who advised you that one of your cows had caused a motor vehicle accident. The deputy explained that a car collided with a cow on a nearby…
