EEOC Updates COVID-19 Workplace Testing Rules: What Employers Need to Know
8/9/22
By: Tia Combs On July 12, 2022, the EEOC updated its “What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws: Technical Assistance Questions and Answers” by updating its guidance on when employers can routinely test employees for COVID-19 in the workplace without running afoul of the Americans with…
Maine Healthcare Workers Challenging Vaccine Mandate Cannot Proceed Under Pseudonyms
8/8/22
By: Maria Alexander and Tara Sheldon The healthcare workers challenging the constitutionality of Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate can no longer litigate their claims anonymously after the First Circuit Court of Appeals found that they failed to demonstrate a reasonable fear of harm to justify proceeding under pseudonyms. Maine’s Center for Disease Control promulgated a regulation…
6/6/22
By: Edward Storck Recently, the Connecticut Supreme Court examined the rights of a restaurant owner tenant who had withheld payment of rent citing the executive orders dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic as the cause for their inability to pay rent. In AGW Sono Partners, LLC v. Downtown Soho, LLC, SC 20625 (May 10, 2022), the…
Eleventh Circuit Finds for Insurer in COVID-19 Case of First Impression in Georgia
6/6/22
FMG partners Phil Savrin and Shawn Bingham successfully represented Allied Insurance Company of America (a Nationwide entity) in resisting a claim by a restaurant (Henry’s Louisiana Grill) seeking coverage for business income lost after it suspended its operations after the COVID-19 outbreak. The central question, which had not been decided previously under Georgia law, was…
Employer alert: CDC updates mask and quarantine guidelines
1/3/22
By: Diandra Franks and R. Victoria Fuller On December 27, 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) once again updated its mask and quarantine guidelines. In this most recent update, the CDC shortened its recommended isolation and quarantine periods for the general public. These new guidelines, however, do not apply to healthcare workers, for whom the CDC has issued separate updated…
9/9/21
By: R. Victoria Fuller & Diandra Franks In Shaw’s Supermarkets, Inc. v. Margarita Melendez, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (the “SJC”) recently held that its 2020 COVID-19 statute of limitations tolling order tolled the statute of limitations for all civil actions, not just those actions for which the limitations period would have expired during the tolling period. In Shaws, the plaintiff was allegedly injured on September 3,…
9/8/21
By: Nicholas J. Hubner In Blue Devil LLC v. Ace Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co., No. 1:20-cv-12480, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166886, (D.N.J. Sep. 2, 2021), plaintiffs, comprised of seven related LLCs, brought seven breach of contract claims (one for each LLC policyholder), seven declaratory judgment claims, and a claim for regulatory estoppel, all related…
6/4/21
By: Wayne Melnick and Carlos Fernandez The COVID-19 pandemic slowed the roll of most, if not all, cases. Now that the brakes are being slowly eased-off, questions are arising about the Georgia Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders that extended the statute of limitations deadlines. A new case from the Middle District of Georgia interpreted the Emergency…
6/3/21
By: John Bennett and Doug Blatecky Although many businesses have not mandated that their employees get a COVID-19 vaccine, the EEOC’s recently released guidance confirms that federal equal employment opportunity laws do not prevent an employer from requiring employees physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated. It remains unclear whether not businesses can require employees to…
Two Lawsuits Test the Permissibility of Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policies in Employment
5/11/21
By: Michael Hirota As the COVID-19 vaccine becomes more widely available within the United States, many employers are grappling with how to incorporate employee vaccination into their return-to-work requirements. Two recent lawsuits in New Mexico and California challenging mandatory vaccination policies represent the first lawsuits in what could be a new type of COVID-19 litigation…
FMG Education Law Blog Series: Special Education Issues Facing Schools in the COVID-19 Era
4/22/21
By: Tia Combs and Candice Jackson Part 2: “A Year Online” A New and Deadly Virus In January 2020, few Americans were aware the outbreak of a novel coronavirus that was about to dramatically alter how nearly every person and institution conducted their daily lives. On January 29, 2020, there were only five cases total…
It May Be Legal, But It’s Not Civil
4/13/21
By: Michael Weinberg A recent decision in the matter of Legal Sea Foods, LLC v. Strathmore Insurance Company, USDC (Mass) further addressed coverage for business income and extra expense losses caused by both state and local governments nationwide orders (the “Orders”) in response to the Covid 19 pandemic. Legal Seafoods is a chain which operates 32 restaurants…