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The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) (42 U.S.C.A ' 1320d) was enacted by Congress in 1996 and took effect on April 14, 2003. Although it was originally intended to increase access to health care by expanding insurance portability and renewability, privacy issues evolved due to developing technology that provided easy access to health information. As a result, Congress added additional safeguards to the seemingly innocuous Act. Such procedural safeguards have spawned a debate on whether HIPAA preempts state privacy laws, and if so, whether it prohibits ex parte communications between a plaintiff's treating physicians and defense counsel. Therefore, it's important for counsel to be aware of the various state and federal court decisions on the subject and the issues raised by both plaintiffs and defendants in this amorphous area of law.
Numerous studies and articles document the alarming increase during the last few years in the size of settlements in securities class action lawsuits. As a result, directors, officers, insurers, brokers, and others focus almost exclusively on securities class actions when evaluating risks and structuring D&O insurance programs. Although largely ignored in that analysis, shareholder derivative lawsuits are also very important liability exposures particularly for directors since directors are named as defendants in derivative suits far more frequently than in securities class actions and since settlements and judgments in derivative suits are usually not indemnifiable by the company.
National cases of interest to you and your practice.
Unfortunately, attempting to achieve the worthy goal of increasing workplace diversity through ad hoc decisions that advance women or minorities, often made in the absence of, or without strict adherence to, a formal affirmative action plan, can spawn claims of illegal reverse discrimination. Such claims appear to be on the rise.
Features
In the May 2006 issue of <i>Employment Law Strategist</i>, Marc Engel considered the virtues of mediation and the positive outcomes a successful mediation experience can create. In this second of a two-part series, he elaborates on specific steps that can be taken to make a mediation successful.
Recent cases in e-commerce law and in the e-commerce industry.
As American companies struggle to compete in a global market, they are increasingly considering the merits of eliminating or reducing costly retiree benefits. For many companies, the costs of these benefits have become staggering. For example, before recently announcing plans to freeze health benefits for tens of thousands of its white-collar retirees, Ford Motor Co. was facing health-care expenses of more than $3.5 billion. Its rival, General Motors, which according to recent reports owes a projected $89 billion in welfare and pension benefits to its current and future retirees, just announced that it will offer workers with 10 years' experience a payment of $140,000 and a pension, if in return these workers will leave their employment and forgo health care benefits.
Features
Employee handbooks can be an essential tool for communicating company policies and procedures to employees of any type of enterprise.
Features
You've seen it so many times: New tech clients have great dreams. They're always sure that their invention will make millions, as soon as you, their attorney, introduce them to people who can provide the funding that will develop, market and advertise the invention.<br>Counsel, unfortunately, must play their role, and discharge their responsibilities, and end these dreams with a splash of reality. This is the way of the world: While some startup firms will taste success, most, for a host of reasons that fit each company according to the company's situation, will not. <br>So as a new client sits across your desk, what advice must you give? Below is my take on the e-commerce advice that counsel must dispense, whether or not the client wants to hear it ' including how to work best with counsel to get results at a reasonable cost.
