All Perspectives

As the economic fallout of the global COVID-19 pandemic increases by the day, state legislatures and regulators are coming under increasing pressure to shift the resulting economic losses onto the insurance industry.

Civil litigation is a highly deadline-driven activity – statutes of limitation, discovery responses, notices of appeal. The “use it by a date certain or lose it” nature of all of these deadlines pushes the wheels of justice forward, steadily, if sometimes slowly.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to threaten public health worldwide, government officials in the United States are taking new steps to help stop the spread of COVID-19. These steps include new recommendations and guidance for employers navigating the crisis.

As an update to our post on Monday, yesterday the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, H.R. 6201, which the U.S. House of Representatives had passed in a bipartisan vote on March 14 (with further changes made by the House by unanimous consent on March 16).

Civil litigation is a highly deadline-driven activity – statutes of limitation, discovery responses, notices of appeal. The “use it by a date certain or lose it” nature of all of these deadlines pushes the wheels of justice forward, steadily, if sometimes slowly.

As noted in our previous Legal Alerts concerning insurance coverage for coronavirus related issues, as businesses are forced to close, travel is restricted, and supply chains are disrupted, COVID-19 insurance claims will proliferate, likely affecting all lines of coverage, particularly property and

After a short delay due to opposition among Senate Republicans, Congressional leaders in Washington have passed H.R. 6201, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act—the second comprehensive spending package in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Arent Fox has been monitoring daily updates from the top scientific journals and similar sources to get the most accurate information as soon as it is first made available. Here is a brief summary of the key issues that are of concern.

Treasury Department extends tax payment deadline by 90 days for most individual taxpayers and many businesses

Further to our previously issued insurance Legal Alerts concerning potential coverage for coronavirus-related claims, we now focus on recent action by insurance regulators—in particular, Maryland.

The IRS released Notice 2020-17 on March 18, 2020, formalizing the relief announced the previous day by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, which extended the time to pay certain taxes by 90 days.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a guidance document today outlining its procedures for conducting clinical trials of investigational products in view of the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra somewhat unexpectedly proposed revisions to the CCPA regulations last week, including several substantive modifications to what was previously thought of as potentially final regulations.

As businesses are forced to close, travel is restricted, and supply chains are disrupted, it is a certainty that the COVID-19 virus will engender a plethora of insurance claims affecting all lines of coverage, particularly property and general liability coverages.

The coronavirus pandemic raises vexing issues for employers, including issues under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the federal Rehabilitation Act. The EEOC has addressed several of those issues in its publication What You Should Know about the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and COVID-19. 

As the spread of COVID-19 accelerates across the United States, hospitals, health systems, and other providers face unique challenges. Arent Fox’s Health Care Group analyzes what you need to know about regulatory changes and guidance from the federal government.

The Center for Biosimilars

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced today that individual taxpayers can defer federal tax payments of up to $1 million for 90 days.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is the landmark privacy law in the US that formally went into effect January 1, 2020, and provides California residents with rights regarding the collection, use, and sharing of their personal information.

Questions are being raised if an employer has the legal right to discipline or discharge employees who refuse to work out of concern about the Coronavirus. The definitive legal answer is, “it depends.” There are both legal and employee relations issues at stake here.

Patient safety is a key priority for hospitals and other providers. Yet, patient safety may be especially challenging for marginalized groups, according to the authors of an article recently published in the International Journal for Equity in Health.

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The Hill

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff announced guidance to assist public companies with facilitating their upcoming annual shareholder meetings during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Partner Francis Lyons, a former Department of Justice (DOJ) environmental enforcement attorney and former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator, was quoted in the U.S. Department of Justice’s memorandum changing a nearly 30-year policy on the use of supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) as an option in enforcement settlements for environmental violations involving state and local governments.