On 25 July 2013, the Coroner’s Rules 1984 were replaced by:
The changes were facilitated by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
The new regime will apply to any inquest not completed by 25 July 2013. The
“Pumping,” or expressing breast milk, is now protected under Title VII. In a matter of first impression, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal recently held that an adverse employment action taken against a female employee because she was expressing milk constituted sex discrimination in violation of Title VII. See Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Houston
Overnight going “green” became a more attractive option for businesses and manufactures. How? The Obama administration increased the social cost of carbon (SCC). This increase will impact every industry that deals with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions regardless of size. The SCC is a monetary value agencies use to perform cost/benefit analysis to quantify the benefits
Löfstedt report and cutting red tape
One of the key recommendations of the Löfstedt report, published back in November 2011, was for the Government to implement a review of existing health and safety regulations. Employers, increasingly fearful of a burgeoning “compensation culture”, felt that over-compliance was rife with health and safety legislation as a
New Orleans partner Michael A. McGlone recently published an article in The Federal Lawyer. Mr. McGlone”s article, Settlement Conferences: When to Schedule, appeared in the May 2013 edition. Mr. McGlone serves on the Editorial Board of The Federal Lawyer.
Click here to read the article.
In the ever-evolving social media landscape, employers now have a new area of concern: Vine, a video-sharing app introduced by Twitter. On May 21, 2013, the American Bar Association Journal published an article alerting employers to this new outlet for employee expression and the potential issues employers are facing as a result. ABA Journal Article
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a jury verdict awarding $26.2 million in compensatory damages and $18.2 million in punitive damages for trade secret misappropriation of software that enabled oil and gas companies to “plan, procure and pay for complex services” online. See Wellogix, Inc. v. Accenture, LLP, Case No. 11-20816 (5th
Almost four years after the Marin Municipal Water District (MMWD) certified an environmental impact report (EIR) and approved a five million gallon a day desalination plant project, the Court of Appeal, First District, in a published opinion (N. Coast Rivers Alliance v. Marin Mun. Water Dist. Bd. of Dirs. (2013) 2013 Cal.App.LEXIS 401), reversed the
In the first appellate court ruling to address the post-closing obligations of a party asserting the Superfund bona fide prospective purchaser (BFPP) defense, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed that a South Carolina brownfields developer forfeited the defense because of its failure to exercise due care with regard to existing contamination.