New England Biz Law Update

Two years after a guidance warning employers against the overly broad use of criminal background checks to screen potential new hires was issued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, it is drawing renewed criticism from employers, business groups and ...

The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down a pair of decisions that could make it more difficult to bring patent infringement claims in some circumstances, further hampering suits brought by so-called “patent trolls.” But while the justices’ rulings in Limelight ...

Labor and employment attorneys are taking special notice of a recent memorandum issued by the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board that requires regional officers to seek guidance from the board’s Division of Advice before proceeding on a ...

By Kimberly Atkins Seeking to resolve a rather lopsided circuit split, the U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to support a requirement that employees alleging breach of fiduciary duty overcome a pleading-stage presumption that employee stock plan fiduciaries acted with prudence. ...

Patent lawyers in New England are hoping the U.S. Supreme Court provides some useful guidance this term on whether computer-implemented software programs that draw on non-computerized principles — a category that could encompass countless types of programs used by millions ...

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling extending Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower protection to private contractors of publicly traded companies has some attorneys concerned about the lack of any limiting principle. The decision in Lawson v. FMR LLC was the court’s first stab at ...

Is a severance package a form of employment income, or does it constitute a supplemental unemployment benefit? The answer makes a big difference when it comes to income taxes, and it’s now up to the justices of the U.S. Supreme ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s recent focus on compliance and enforcement issues surrounding laws barring national origin-based job bias has some attorneys wondering if new guidance may be forthcoming. The EEOC held a meeting on Nov. 13 to address the ...

Businesses got a temporary reprieve over the summer when the Obama administration announced a yearlong delay in the enforcement of the federal requirement that employers provide health care coverage to workers or pay a fine.

Tagged with: Nov. 1 2013 issue

Two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court that challenge an Environmental Protection Agency rule designed to reduce the amount of power plant air pollutants that drift across state lines may be the first in a flurry of high court environmental ...

Tagged with: Nov. 1 2013 issue