New England Biz Law Update

The Civil Defense Act provides authority for Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s March 10 declaration of a state of emergency and subsequent emergency orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and those actions did not violate the state or federal constitutions, ...

One way to look at what the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is being asked to decide in Kauders, et al. v. Uber Technologies Inc., to be argued on Sept. 10, is whether our e-commerce learning curve has reached the point at ...

Despite never crossing state lines while discharging their duties, “last mile” delivery drivers are sufficiently engaged in interstate commerce to qualify for the Federal Arbitration Act’s exemption for “transportation workers,” the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held. The ...

A collection agency that was not party to a contract between a business and a consumer could not compel arbitration of the consumer’s claims against the collection agency over its practices, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled. Consumer advocates ...

The federal government has agreed to rescind the recently announced federal policy that would have barred all international students from remaining in the United States if they took only online classes. U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs announced the ...

Massachusetts voters will get their say on a ballot question that would expand the ability of convenience stores to sell beer and wine, thanks to a May 26 decision by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court. Package store owners had mounted ...

A federal lawsuit filed April 30 accuses Boston University of improperly retaining fees and other payments from students after “constructively evicting” students and transitioning to online classes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a suit filed the following day in U.S. District ...

On April 17, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law an act designed to provide liability protection for health care workers and facilities treating COVID-19 patients. The new law, Chapter 64 of the Acts of 2020, provides to health care professionals ...

A college in Massachusetts cannot avail itself of an affirmative defense grounded in the First Amendment’s religion clauses known as the “ministerial exception” in a discrimination suit brought by one of its former professors, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge ruled on ...

The commercial custodian of non-discretionary individual retirement accounts did not owe a fiduciary duty to a named beneficiary of those accounts, but the beneficiary could maintain a suit under the consumer protection statute, G.L.c. 93A, by credibly alleging that the ...