New England Biz Law Update

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Rhode Island is seeking comment on proposed amendments to local rules and forms relating to implementation of the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019, which takes effect Feb. 19. Copies of the proposed amendments are available ...

A Massachusetts Superior Court judge has ordered Facebook to turn over to the state Attorney General’s Office information regarding thousands of apps that the social media company suspects of misusing users’ data. The Jan. 17 order by Judge Brian A. ...

More than 3,000 employers have asked a Massachusetts agency to be excluded from the state’s new Family and Medical Leave Program, opting instead to find a private alternative or a way to offer their workers the same benefits themselves. By the Dec. ...

The U.S. Department of Labor on Jan. 13 announced a final rule to update the regulations interpreting joint employer status under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Under the FLSA, an employee may have, in addition to his or her employer, one ...

The U.S. Department of Labor Jan. 7 announced three new opinion letters that address compliance issues related to the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. The newly issued opinion letters are: FLSA2020-1, addressing calculating overtime pay ...

The National Labor Relations Board recently announced significant changes to its rules regarding representation elections. The new rules undo many of the 2014 modifications made by the Obama board, as discussed below. These changes are not scheduled to become effective ...

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura T. Healey’s office has announced it is suing eight online e-cigarette sellers it says are violating a new state law banning sales of flavored tobacco products. A complaint filed on Dec. 20 in Massachusetts Superior Court alleges ...

Consistent with both the “place of contracting” and “interest-weighing” approaches to choice-of-law questions, a federal magistrate judge in Rhode Island has recommended to the District Court that Massachusetts law should apply to a Rhode Island plaintiff’s common law claims against ...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on Dec. 6 the implementation of an electronic registration process in the next H-1B lottery. Employers seeking H-1B workers subject to the cap will be required to complete ...

On Nov. 20, the Fraud Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division announced changes to its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Corporate Enforcement Policy. The policy, which began as a pilot program in April 2016 and was formally introduced in ...