Civil Law

With eight more executions scheduled, 2024 could conclude with most US executions in nearly a decade

I flagged here last month that a flourish of executions in multiple states had been scheduled over just a week, and all five of those executions were ultimately carried out.  I now see from this Death Penalty Information Center page that eight more executions are scheduled for the final few months of 2024.  If seven of those executions go forward as planned, the US will have completed 26 total execution in 2024, which would be more than in any calendar … Read the rest

Civil Law

ANOTHER CUSTODY RELOCATION “CALLED BACK.”

The desire of a parent to relocate to another state and take the children along is one of the most challenging forms of custody case lawyers and clients can face. When this law began to evolve in the 1990s with  Gruber v. Gruber, 583 A.2d 434 the Superior Court took the approach that if a move was advantageous for the primary custodial parent, it was probably in the best interest of the children as well. Ironically, that case … Read the rest

Civil Law

CMS Ramps up Process for Identifying Private-Equity Ownership of SNFs

This month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has begun an off-cycle revalidation process directed at all Medicare-participating skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). The process is designed to implement provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that require facilities to detail their ownership structures and key managerial personnel.

CMS is seeking information about ownership of SNFs by private equity firms and real estate investment trusts (REITs). In September, CMS revised Form 855A to require a SNF to report those … Read the rest

Civil Law

The Evolution of Document Drafting: A Conversation with Jeff Pfeifer about LSA, Henchman and Lexis Generative AI Solutions

As someone who worked in the KM trenches for years, I have repeatedly watched legal tech companies promise to tame the wild west of documents residing in law firm Document Management Systems (DMS). Over the years I implemented or worked with a variety of KM solutions from Lexis, West and smaller software companies.  Recently the dominant DMS providers iManage and Netdocs have launched AI enabled drafting solutions

This past July Lexis completed the acquisition of Henchman, a Belgium based legal … Read the rest

Civil Law

Will Australians connect with the right to disconnect?

The right to disconnect has been in the media a lot. But if we look behind the headlines, what impact is it actually going to have?

The new laws give employees a limited right to ignore work-related contact outside of working hours. This right is limited by what is reasonable. It does not:

  • outlaw reasonable out-of-hours contact; or
  • give employees rights to unreasonably ignore work-related communications.

Given the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) has always prohibited unreasonable additional work outside … Read the rest

Civil Law

Gray Reed Partners Chris Davis and Joshua Smeltzer’s Crypto Article Featured in Bloomberg Leading news

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently disclosed two settled enforcement actions against Prager Metis CPAs, an audit firm linked to FTX, the now-defunct crypto trading platform. The firm’s founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, is currently in custody alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. These enforcement actions highlight three important considerations for auditors and accountants: the SEC’s stance on auditor independence, the qualifications of individuals conducting audits in emerging sectors and the significance … Read the rest

Civil Law

The Saga’s Not Over – FTC Appeals Florida Court’s Stay of Non-Compete Rule

Just over a month ago, employers throughout the United States breathed a sigh of relief after Judge Ada Brown in the Northern District of Texas issued a summary judgment ruling in the Ryan v. FTC litigation setting aside the FTC’s rule banning the vast majority of non-competes (the “Rule”). In that decision, Judge Brown reasoned—just as she had in her order on the plaintiffs’ motion to stay and enjoin the Rule—that the FTC violated the APA because it “exceeded its … Read the rest

Civil Law

“Solitary Confinement, Human Dignity, and the Eighth Amendment”

The title of this post is the title of this new paper authored by Laura Rovner now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract:

The harms of solitary confinement have been well-documented for centuries, yet the practice persists.  Despite recent efforts to reform the use of solitary confinement in certain states and localities, over 120,000 people are currently confined in solitary conditions in American prisons and jails.  In part, America’s addiction to solitary remains incurable because the doctrine governing whether

… Read the rest