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March 27, 2014

NLRB Region 13 Rules Northwestern University's Football Players Can Unionize

In a case of first impression, Region 13 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) determined that football players who are on scholarship at Northwestern University are “employees” of the school and eligible to vote whether they want to be repr...

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March 25, 2014

Small Business Administration Eliminates Personal Resource Test for 504 and 7(a) Loan Programs

On March 21, 2014 the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued its final rule in Federal Register Vol. 79, No. 55, regarding the personal resource test for the 504 and 7(a) Loan Programs. The final rule eliminates this test for loan applicants...

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March 19, 2014

Ohio Hospital Agrees to $8.5 Million Settlement with Department of Justice

ProMedica Memorial Hospital (Memorial), a small, 71-bed facility in Fremont, Ohio, will pay $8.5 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act, the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law. In 2012, Memorial conducted...

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March 14, 2014

President Obama Orders Revisions to Rules on Overtime Pay

President Obama signed a memorandum yesterday that has the potential to greatly expand the number of employees who qualify for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The President’s Memorandum is designed to raise the wages of low sa...

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March 11, 2014

Record Settlement Reached in Halifax Health Physician Kickback Case - Hospital Agrees to Pay Out $85 Million

Halifax Health (Halifax), a hospital system based in Daytona Beach, Florida, filed a final settlement agreement on March 10, 2014, in a whistleblower lawsuit originally filed in 2009. Halifax will pay a record-setting penalty of $83 million for its v...

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March 06, 2014

Supreme Court Expands Reach of Whistleblower Protections

In a decision handed down on March 4, 2014, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (the “Act”) of 2002 protects not only the “whistleblower” employees of publicly-held companies from retaliatory actions, but...

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March 04, 2014

Fraud at Citigroup's Mexican Subsidiary Banamex Leads to SEC Investigation

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has undertaken an investigation of Citigroup for possible accounting fraud and violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) following the disclosure by Citigroup of a recently discovered frau...

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February 21, 2014

Banking on the Marijuana Business - Treasury and DOJ Clear Financial Institutions to Service State-Licensed Marijuana Businesses

On February 14, 2014, the Department of the Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued detailed guidelines for financial institutions that do business in the 20 states and the District of Columbia that have legalized marijuana in...

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February 20, 2014

Ohio Industrial Commission and Bureau of Workers' Compensation Update Wage Loss Compensation Rules

Effective February 13, 2014, the Industrial Commission (IC) and Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) have enacted a new joint rule for the processing and adjudication of requests for wage loss compensation. In response to the Governor’s Common Sense...

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February 19, 2014

New Northern District of Ohio Decision Interprets Ohio's Catastrophic Loss Exception to the Cap on Noneconomic Damages

The Ohio Tort Reform Act, which became effective in 2005, provides a cap on a plaintiff's recovery of noneconomic damages. Under the Act and set forth in Ohio Revised Code ("R.C.") 2315.18, damages for noneconomic loss are limited to the greater of:...

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February 18, 2014

OSHA Issues Interim Rule for Whistleblowers under the Food Safety Modernization Act

On February 12, 2014, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an interim final rule that addresses procedures for retaliation complaints under the whistleblower provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The whist...

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February 13, 2014

Affordable Care Act's "Employer Mandate" Delayed in Part for Another Year

On February 10, 2014, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that it was partially delaying implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate. Mid-sized employers with 50 to 99 full-time employees will not be required to pay a penal...

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January 30, 2014

U.S. Supreme Court Rules that Workers' Time Spent Putting On and Taking Off Protective Gear is Not Compensable if Excluded Under a Collective Bargaining Agreement

On January 27, 2014, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that U.S. Steel is not required to pay its workers for time spent putting on and taking off protective clothing necessary for their work. Specifically at issue in the case was Sec...

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January 28, 2014

Community Banks Get Some Relief from the Requirements of the Volcker Rule

In a move that should offer some relief to community banks, five federal financial regulatory agencies (the Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Securities and Exchange C...

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January 13, 2014

Alcoa Pays $384 Million in the Fifth Largest Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Case

Alcoa World Alumina LLC, a majority-owned subsidiary of Alcoa, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA). As part of the plea agreement, Alcoa will pay a criminal fine of $209 million and will disgor...

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January 09, 2014

Federal Court Declares the Ohio Supreme Court "Misinterpreted" the Law in Creating "Logo Liability" in Ohio

Roetzel’s Transportation Group attorneys obtained a favorable decision from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on January 7, 2014, in UPS Ground Freight, Inc. v. James Farran, et al., Case No. 3:12-cv-00130-MRM, whic...

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2014

Recent Developments in Montreal Convention Litigation

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2014

US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation Considers Missouri Workers' Compensation Laws, Rules against Former NFL Players in Concussion Suit

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January 2014

Earn-outs in M&A Deals: Negotiate With Care to Minimize Potential for Post-Closing Disputes

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Business Law (Illinois): LLCs and Partnerships