Blogs

Although changes to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) have been under consideration for some time in order to bridge the gap between premiums and expenditures, new rates for all NFIP-insured properties will go into effect on October 1, 2021 pursuant to a major overhaul of the NFIP referred to as “Risk Rating 2.0.”

With the introduction of new technologies to the construction industry, businesses should carefully consider how the utilization of such new and powerful tools can affect exposure to future litigation. 

In our latest Florida Appellate Law Blog post, Fort Lauderdale associate Amy Wessel discusses some of the notable amendments to the Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure and Florida Rules of Judicial Administration that will go into effect on January 1, 2019.

A Florida court reiterated that there is no “fairness” exception to the statute’s requirement of paying rent on time into the court registry during a commercial eviction.

Hackers are taking advantage of the health scare to spread their own infections, including creating malicious Coronavirus-related domains and selling malware to other hackers on the dark web. Hackers will use society’s desire of having information on the latest developments. The danger of falling prey to phishing schemes is at an all-time high as people will tend to react more quickly to receive frequent coronavirus updates for their local area especially while working remotely from home.

Florida’s First District Court of Appeals recently held in State of Fla., Agency for Health Care Administration v. Best Care Assurance, LLC, 302 So. 3d 1012 (Fla. 1st DCA 2020) (“Best Care”), that a contractor who had been awarded a contract in a “multiple award procurement” lacked standing to challenge awards to others.

In response to new telework and remote working arrangements established because of the pandemic, on August 24, 2020 the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued a Field Assistance Bulletin (“FAB”) to provide further clarification to employers on teleworker time tracking and compensation challenges.

In Eiser Infrastructure Ltd. et al. v. Kingdom of Spain, claimant investors were successful in securing an arbitral award against Spain based on an ICSID tribunal’s finding that Spain failed to provide claimant investors with fair and equitable treatment under the applicable Energy Charter Treaty. Unfortunately for claimants, the arbitral award was attacked by Spain in an annulment petition due to a perceived conflict of interest arising from an established business relationship between claimant’s appointed arbitrator and claimant’s damages expert. Ultimately, an ICSID annulment committee annulled the entire award due to the arbitrator’s failure to disclose the relationship.

Through the passage of the recent budget bill directed to providing COVID relief, Congress has also passed the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act (the “CASE Act”), essentially creating a small claims “court” within the Copyright Office itself.