On December 28, 2015, the IRS announced an automatic extension of the Affordable Care Act reporting deadlines for distributing and/or filing the 1094-B/1095-B and 1094-C/1095-C forms. This relief only applies for the 2015 calendar year.
For employers who were considered applicable large employer members (“ALE members”) in 2015, the new deadline for furnishing your full-time
The U.S. Fifth Circuit recently held that a vessel management company did not have a valid maritime lien on the vessels it managed despite its attempt to create such a lien by the language in its management agreement. Comar Marine, Corp. v. Raider Marine Logistics, L.L.C., 2015 WL 4079541 (5th Cir. 2015) should serve
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the availability of maritime punitive damages claims in Atlantic Sounding v. Townsend, 557 U.S. 404 (2009), maritime plaintiffs have fought tirelessly to see where else they can carve out from under the Jones Act’s prohibition from punitive damages. Recall that in Townsend, the Supreme Court recognized
Choice-of-law provisions can be simple, single-sentence contract clauses that provide some certainty to disputes that may arise out of a contractual relationship. One such way that these clauses enhance the predictability of disputes is by limiting the remedies available to the parties to the contract to those available under the chosen law. This can be
As a final follow up on our previous posts (here and here) monitoring Meche v. Doucet’s progression through the court system, we report that on October 5, 2015, the United States Supreme Court denied writs. As previously reported, in Meche, 777 F.3d 237 (5th Cir. Jan. 22, 2015), the Fifth Circuit expanded
When a maritime casualty or accident occurs, it must be determined whether the occurrence meets the criteria for notifying the Coast Guard. Note that a “marine casualty or accident” is purposefully defined broadly in governmental regulations to capture a wide variety of occurrences. Indeed, the statutes and regulations pertinent to marine casualties and accidents provide
On December 4, 2015, the United States Supreme Court granted a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States and Commonwealth of Massachusetts ex rel. Julio Escobar and Carmen Correa. The Petition was filed by Universal Health Services, Inc. (“UHS”) challenging the United States Court of Appeals for the
On December 1, 2015, amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure took effect in an effort to rein in the scope of federal discovery. Several changes were made to Federal Rule 26 with the goal of reducing the substantial expense and unfairness of overbroad discovery.
Former Rule 26(b)(1) provided that:
Parties may obtain discovery