Jessica Engler

Subscribe to Jessica Engler's Posts

Policyholders are often disappointed in the amount of time their insurers take to investigate and pay claims.  In 2003, the Texas Legislature enacted the Texas Prompt Payment of Claims Act (“TPPCA”) to facilitate the prompt investigation and payment of Texas insurance claims.[2] Codified at Section 542 of the Texas Insurance Code, the TPPCA imposes…

Outsourcing of basic business functions is increasingly popular. While businesses would once perform data management in-house and rely on their on-site server infrastructure to store data, businesses today are frequently turning to cloud storage providers and other third-parties to hold and manage data. These third party vendors are frequently charged with holding sensitive personal information,…

Whether you keep up with the Kardashians or you are just a casual Instagram user, you have probably been exposed to social media influencer posts. Due to social media’s increased marketing importance, companies will offer free products, money or other compensation to social media “influencers”, i.e. users that boast at least 2,000 or more genuine…

Canada’s new data breach law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”), became effective on November 1, 2018. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada released new guidance providing explanations of the breach reporting requirements for private-sector businesses that operate in Canada or do business with Canadian customers. The new requirements of…

To say that privacy regulations have been in the news lately is a bit of an understatement. The European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation has had privacy professionals and businesses scrambling to meet the May 25, 2018 deadline for compliance. While the GDPR may be dominating the national news circuits, the EU is not…

Delays are an unfortunate, but common occurrence on construction projects. These delays are sometimes caused by the project’s owner through change orders, delays in providing equipment and materials, slow response to requests for information, etc. When these delays occur, contractors will often request adjustments to the contract to account for the delay.

A major expense…

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2017 edition of DRI’s In-House Defense Quarterly

On March 11th of this year, the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) celebrated the one-year anniversary of its enactment.  The DTSA, 18 U.S.C. Section 1831, et seq. expanded the federal legal protection for holders of trade secrets presently offered to holders…

The IRS has sent an urgent alert to employers this month that a W-2 phishing scam that many companies fell victim to in 2016 is back in full force for 2017. The IRS warns that this scam is emerging earlier this year and is targeting school districts, tribal organizations, and nonprofits in addition to businesses.…

Continuing the trend from 2015, 2016 has seen a significant number of large, public data breaches. Many of these breaches involved high-profile companies such as the Democratic National Convention, Internal Revenue Service, MySpace, Yahoo!, and Anthem. Since large corporate and government breaches typically get the most attention, many smaller, local businesses can be lulled into…

Ransomware is here to stay. According to a recent United States Government interagency report, on average, there have been approximately 4,000 daily ransomware attacks since early 2016, which is a 300 percent increase from the approximately 1,000 daily ransomware attacks reported in 2015.[1] A significant percentage of those affected by ransomware have been healthcare…