Jury Trials to Resume Again!
The world has been battling the COVID-19 pandemic for a year now. All sectors of life, from businesses to schools, to courts, to places of worship, have socially-distanced and shifted to technology to carry out their work.
A year ago, on March 14, 2020, Chief Justice Melton of the Supreme Court of Georgia declared a Statewide Judicial Emergency in the State of Georgia due to the “transmission of Coronavirus/COVID-19 throughout the State and the potential infection of those who work in or are required to appear in our courts.”[i] The first order suspended all jury trials. Today, on March 9, 2021, almost one year after the first order, Chief Justice Melton has entered the 12th order extending the judicial emergency. This order authorizes jury trials to begin again.[ii]
To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
On December 27, 2020, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which in addition to providing stimulus relief for the COVID pandemic, it includes important changes to trademark and copyright law.
TRADEMARK MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2020
The Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (TMA) amends the Trademark Act of 1946, also known as the Lanham Act, and makes significant changes to trademark law. Some of these key changes are summarized below.
Letters of Protest
The TMA authorizes a third party to submit evidence to the PTO to oppose an application for a federal trademark registration, i.e., it codifies the existing Letter of Protest procedure.
On March 2, 2021, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) announced new and more restrictive eligibility criteria for obtaining a National Interest Exception (NIE) to the COVID-19 travel.
To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to issue a decision in a Superfund cost recovery case which could provide clarity on whether non-Superfund settlements can start the clock on Superfund’s contribution claims’ statute of limitation. In the underlying case, the U.S. struck a deal with Guam under the Clean Water Act in 2004 requiring the territory to stop waste in the formerly Navy owned ORDOT Dump from leaching into adjacent rivers. Guam ended up with remediation costs of $160,000,000 for the clean-up of the dump, but waited too long to try to recover those costs from the U.S. Government, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit said. On its face, the Superfund statute of limitations appears to apply only to agreements reached under the authority of Superfund, but because of the DC Appeals Court ruling, it could affect agreements under other statutes as well. If the Supreme Court upholds the appeals court ruling,
Health
your username
February 26, 2021 On Thursday, the court denied a motion to dismiss a case brought by GEICO against AFO Imaging, Inc. et al. The case, filed in the Middle District of Florida, deals with two alleged fraudulent schemes: one that alleged the AFO imaging centers submitted thousands of charges for medically unnecessary and possibly falsified radiology services for patients that had been involved in low speed collisions with minor injuries, and another alleging the services were provided without the proper review of a medical provider, violating Florida business laws regarding supervision of medical practices.
The opinion recounted that n the aftermath of a motor vehicle accident, diagnostic testing including MRIs are frequently required to determine the extent of the injury and create a treatment plan. However, in low-speed accidents, the soft tissue injuries that occur frequently do not require extensive diagnostics for the creation of a treatment plan. In the