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Bradley Arant Boult Cummings issued the following announcement on Apr. 5.
Bradley is pleased to announce that Carol R. Van Cleef, counsel in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, has been appointed as an independent director to the BTCS Board of Directors.
BTCS is an early entrant in the digital asset market and one of the first U.S. publicly traded companies focused on digital assets and blockchain technologies. Through its transaction verification services business, the company actively verifies and validates blockchain transactions and is primarily focused on disruptive, non-security protocol layer assets such as bitcoin and ethereum.
Ms. Van Cleef is an internationally recognized authority and pioneer in legal issues involving cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. As chair of Bradley’s Blockchain and Digital Assets practice, she leads the firm’s virtual currencies and blockchain work, helping clients navigate the complex, dynamic and rapidly evolving is
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Yesterday, the CFPB issued a proposed rule that would extend implementation of both parts of its debt collection rule by 60 days from November 30, 2021, to January 29, 2022. The debt collection rule, which we have discussed here in detail, addresses numerous topics related to debt collection, including debt collection call volume, restrictions on certain communication mediums under certain circumstances, a prohibition on bringing or threatening to bring legal action to collect time-barred debt, restrictions on certain forms of consumer credit reporting, and rules for electronic communications. The rule also contains various safe harbors.
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On April 1, 2021, FEMA released its highly anticipated flood insurance rating methodology, Risk Rating 2.0-Equity in Action.
FEMA first announced “Risk Rating 2.0-Equity in Action” in March 2019 as an effort to improve flood maps and offer rates that are fair, easy to understand, and more aligned with a property’s unique flood risks. The new rating system was initially set to be implemented on October 1, 2020. FEMA extended the date by a year to broaden its analysis of the proposed rating system.
The NFIP currently uses a rating structure originally developed in the 1970s that looks at flood zones across the country and calculates expected losses of groups of structures with similar flood risk and similar key structural aspects. The same rate is assigned to all policies in a group. Despite the evolution of technology and FEMA’s expanded understanding of flood risks, updates to the rating methodology have not occu
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As we discussed in a previous article, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP), provided premium assistance and an extended election period under COBRA and similar state laws for “assistance eligible individuals” (AEIs). Employers were required to provide certain notices to individuals regarding the premium assistance and extended election period, and the Department of Labor (DOL) was directed to issue model notices for such purposes. The DOL has now issued the model notices and has provided some further guidance on these provisions of the ARP. Employers must now expeditiously review these model notices, adapt them as necessary, and establish administrative processes for completing and furnishing the notices.
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You may recall we previously reported on the DOL’s new tipped employee regulations that were set to take effect in March 2021. Well, the DOL, under the new administration, is now hitting pause on that final rule. The Biden DOL has announced that portions of the final rule will take effect on April 30, 2021, while other portions will be delayed and possibly revised pending the department’s review and invitation for comments.
A quick refresher
The final rule changed tip pooling and sharing provisions to allow employers who do not take a tip credit to implement mandatory tip pools that can include employees who do not customarily receive tips, such as dishwashers, cooks, chefs, and custodians. Additionally, the final rule imposed civil penalties for employers who unlawfully keep or retain employees’ tips. Finally, the final rule did away with the 80/20 rule and sanctions taking a tip credit for any time during which