On Friday, October 7, 2022, the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) announced that applications for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Public Assistance Grant Program are due by October 29, 2022. FEMA provides disaster recovery assistance, but the process for recovering costs is complicated, and FEMA has broad discretion to determine whether applicants and their expenses are eligible.

Paid leave is finally coming to Oregon. In 2019, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed HB 2005, which laid the groundwork for the establishment of a paid family and medical leave insurance (PFMLI) program for Oregon employees. Paid Leave Oregon, the implementing program, becomes effective January 1, 2023, and will provide employees with paid leave for qualifying purposes as of September 3, 2023.

In response to Russia’s action in the Ukraine conflict, the United States Department of Justice has initiated civil asset forfeiture proceedings with respect to several high-profile assets, including Suleiman Kerimov’s $300-million yacht (see our June 17 alert, “Administration Steps Up Forfeiture Activities Against Foreign-Based Assets of Russian Oligarchs”) – and Roman Abramovich’s Boeing 787–8 and Gulfstream G650ER airplanes (see our August 5 alert, “Biden Administration Uses Export Control Reform Act to Seek Forfeiture of Russian Oligarchs’ Foreign-Based Assets”).

In part one of this three-part series, we focused on the losses and coverage issues that arose in the insurance industry as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In part two, we focus on a key developing issue for the insurance industry: the availability of insurance to Russian corporations and/or companies doing business with or in Russia.

In Three Aces Towing, Inc. d/b/a Three Aces Storage, Cause No. 21-0652, ___SW3d ___, (Tex. 2022), the Texas Supreme Court reversed a decision from the state’s Fourteenth Court of Appeals to impose liability on a business owner who assisted in the offloading of a portable storage unit, finding that the owner’s duty of care ended prior to the accident.

On September 16, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Eliminating Limits to Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims Act (the Act), Public Law No. 117-176, which amended 18 U.S. Code sec. 2255 and eliminated any statute of limitations for federal civil claims related to sex abuse crimes against minors, including forced labor, sex trafficking, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children. 

The New Jersey Supreme Court’s recent decision in East Bay Drywall, LLC v. Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Docket No. A-7-21 (August 2, 2022), provides guidance as to the perils that may arise when businesses misclassify workers as independent contractors rather than employees. Under the state’s Unemployment Compensation Law (UCL), the “ABC Test” is used to determine whether certain workers are properly classified as employees or independent contractors. See N.J.S.A. 43:21-19(i)(6)(A)-(C). The court’s new decision is significant because it held that a contractors’ establishment of a separate corporate structure through which to render services may not suffice to establish independent contractor status under the ABC Test.

With the passage of Assembly Bill 2777 (AB 2777), also known as the Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act, by its State Senate on August 25, 2022, California is one step closer to reviving sexual assault claims for which the statute of limitations has expired.