The First District Appellate Court (Chicago) in Epple v. LQ Management, LLC (2019 ILL App 180853) overruled a Cook County trial court’s decision granting summary judgment for a national hotel chain.

The Federal Reserve and the Department of the Treasury announced two new loan programs on April 9, 2020, under the spending authority granted by the CARES Act. First, the Main Street Lending Program (MSLP), which has two variations, will facilitate loans to small and mid-size businesses by providing up to $600 billion in funding.

Faced with obstacles such as social distancing and stay-at-home orders, normal litigation tasks, such as mediation, are either not being considered, or pushed off indefinitely. However, for certain cases, parties and their counsel should give consideration to conducting a mediation “virtually” through the use of technology.

On April 6, 2020, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore announced a plan to expand remote operations currently in place for essential court matters to the court system's non-essential cases, in a video posted on the New York State Court of Appeals' website.

On April 2, 2020, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton issued a statement that the June 30, 2020 compliance deadline for Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI) remains in place. The statement further indicated that the SEC would not grant industrywide extensions. 

As small business borrowers and their counsel scramble to understand the rules governing eligibility for the low interest small business loans in the CARES Act, questions on how the “affiliation rules” will apply have come up over and over again.

Rules of the road for the $349 billion loan program continue to change as small business borrowers eager for 1.0% loans with significant forgiveness potential began submitting loan applications on April 3, 2020. 

In response to the economic impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, including the closing of businesses across Pennsylvania, Governor Wolf signed a bill amending Pennsylvania’s Unemployment Compensation Law to make it easier for employees affected by the pandemic to apply for and receive unemployment benefits.