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Featured Insights

Payne & Fears provides high quality legal and business insights, and we are committed to delivering practical and timely updates for a diverse range of issues, businesses and industries.

Labor and Employment Law
Feb 03 | Labor and Employment Law
Feb 03
OSHA Issues Guidance On Mitigating, Preventing Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace
By: Amy R. Patton, Blake A. Dillion
On January 29, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued new employer guidance on mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. This guidance is intended to help employers and workers outside the healthcare setting to identify risks of being exposed to and of contracting COVID-19 and to determine any appropriate control measures to implement. While this guidance is largely duplicative of prior OSHA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”) guidance and recommendations, it contains a few new and updated recommendations that employers should note.
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Insurance Coverage
2020 | Insurance Coverage
2020
Ninth Circuit Rejects Excess Insurer's Attempt to Dispute Exhaustion of Underlying Insurance
By: J. Kelby Van Patten, Jared De Jong
This week, in AXIS Reinsurance Co. v. Northrop Grumman Corp., ____ F.3d ____, 2020 WL 5509743 (9th Cir. Sept. 14, 2020), the Ninth Circuit addressed an important question of first impression: When can an excess insurer second-guess an underlying insurer’s decision to pay a claim? Prior to AXIS Reinsurance, there had been no California or the Ninth Circuit case discussing an excess insurer’s right to make a covered-claims challenge to the exhaustion of underlying insurance, even though policyholders frequently encounter such arguments.
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Business Litigation
2020 | Business Litigation
2020
Changing Your Terms and Conditions? If So, Your Company Must Provide Express Notice to Consumers
By: David A. Grant
The Ninth Circuit recently reminded companies that they must provide notice to consumers when they change their terms and conditions, even where original terms state that they are subject to change at-will and at any time (i.e. the original contract contains a “change-of-terms” provision). Without express notice to the consumer, any change is unenforceable.
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E.g., 06/13/2021
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Case Summary, Labor and Employment Law
2020 | Case Summary, Labor and Employment Law
A man sitting at a desk writing with a pen and paper.
2020
Key California Employment Law Cases: March 2020
By: Alejandro G. Ruiz, Rana Ayazi, Tyler B. Runge
This month's key employment law cases involve payment of wages, claims under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) and employer consumer report disclosures.
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Resource, Labor and Employment Law
2020 | Resource, Labor and Employment Law
Silhouettes of seven forward-facing business men and women.
2020
Looking Ahead: A Comprehensive Guide to COVID-19 Employment Decisions Through Downsizing, Furloughs, and Return to Work
By: James R. Moss, Jr., Rana Ayazi
This article is intended to be strategic and forward-looking in responding to COVID-19. The article summarizes recent legal requirements and regulatory guidance, with links to Payne & Fears COVID-19 alerts, to help your business work safely through current conditions and the safe resumption of business activity at the appropriate time.
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Legal Alert, Labor and Employment Law
2020 | Legal Alert, Labor and Employment Law
A businessman standing in the window of a high-rise building reading urgent business documents.
2020
Mayor Garcetti Signs Emergency Orders Increasing Worker Protections and Mandating Supplemental Paid Sick Leave
By: Andrew K. Haeffele, Rana Ayazi
On April 7, 2020, Mayor Garcetti signed three employment-related COVID-19 Emergency Orders: Emergency Order: Supplemental Paid Sick Leave Due to COVID; Emergency Order: Worker Protection Order; Emergency Order: Grocery, Drug Retail, and Food Delivery Worker Protection.
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Legal Alert, Insurance Coverage
2020 | Legal Alert, Insurance Coverage
A businessman standing in the window of a high-rise building reading urgent business documents.
2020
California Supreme Court Rejects Insurers' Bid for Horizontal Exhaustion Rule in New Montrose Decision
By: J. Kelby Van Patten
In Montrose Chemical Corp. v. Superior Court, 2020 WL 1671560 (April 6, 2020), the California Supreme Court held that, when one primary policy exhausts in a continuing injury claim, the excess insurer sitting above that policy must drop down and provide coverage for the entire claim (up to its policy limits), even if primary policies in other years remain unexhausted.
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Legal Alert, Labor and Employment Law
2020 | Legal Alert, Labor and Employment Law
A businessman standing in the window of a high-rise building reading urgent business documents.
2020
DOL Issues Clarification on the Interplay Between Emergency Paid Leave, Shelter in Place Orders, Worksite Closures, and Furloughed Employees
By: Melissa (Powar) Clarke, Rana Ayazi
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has released guidance addressing two key questions under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“the Act” or “the FFCRA”): whether employees who have been furloughed or who have no work due to a closed worksite have a right to paid leave benefits under the Act; and if the terms “isolation and quarantine” used throughout the Act apply to “shelter in place” orders.
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Article, Business Litigation
2020 | Article, Business Litigation
A table with a green plant, coffee cup, and a stack of print publications.
2020
Is Your Workforce “Essential?”
By: Leilani E. Jones, Scott O. Luskin
The federal government has enacted extensive COVID-related legislation, but left open the question of what industries, and which workers in those industries, are deemed “essential” during the pandemic. So far those decisions have been left to individual states.
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Legal Alert, Labor and Employment Law
2020 | Legal Alert, Labor and Employment Law
A businessman standing in the window of a high-rise building reading urgent business documents.
2020
Small Businesses - Are You Exempt from the Families First Coronavirus Response Act?
By: Amy R. Patton, Rana Ayazi
The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has the authority to exempt small businesses from providing paid leave benefits under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act if it “would jeopardize the viability of the business as a going concern.” This simple three-step guide will break down whether or not you qualify for the exemption.
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Legal Alert, Business Litigation
2020 | Legal Alert, Business Litigation
A businessman standing in the window of a high-rise building reading urgent business documents.
2020
IRS Notice 2020-18 Automatically Extends Deadline to File and Pay Income Taxes to July 15, 2020
By: Robert Tadashi Matsuishi
On March 21, 2020, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued Notice 2020-18, which announced that the federal income tax filing and payment due date is automatically extended from April 15, 2020, to July 15, 2020. The change came just two days after the federal income tax payment deadline was extended to July 15, 2020.
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Legal Alert, Business Litigation
2020 | Legal Alert, Business Litigation
A businessman standing in the window of a high-rise building reading urgent business documents.
2020
Frustration of Purpose and Impracticability of Contracts Due to COVID-19
By: Sarah J. Odia, Scott O. Luskin
With non-essential businesses in many states either closed or operating in a limited capacity due to COVID-19, many companies are unable to perform existing contracts. While the basic premise under most U.S. law is that contracts must be kept and performed, an extraordinary circumstance may make performance so vitally different from what was reasonably expected as to relieve performance.
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