The cost of religious accommodation
The Supreme Court may soon transform the role of faith in the workplace, which could have the effect of elevating the rights of religious workers at the expense of co-workers. On April 18, 2023, the court heard oral arguments in Groff v. DeJoy, a case addressing an employer’s obligation to accommodate religious employees’ requests under […]
Nursing homes and Maryland
Last week was National Skilled Nursing Care Week. Today, 22,000 Marylanders are receiving care in nursing homes and 30,000 local professionals are providing that care. When you think of nursing homes, however, you probably do not realize that many patients are only there for short periods of time. Nursing homes help patients recover from heart […]
Do you know what your data is doing?
Your personal data is collected by sophisticated vendors with whom you do business and is being used to target you for more purchases.
The Energizer Bunny goes to court
Energizer Holdings and Walmart are being sued in three proposed class actions for conspiring to raise the prices of disposable batteries.
IRA is forcing cuts to drug research
President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is just 8 months old. It hasn’t yet slain inflation. But it’s already gutting drug research and development. The law gives Medicare the power to impose price controls on certain prescription drugs for the first time. By September, federal officials will select the first 10 medicines subject to price-setting […]
On broadcasting criminal trials
On April 28, George W. Liebmann, president of the Library Company of the Baltimore Bar wrote a President’s Letter urging members of the bench and bar to write the Supreme Court of Maryland addressing the issue of broadcasting criminal trials in Maryland. We support Liebmann’s call for a vigorous response at the appropriate time to […]
Mansfield and ending slavery in England
Lord William Mansfield (1705-1793), chief justice of the King’s Bench from 1756 -1776, is considered the most outstanding English jurist of all time. His scholarship and clarity in writing opinions while on the bench were valued then and still are to this day. The U.S. Supreme Court has cited Mansfield decisions over 330 times in […]
Final Rule for the No Surprises Act
The No Surprises Act, effective Jan. 1, 2022, generally protects patients from receiving unanticipated bills for emergency care rendered by providers who do not participate with the patient’s insurance coverage (out-of-network providers), and includes a prohibition on certain out-of-network providers balance billing patients. The law also requires that the patient’s insurer reimburse the out-o[...]
ESG investors are at a crossroads
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates again on May 3, 2023, by a quarter point, making it the Fed’s 10th rate hike since March 2022 in an ongoing fight to tame inflation. These rate hikes have been reverberating through the economy, raising prospects of a recession amid heightened concerns about the fragile state of banks. […]
A golden opportunity to fight opioid addiction
If we want a different result in our fight against opioid addiction, we can’t continue using the same downstream playbook and expecting different results. While supporting those already suffering from substance use disorder is crucial, the federal government’s approach to the epidemic must change to prevent addiction before it begins. Over the past decade, lawmakers […]
Ethical trap of third-party liens
Liens reduce client recovery, are based on duties owed to third parties rather than clients, and the issues can be complicated. Lien cases also feature prominently in ethics cases and state bar ethics opinions. They are, to put it mildly, an ethical trap. Counsel’s obligation to protect liens comes from several sources. In Maryland, Rule […]
How to get your small business up and running
Starting a business can be one of the most exciting and fulfilling experiences in life. It can also be one of the most daunting. I lived this when my partners and I built our business — an industrial flooring installation and manufacturing facility that we moved from Pennsylvania to Baltimore City. There were challenges along […]