“The OSHA General Duty Clause requires all employers to provide a workplace free from known hazards. That includes known exposure to infectious diseases. So, OSHA does expect employers to take reasonable measures to protect workers from workplace exposure to COVID-19,” our colleague Mike Underwood explained expectations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) during … Continue Reading
The SAFE Banking Act has hit a snag in Congress thanks to opposition from the chair of the Senate Banking Committee. The October 2019 post, “Temper Your Expectations on Cannabis Banking Reform: foreseeable pitfalls of the SAFE Banking Act,” explained how the SAFE Act intended to alleviate the bank industry’s cannabis problem, and where it may … Continue Reading
Background In loan agreements, lenders customarily require the borrower to make various financial covenants whereby the borrower promises to achieve certain financial metrics, often requiring the borrower to stay above or below certain thresholds based on its operations. Since financial covenants are based on past financial performance, breaches of financial covenants typically cannot be cured … Continue Reading
On September 25, 2019, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act of 2019 passed the U.S. House of Representatives by an impressive margin of 321 to 103. The U.S. Senate—once seen as a gauntlet of insurmountable obstacles to cannabis banking reform—has also seen some meaningful progress. Senator Mike Crapo (R., Idaho), the influential chair … Continue Reading
Ohio is a relatively new adopter (September 20, 2019) of laws permitting electronic on line notarization. These new laws generated a great deal of excitement when they went into effect on September 20, 2019, creating new licensing, education and requirements for “electronic notarial acts”. There are however, several relatively mundane aspects of the law that … Continue Reading
The banking industry has a cannabis problem—it cannot bank cannabis related businesses. Despite the fact that over 35 states have legalized medical cannabis in some form and more than 10 others have recreational cannabis laws, the mainstream banking industry has been largely unable to provide services to lawful cannabis companies. That is because federal law … Continue Reading
Earlier this month, SB 220, the Ohio law that amended Ohio’s version of the Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA) became effective. The amendment to the UETA confirms that records, contracts, and signatures that are secured through blockchain technology, i.e., a technology that creates an unalterable electronic ledger, will be considered an electronic recording holding the … Continue Reading
Porter Wright’s Jay Levine and Brett Thornton discussed e-currency with a focus on cryptocurrency in a current podcast on Porter Wright’s Antitrust Law Source: http://www.antitrustlawsource.com/podcast/regulation-of-cryptocurrency/ They explore the rules and regulations of this kind of currency, the securities law ramifications, and other regulatory implications.… Continue Reading
Let’s say your client is a bank based outside of Ohio, and suppose further your client wants to set up a banking business in Ohio. Most of the time a merger transaction will result in a non-Ohio bank doing business in Ohio through an out-of-state franchise of course. But in light of changes to Ohio … Continue Reading
When Congress passed the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act it created a federal statutory right to damages for consumers who suffer abusive debt collection practices. One of those practices, the required disclosures in a communication with the consumer, was the subject of a recent decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. … Continue Reading
The Ohio Judicial Conference has issued a bench card, a copy of which is attached, that gives Ohio’s Common Pleas Court judges a checklist they may use when presented with an order seeking judgment on a note containing a warrant of attorney. While the bench card is merely advisory, it represents a victory for those … Continue Reading
Our colleagues at Porter Wright’s employee benefits blog recently described a proposed rule that may be of interest to community financial institutions: proposed rules of the Department of Labor that may make it easier to join with other similar organizations to purchase employee health insurance. Saving expenses is the name of this game of course. This is … Continue Reading
Last year, the Ohio Legislature made a number of important changes to Ohio’s statutory banking code. These are the first comprehensive changes in more than twenty years. Most of the changes were effective January 1, 2018. The heavy lifting of the new Ohio banking bill is language that consolidates a number of existing financial institution … Continue Reading
Bob Morgan, our colleague at Technology Law Source blog, provides perspective about the upcoming Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) agent filing change that takes effect Dec. 31. Read the full article here: DMCA agent requirements changing by end of year.… Continue Reading
In this blog, we have described some of the original concerns with the “high volatility commercial real estate” loan regulation as well as some suggestions for change. These rules apply to certain real estate loans for acquisition, development and construction. Recently, there have been suggestions that changes are possible regarding “high volatility commercial real estate” loans … Continue Reading
In a divided en banc decision, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has reversed (by vote of 7 to 4) a 2016 decision that a law firm when acting as a debt collector was shielded from liability under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when it relied on precedent that was … Continue Reading
Bankers will be interested in a recent appellate court order in a bank regulatory case. Their lawyers will be astonished by it because the ruling lights a flicker of hope in an area where there has been none for many years: the judicial review of CAMELS ratings. The ruling came early in a litigation seeking … Continue Reading
Another attack on the use of warrants of attorney to confess judgment was recently introduced into the 132nd Ohio General Assembly. H.B. 67 was introduced on February 16, 2017 by Representative Ron Young, a Republican of Leroy Township in Lake County. The bill has not yet been assigned to a committee. The bill seeks to … Continue Reading
Bankers know that what is commonly called Check 21 is at the heart of our present payment system. The check images delivered pursuant to its terms have made check processing simpler and faster for more than a decade. So it may come as a surprise that basic legal questions under the Expedited Funds Availability Act … Continue Reading
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia now permit the use and possession of marijuana to some degree under state law, and public support for legalization is at an all-time high. Despite the growing number of states legalizing marijuana, however, it remains a Schedule 1 controlled substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). President … Continue Reading
Bankers and other business persons should carefully consider a significant change this year to the state’s law regarding contractual default clauses. The change was made by a little-noticed Ohio Supreme Court decision that requires the fairness of such clauses to be assessed from the perspective of the relationship of the parties at the beginning of … Continue Reading
Long awaited Guidelines from the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) for website accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are now expected sometime in 2018. But, as discussed below, that does not mean that financial institutions transacting business with the public through websites and mobile applications should ignore web-based accessibility entirely until 2018. Law … Continue Reading
On September 26, 2016, Rep. Armstutz introduced two pieces of legislation in the Ohio House that could impact the tax rate of the Ohio financial institutions tax (“FIT”) that is paid by banks and other financial institutions doing business in Ohio. These bills are H.B. 599 and H.B. 600. These bills are alternatives. Both would … Continue Reading
On September 9, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a decision that parties in foreclosure proceedings should read carefully. In MSCI 2007-IQ16 Granville Retail, LLC v. UHA Corporation, LLC, Case No. 15-3524, the court addressed whether the sale of foreclosed property during the pendency of an appeal moots … Continue Reading
