Recent Articles from All Practice Groups
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The National Practitioner Data Bank: Six Need-to-Knows
The National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) was established through Title IV of Public Law 99-660, the Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986. Codified at 45 CFR Part 60, the NPDB is an online repository for reports on negative events involving physicians, dentists, and other licensed health care professionals. The statute requires certain health care entities to report the ... Read More
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Exempt Organizations: Tax Reform Provisions to Watch
By Nancy Ortmeyer Kuhn, Chair of Jackson & Campbell's Tax Group The Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives released its long-awaited tax bill on November 2, 2017. The bill is entitled Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, H.R. 1 (“TCJA”). Note that there is nothing in the title referencing “tax simplification”. The full text of the bill ... Read More
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Susan Knell Bumbalo article published in DRI’s For the Defense
Susan Knell Bumbalo, an attorney in our Insurance Coverage group, wrote an article entitled "Examining Insurers' Obligations to Their Insureds Post-Verdict", which appears in this month’s edition of DRI’s For the Defense. The article addresses insurer’s duty to appeal and issues associated with various issues that arise when insureds/insurers face an adverse jury verdict. The article is a good roadmap and ... Read More
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Roy L. Kaufmann Testifies before the D.C. City Council on proposed TOPA legislation
Roy L. Kaufmann, from the Firm's Real Estate Group, testified before the D.C. City Council's Committee on Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization on behalf of the D.C. Land Title Association. He testified on a proposed legislation to amend the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) called the TOPA Accessory Dwelling Act of 2017. REDLINE of DCLTA-requested revisions vs. current law 9-8-17 ... Read More
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New Emergency and Proposed Inclusionary Zoning Regulations
The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), which oversees the Inclusionary Zoning program in DC, has new proposed regulations relating to Inclusionary Zoning. The nature of these Emergency and Proposed regulations, can be found here. Although the regulations are called “proposed”, they are effective. Public comment ends on September 30. If you care to make any comments, you ... Read More
Congratulations to our Best Lawyers in America © 2018!
Jackson & Campbell would like to congratulate our Best Lawyers in America © for 2018 Arthur D. Burger, Ethics and Professional Responsibility Law David H. Cox Litigation - Real Estate; Real Estate Law William E. Davis, Litigation - Trusts & Estates; Trusts & Estates Roy L. Kaufmann, Real Estate Law James P. Schaller, Commercial Litigation; Ethics and Professional Responsibility Law ... Read More
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Wire Theft – Third Major Money Wiring Theft in DC Area. Stop, review your procedures and alert your staff today!
By: Roy L. Kaufmann I have become personally aware of THREE wire thefts affecting title companies in the immediate DC metro area. One, wherein fraudsters got away with over $1,500,000, was the subject of a recent lawsuit. This is affecting local title companies - ... Read More
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Arthur D. Burger Begins Membership on Editorial Board of ABA/BNA Manual on Professional Conduct
Arthur D. Burger, Chair of J&C’s Professional Responsibility Practice Group and renowned ethics lawyer, just completed a three-year term as a member of the 10-person ABA Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and now begins his service as an appointed member of the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Manual on Professional Conduct. The Manual is recognized as a preeminent ... Read More
Upcoming Event: How Women Lead
How Women Lead Featuring Flora D. Darpino, 39th U.S. Army Judge Advocate General ... Read More
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Right of First Refusal Must Be In Writing
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia restated the fundamental principle that in order for a right of first refusal to be enforceable, it must be in writing under the Statute of Frauds. A tenant under a restaurant lease sued its landlord when the latter sold the real property in which the leased premises was located without ... Read More
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Headstrong HOA Board Member Puts Himself in Harm’s Way Over Fair Housing Issues
In a recent case decided by the D.C. Court of Appeals, the court heard a matter involving the intersection between community association governance and fair housing law. In this case, Wilfred Welsh, a board member of the Chaplin Woods Homeowners Association (the “HOA”), sued fellow HOA members Beverly McNeil and Alvin Elliott (the “McNeils”), claiming that the McNeil’s violated the ... Read More
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Charitable Conservation Easements
RP Golf, LLC, lost its appeal and its claim of a $16.4 million charitable tax deduction for its donation of a conservation easement on its two golf courses. On June 26, 2017, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the U.S. Tax Court’s opinion, holding that not all of the detailed requirements for charitable conservation easements had been complied with in a timely ... Read More
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The United States as a Tax Haven for Non-Citizens: QDOT’s to the Rescue
Now that Switzerland and other off-shore locations are not as attractive to those wishing to safeguard their funds, the United States has emerged as a tax haven, of sorts, with several states providing friendly incentives for investors who are not U.S. citizens. However, foreign investors need to be aware of their potential liability for estate taxes. U.S. property owned by ... Read More
TAGGED: qdot, Qualified Domestic Trust
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Court Provides Guide For Defining Property In A Takings Case
St. Croix has a regulation that prohibits the owners of two neighboring properties along the St. Croix River from being separately sold or built upon unless each property has at least an acre of developable land. The Murrs owned two such parcels, each with less than an acre available to be developed. The Murrs wanted to sell one of the ... Read More
POSTED: Murr v. Wisconsin
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Court Rules That District Courts Can Hear Mixed Cases Dismissed For Lack Of Jurisdiction, Over Justice Gorsuch’s First Dissent
In Perry v. Merit Systems Protection Board, the Court had to determine which federal court could hear an appeal from the Board’s decision that it lacked jurisdiction to hear a federal employee’s case. When Perry was fired from his job with the U.S. Census Bureau, he claimed discrimination (making his case a “mixed” one), but then signed a settlement agreeing ... Read More
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Court Applies Five-Year Limitations Period to SEC Disgorgement Actions
In Kokesh v. Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC sought to force Kokesh to disgorge millions he had misappropriated from various businesses from 1995 to 2009. While the Supreme Court had long held that a five-year limitations period applied to any SEC “action, suit or proceeding for the enforcement of any civil fine, penalty, or forfeiture,” the district court held ... Read More
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Supreme Court Limits Government’s Power to Seize Personal Property
The Comprehensive Forfeiture Act mandates forfeiture of “any property constituting, or derived from, any proceeds the person obtained, directly or indirectly, as the result of” certain drug crimes. After brothers Tony and Terry Honeycutt were indicted for such drug crimes for selling a particular chemical through a hardware store Tony owned, Tony pled guilty and agreed to forfeit the bulk ... Read More
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An ERISA Church Pension Plan Need Not Be Established by a Church
Originally, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act exempted “church plans” from a variety of rules designed to ensure solvency, and defined those plans as having been “established and maintained . . . for its employees . . . by a church.” Later, Congress amended this exception to include “a plan maintained by an organization . . . the principal purpose ... Read More
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Court Affirms Virginia Court’s Application Of Juvenile Punishment Standards
In Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48 (2010), the Court held that juvenile defendants convicted of nonhomicide offenses could not be sentenced to life without parole. Virginia had already abolished parole and instead replaced it with a “geriatric release” program which allowed older inmates to receive conditional release. In Virginia v. LeBlanc, LeBlanc was sentenced to life in prison for ... Read More
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Patent Holders May Not Use Federal Law To Issue Injunctions Against Applicants For Biosimilar Products
The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 provides an abbreviated process for the FDA to approve drugs that are biosimilar to already licensed biological products. The Act, in part, requires an applicant for a biosimilar product to provide its application and manufacturing information to the patent holder within 20 days of the date the FDA notifies the applicant ... Read More
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Court Again Limits Ability To Appeal Denial Of Class Certification
Consumers who purchased Xbox 360s sued Microsoft both individually and as a class. The district court struck the class allegations, refusing to certify the class. The Ninth Circuit refused to hear the appeal of that ruling under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(f), which allows such interlocutory appeals only by permission of the court of appeals. Instead of pursuing their individual ... Read More
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Court Again Limits Forum-Shopping In Suits Against Nationwide Companies
In Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of Cal., San Francisco City, a number of users of the drug Plavix sued the maker in California for alleged health problems caused by the drug, despite the fact that hardly any of the users lived in that state, and Bristol-Myers being incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in New York. None of the ... Read More
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Supreme Court: Posting To Facebook Is A First Amendment Right
A North Carolina law made it a felony for a registered sex offender “to access a commercial social networking Web site where the sex offender knows that the site permits minor children to become members or to create or maintain personal Web pages.” When a sex offender posted on Facebook about getting a traffic ticket dismissed, he was convicted and ... Read More
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September 11 Detainees Denied A Bivens Action For Their Detention
In Ziglar v. Abbasi, the Court was asked to extend the implied cause of action theories under Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U.S. 388 (1971) to alleged constitutional violations six men claimed to have suffered during detention shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Second Circuit permitted the claims to go forward against certain executive officials, ... Read More
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Supreme Court Clarifies Expert Psychiatric Assistance In Indigent Defendant Cases
The Court had previously held in Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68 (1985), that when an indigent defendant’s mental condition is relevant to his criminal culpability, the State must provide that defendant with access to a mental health expert who is sufficiently available to the defense, and independent from the prosecution, to conduct a psychiatric examination and “assist in evaluation, ... Read More
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SCOTUS: Disparaging Trademarks Have First Amendment Protection
The Lanham Act has a provision prohibiting the registration of trademarks that “disparage . . . or bring . . . into contemp[t] or disrepute” and “persons, living or dead.” Simon Tam, lead singer of the Japanese rock band “The Slants” sued when the band’s name was denied registration. The Federal Circuit held that the disparagement clause was facially unconstitutional ... Read More
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Supreme Court Rejects Gender-Based Differentiation In Immigration Law
The Immigration and Naturalization Act provided that a child born abroad to a father who was a U.S. citizen and a mother who was not was eligible for U.S. citizenship if the father had spent ten years in the U.S., with at least five of those years after turning 14. If the mother was the U.S. citizen, however, the mother ... Read More
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Justice Gorsuch’s First Majority Opinion Is A Win For Debt Purchasers
In Henson v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc., Justice Gorsuch authored the unanimous decision in a decidedly conversational tone, holding that an entity that purchases another’s debt and then seeks to collect that debt is not a “debt collector” under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and thus is not beholden to that Act’s strictures for debt collection. The Act defines ... Read More
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Emotional Support Animals in Cooperative Apartment and Condo Communities: What Every Association and Owner Should Know
Please note: This article has been updated and can be found here. An emotional support animal (commonly referred to as an “ESA”) is a companion animal (typically a dog or cat) that provides therapeutic benefit to an individual with a mental or psychiatric disability. An ESA is not the same thing as a “pet”. Rather, for a resident of a ... Read More
TAGGED: Emotional support animals, coops, condos
Emotional Support Animals in Cooperative Apartment and Condo Communities: What Every Association and Owner Should Know
By DAVID A. RAHNIS An emotional support animal (commonly referred to as an “ESA”) is a companion animal (typically a dog or cat) that provides therapeutic benefit to an individual with a mental or psychiatric disability. An ESA is not the same thing as a “pet”. Rather, for a resident of a Coop or Condo who is living with a mental ... Read More