Skip to content
Lawwise
    Lawwise

      Subjects

      This handbook

      Archive

      All articles — page 3

      The full handbook in alphabetical order, across every subject.

      25
      Environmental Law

      Contaminated Land Liability and the Defenses to It

      Four classes of person are liable for response costs at a contaminated site: the current owner or operator, the owner or operator at the time of disposal, a person who arranged for disposal or treatment, and a transporter who selected the site. Liability is strict, retroactive and often joint and several. The statute supplies only three defenses, and the practical protections for purchasers and neighbors require pre-acquisition inquiry plus continuing obligations.

      6 min readFederal and state

      26
      Healthcare Regulation

      Corrective Action Plans and Integrity Agreements

      Health care enforcement rarely ends with money alone. A plan of correction answers a survey citation. A corrective action plan attached to a settlement imposes policy, training and reporting duties for a defined period. An integrity agreement runs longer, adds independent review and screening obligations, and is the consideration for an agency's agreement not to seek exclusion. Missing an obligation triggers stipulated penalties, and a material breach restores the exclusion avoided.

      5 min readFederal and state

      27
      Government Contracts

      Cure Notices, Excusable Delay and Reprocurement Costs

      Where a contractor fails to make progress or to comply with a provision, the contracting officer must give a cure notice allowing at least ten days to correct before terminating for default. Failure to deliver on time needs no cure notice. A delay arising from causes beyond the contractor's control and without its fault is excusable, provided written notice of the cause is given within ten days of the delay beginning. Default exposes the contractor to reprocurement costs.

      5 min readFederal law

      28
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Debarment From the Labor Certification Program

      The Office of Foreign Labor Certification may debar an employer, attorney or agent from filing permanent labor certification applications for not less than one year and not more than three. The grounds include fraud and willful misrepresentation, but also a substantial failure to comply with the audit process, with supervised recruitment, or with the terms of the application. Notice issues in writing, and the sanction reaches every application filed by or for the debarred party.

      5 min readFederal law

      29
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Dependent Employers and the Additional Attestations

      An employer is dependent where its sponsored workforce exceeds a threshold set by total full-time equivalent headcount: a small numeric cap for the smallest employers, a larger cap in the middle band, and a percentage of the workforce above that. Dependency adds a non-displacement attestation covering a window before and after the petition filing, and a recruitment attestation requiring good-faith recruitment of domestic workers. Applications covering only exempt workers switch both off.

      5 min readFederal law

      30
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Designated School Officials: Authority, Limits and Duties

      A designated school official must be a regularly employed member of the school administration whose office is at the school, and must be a citizen or lawful permanent resident. Each campus has one principal official and may have others. The role issues Forms I-20, authorizes curricular training, recommends post-completion training and releases transfers. It cannot grant status, cannot issue work authorization, and cannot reinstate a terminated record.

      5 min readFederal law

      31
      Environmental Law

      Discharge Permits: Who Needs One and What It Limits

      The Clean Water Act forbids the discharge of any pollutant from a point source to waters of the United States except in compliance with a permit. A permit sets technology-based effluent limits drawn from national guidelines, adds water quality-based limits where the receiving water needs them, and imposes sampling, recordkeeping and reporting duties. Terms run no longer than five years, and a renewal application is due one hundred eighty days before expiration.

      6 min readFederal and state

      32
      Correctional Law

      Disciplinary Hearings: Notice, Evidence and the Standard

      Where a prison disciplinary sanction implicates a protected liberty interest, Wolff v. McDonnell requires written notice of the charges at least twenty-four hours before the hearing, an opportunity to call witnesses and present documents where consistent with safety, assistance in defined cases, an impartial decision maker, and a written statement of the evidence relied on. Superintendent v. Hill requires only that some evidence support the finding.

      6 min readFederal and state

      33
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Document Abuse and Unfair Documentary Practices

      It is unlawful to request more or different documents than the verification rules require, or to refuse documents that reasonably appear genuine and to relate to the person presenting them, where this is done for the purpose of discriminating on the basis of citizenship status or national origin. Charges are filed with the enforcing office within a fixed period, adjudicated before administrative law judges, and remedied by penalties, back pay and injunctive orders.

      5 min readFederal law

      34
      Motor Carrier Law

      Driver Qualification Files and What Must Be in Them

      Under 49 CFR 391.51 a motor carrier keeps a qualification file for each driver holding the employment application, the state driving record and previous employer inquiries required by 49 CFR 391.23, the annual review under 49 CFR 391.25, the road test certificate or its equivalent, and the medical examiner's certificate. Both inquiries are due within thirty days of the start of employment. The file is retained for the period of employment and three years after it ends.

      6 min readFederal law

      35
      Motor Carrier Law

      Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs and the Clearinghouse

      A motor carrier employing drivers who operate vehicles requiring a commercial driver's license must run a testing program under 49 CFR Part 382 using the procedures in 49 CFR Part 40. Six categories of test are required: pre-employment, random, post-accident, reasonable suspicion, return-to-duty and follow-up. A full clearinghouse query precedes employment and a limited query runs at least annually. A driver with a violation is prohibited until the return-to-duty process is complete.

      6 min readFederal law

      36
      Labor Relations

      Dues Checkoff, Union Security and Right-to-Work States

      The proviso to Section 8(a)(3) permits an agreement requiring membership as a condition of employment no earlier than the thirtieth day after hire, and the seventh day in construction. Membership means only periodic dues and initiation fees. Section 302 permits deduction only under a written assignment not irrevocable for more than one year or beyond the contract's termination. Section 14(b) lets a state forbid the clause.

      6 min readFederal law