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      All articles — page 4

      The full handbook in alphabetical order, across every subject.

      37
      Labor Relations

      Economic and Unfair Labor Practice Strikes Compared

      A strike over wages, hours or working conditions is an economic strike. The employer may hire permanent replacements, and strikers are entitled not to displace them but to recall as substantially equivalent vacancies arise. A strike caused or prolonged by an employer's unfair labor practices is different: those strikers are entitled to reinstatement on an unconditional offer to return, even if replacements must be discharged, with back pay running if reinstatement is not made promptly.

      5 min readFederal law

      38
      Motor Carrier Law

      Electronic Logging: Exemptions, Edits and Malfunctions

      A driver required to keep records of duty status must use a registered electronic logging device under 49 CFR 395.8 and the subpart beginning at 49 CFR 395.20. The exemptions are narrow: short-haul drivers, drivers logging eight days or fewer in thirty, driveaway-towaway operations, and older engines. Driving time recorded automatically may be annotated but never shortened or erased, and a malfunctioning device must be repaired within eight days.

      6 min readFederal law

      39
      Advertising Law

      Endorsements, Reviews and Material Connections

      The Endorsement Guides at 16 CFR Part 255 treat an endorsement as an advertising message reflecting the opinions or experience of someone other than the sponsoring advertiser. A material connection is any relationship between endorser and advertiser that the audience would not expect and that might affect how the endorsement is weighed. Disclosure must be clear and conspicuous and must appear with the endorsement itself. The advertiser, the endorser and an intermediary agency can each be liable.

      6 min readFederal law

      40
      Immigration Sponsorship

      Enrolling in the Electronic Verification Program

      An employer enrolls online, chooses an access method and signs a memorandum of understanding with two federal agencies. The memorandum requires a case for every new hire at a participating site no later than the third business day after work for pay begins, forbids prescreening and selective verification, requires two notices to be posted, and permits the agencies to review records. Contractors carrying the verification clause enroll on fixed deadlines after award.

      5 min readFederal law

      41
      Advertising Law

      Environmental Marketing Claims and the Green Guides

      The Green Guides interpret the deception prohibition of the Federal Trade Commission Act as applied to environmental claims. An unqualified general environmental benefit claim is treated as unsupportable because it conveys far-reaching benefits the marketer cannot prove. Specific claim types carry their own tests: degradation within one year after customary disposal, recycling access for at least sixty percent of consumers, and disclosure where a carbon offset reduction is two years away.

      6 min readFederal law

      42
      Environmental Law

      Environmental Review: Exclusion, Assessment or Full Statement

      A federal agency proposing an action determines whether it fits a categorical exclusion, requires an environmental assessment, or requires an environmental impact statement. The statute directs a statement where the action has a reasonably foreseeable significant effect on the quality of the human environment, an assessment where the effect is not significant or is unknown, and no document where an exclusion applies. Deadlines of two years and one year apply to the two document levels.

      6 min readFederal and state

      43
      Motor Carrier Law

      Equipment Leasing and Owner-Operator Protections

      A carrier operating equipment it does not own must have a written lease meeting 49 CFR 376.12. The lease must state the compensation, provide payment within fifteen days of submission of the delivery documents, itemize every chargeback and how it is computed, disclose insurance charges, and account for any escrow fund with interest and its return within forty-five days of termination. Violations may be pursued privately under 49 U.S.C. 14704.

      6 min readFederal law

      44
      Advertising Law

      Express and Implied Claims, and the Net Impression

      Deception analysis begins by identifying the claim. An express claim is stated in the advertisement and its meaning is settled by the words. An implied claim is conveyed without being stated, and it is identified from the net impression of the advertisement as a whole, including images, sequence, sound and omitted qualifications. Where an implied claim is reasonably clear from the face of the advertisement, extrinsic evidence is not required to establish it.

      6 min readFederal law

      45
      Healthcare Regulation

      Facility Licensure and the Survey and Deficiency Process

      Operating a health care facility requires a state license and, for federal payment, a provider agreement conditioned on the conditions of participation. Compliance is verified by survey. Findings are recorded on a statement of deficiencies, and the facility answers in a plan of correction on the same form. Where noncompliance reaches immediate jeopardy the agreement terminates within twenty-three calendar days unless the jeopardy is removed; lesser noncompliance allows six months.

      6 min readState law

      46
      Water Rights

      Federal Reserved Water Rights and Their Priority

      When the United States withdraws land from the public domain and reserves it for a federal purpose, it impliedly reserves water then unappropriated in the amount necessary to accomplish that purpose. The priority dates from the reservation, not from any diversion, and the right is not lost through nonuse. The doctrine reaches groundwater as well as surface water but is confined to the primary purposes of the reservation; secondary purposes must be served by appropriation under state law.

      5 min readFederal law

      47
      Agricultural & Food Law

      Food Labels: Identity, Net Quantity and Ingredient Order

      A packaged food label must bear a statement of identity and a net quantity declaration on the principal display panel, and the ingredient list, the name and place of business of the responsible firm, and nutrition labeling on the principal display or information panel. Ingredients are listed in descending order of predominance by weight under their common or usual names. The nine major food allergens must be declared in a defined form.

      6 min readFederal law

      48
      Motor Carrier Law

      For-Hire and Private Carriage: Which Rules Attach

      A motor private carrier under 49 U.S.C. 13102 transports property it owns, leases or holds as bailee, in furtherance of a commercial enterprise, and not for hire. It needs no operating authority under 49 U.S.C. 13901 and files no evidence of insurance with the agency for ordinary freight. It still needs a USDOT number under 49 CFR 390.19 and must comply with the safety regulations in 49 CFR Parts 390 through 399, including driver qualification, hours of service and inspection.

      5 min readFederal law