https://lawwisegroup.com/ The working handbook for ten regulated fieldsen-us https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/groundwater-management-areas-and-pumping-limits/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/groundwater-management-areas-and-pumping-limits/Most western states allocate groundwater by appropriation, while others apply absolute ownership, reasonable use or correlative rights. Where levels decline or wells interfere, a state agency may designate a management area after study and hearing. Designation supports a moratorium on new permits, well spacing, metering, allocations stated per irrigated acre, and scheduled reductions.Water Rightshttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/comparative-claims-and-competitor-challenges/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/comparative-claims-and-competitor-challenges/A comparative claim must be supported by testing of the advertised product and the named comparison product, performed under identical conditions on the versions currently sold. Where the comparison names its evidence, the evidence must exist in that form. Beyond agency enforcement, a rival may sue under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act for false advertising, seeking an injunction and monetary relief, or bring the claim before a self-regulatory advertising body.Advertising Lawhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/withdrawal-and-refiling-of-a-labor-certification/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/withdrawal-and-refiling-of-a-labor-certification/Requests to modify an Application for Permanent Employment Certification are not accepted once it is filed. An employer that needs a different job title, wage, worksite or requirement must withdraw and refile. Withdrawal does not erase an audit notification already issued, does not preserve the priority date, and does not extend the validity of recruitment beyond the windows the regulation sets. The refiled case is new in every respect except the retention duty, which attaches to both.Immigration Sponsorshiphttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-debriefing-and-the-clock-it-starts/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-debriefing-and-the-clock-it-starts/An offeror excluded before award, or notified of an award in a negotiated procurement, may obtain a debriefing by written request made within three days of the notice. A required debriefing must disclose the evaluation of the offeror's own proposal, the awardee's evaluated price and technical rating, any overall ranking and the rationale for award. It may not disclose point-by-point comparisons. The debriefing date controls both the protest deadline and the window for the automatic suspension.Government Contractshttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/grievance-arbitration-and-the-standard-of-review/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/grievance-arbitration-and-the-standard-of-review/Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act gives federal courts jurisdiction over suits for violation of contracts between an employer and a labor organization, and the law built on it favors arbitration. A court orders arbitration unless it can say with positive assurance that the clause does not cover the dispute. An award stands if it draws its essence from the agreement.Labor Relationshttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/interstate-compacts-and-apportionment/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/interstate-compacts-and-apportionment/Rivers crossing state lines are divided in three ways: a compact negotiated by the states and consented to by Congress, an equitable apportionment decreed by the Supreme Court, or an apportionment enacted by statute. A consented compact becomes federal law and cannot be altered by one state. Enforcement lies in the Court's exclusive original jurisdiction over controversies between states.Water Rightshttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/abandonment-and-statutory-forfeiture/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/abandonment-and-statutory-forfeiture/A water right can be lost in two ways that are routinely confused. Abandonment is a common law doctrine requiring both nonuse and an intent to relinquish, proved by the party asserting it, with prolonged nonuse serving as evidence of intent rather than as a substitute for it. Forfeiture is statutory and operates on nonuse alone for a fixed term, commonly five years, subject to statutory excuses and to a declaration procedure with notice and a right to be heard.Water Rightshttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/tentative-nonconfirmations-and-the-right-to-contest/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/tentative-nonconfirmations-and-the-right-to-contest/When an electronic verification case returns a mismatch, the employer notifies the employee privately, provides the written further action notice, and lets the employee decide whether to contest. If the employee contests, the employer refers the case and hands over the confirmation stating the employee's deadline. Throughout, the employer may not terminate, suspend, reduce hours, withhold pay or training, or delay a start date. Only a final nonconfirmation permits action.Immigration Sponsorshiphttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/permitted-uses-of-health-information/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/permitted-uses-of-health-information/A covered entity may use or disclose protected health information without authorization to the individual, for treatment, payment and health care operations, under an opportunity to agree or object, and for an enumerated set of public interest purposes. Everything outside that list requires a written authorization, and psychotherapy notes, marketing and any sale of information require one regardless. Permitted disclosures are separately limited to the minimum necessary to accomplish the purpose.Healthcare Regulationhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/successor-employers-and-inherited-records/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/successor-employers-and-inherited-records/A buyer acquiring a workforce chooses between adopting the seller's employment verification forms and completing new ones, and adopting them means inheriting their defects. Wage attestations pass to a successor only where it assumes the predecessor's obligations in a sworn statement placed in each public access file. An approved labor certification and its priority date may follow a successor that assumed the predecessor's rights and assets. Program enrollment does not transfer to a new entity.Immigration Sponsorshiphttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/student-record-reporting-deadlines/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/student-record-reporting-deadlines/A certified school reports each term whether an enrolled student registered, dropped below a full course of study or failed to appear, and it does so within a fixed period after the registration deadline. Separately, it reports defined changes within twenty-one days of the change. Both duties rest on the school rather than the student. A missed entry leaves the record contradicting the student's actual situation, and that contradiction is what a reviewer reads.Immigration Sponsorshiphttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-verification-form-completion-timetable/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-verification-form-completion-timetable/The employee completes and signs the first section of Form I-9 no later than the first day of employment, and never before accepting an offer. The employer examines the documents the employee chooses to present and completes the second section within three business days of the first day of employment, or by the first day where the engagement is shorter than that. The completed form is retained for three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends, whichever is later.Immigration Sponsorshiphttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/economic-and-unfair-labor-practice-strikes/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/economic-and-unfair-labor-practice-strikes/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.Labor Relationshttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-actual-wage-and-the-internal-memorandum/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-actual-wage-and-the-internal-memorandum/An employer must pay the sponsored worker at least the actual wage paid to all other individuals with similar experience and qualifications for the specific employment in question at the same establishment, or the prevailing wage for the occupation in the area, whichever is higher. A written memorandum explaining the system used to set the actual wage goes into the public access file, and lawful pay factors must be applied consistently across the comparison group.Immigration Sponsorshiphttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/commodity-checkoff-assessments-and-refunds/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/commodity-checkoff-assessments-and-refunds/Commodity research and promotion programs impose an assessment collected by the first purchaser or handler and remitted to a board that funds generic promotion, research and information. Funds may not be used to influence legislation or to disparage another commodity, and board budgets require departmental approval. Refund rights exist only where the enabling statute creates them. A producer or handler dealing solely in certified organic products may obtain an exemption.Agricultural & Food Lawhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-self-referral-prohibition-and-its-exceptions/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-self-referral-prohibition-and-its-exceptions/Where a physician or an immediate family member holds an ownership interest in or a compensation arrangement with an entity, the physician may not refer designated health services to that entity for federal payment and the entity may not present a claim for them, unless the arrangement satisfies an exception in full. Liability does not depend on intent. Amounts collected on prohibited referrals must be refunded, and knowing violations carry additional penalties.Healthcare Regulationhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/cargo-loss-and-damage-claims/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/cargo-loss-and-damage-claims/Under 49 U.S.C. 14706 a receiving carrier is liable for the actual loss or injury to property it transports in interstate commerce. The claimant proves delivery in good condition, arrival short or damaged, and the amount of the loss. The carrier escapes only by proving freedom from negligence and one of five excepted causes. The bill of lading may not allow less than nine months to file a claim, or less than two years to sue after disallowance.Motor Carrier Lawhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/dependent-employers-and-the-extra-attestations/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/dependent-employers-and-the-extra-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.Immigration Sponsorshiphttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/all-appropriate-inquiries-before-a-purchase/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/all-appropriate-inquiries-before-a-purchase/All appropriate inquiries is the pre-acquisition investigation required for the innocent landowner, bona fide prospective purchaser and contiguous property owner protections. It must be performed by or under the supervision of an environmental professional meeting stated qualifications, must include specified inquiries and user-supplied information, must be completed within one year before acquisition, and must have five components updated within one hundred eighty days of acquisition.Environmental Lawhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/instream-flow-rights/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/instream-flow-rights/Instream flow rights protect water left in a channel for fish, wildlife, recreation or water quality. Because the classical doctrine required a diversion, these rights exist only by statute. Most states allow only a designated agency to hold them, cap the quantity at the minimum needed, tie the right to a defined reach, and forbid injury to existing appropriations.Water Rightshttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/provider-enrollment-revalidation-and-revocation/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/provider-enrollment-revalidation-and-revocation/Enrollment establishes the effective date from which claims may be paid, and certain practitioner types may bill retrospectively for up to thirty days before it. Enrollment must be revalidated every five years, or every three for equipment suppliers, and a revalidation request must be answered within sixty calendar days. Revocation carries a reenrollment bar of one to ten years, extended to twenty for a second revocation, and it takes effect thirty days after the notice is mailed.Healthcare Regulationhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/citizen-suits-notice-and-the-diligent-prosecution-bar/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/citizen-suits-notice-and-the-diligent-prosecution-bar/Most federal environmental statutes authorize any person to sue a violator or the administrator, after serving notice on the agency, the state and the alleged violator. The waiting period is sixty days for most claims and ninety days for endangerment claims under the waste statute. The suit is barred where the agency or state has commenced and is diligently prosecuting a qualifying action. Remedies are injunctive relief, penalties payable to the Treasury, and litigation costs.Environmental Lawhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/wage-and-hour-investigations-of-sponsors/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/wage-and-hour-investigations-of-sponsors/An investigation may open on a complaint by an aggrieved party filed within a limited period, on credible information from a reliable source, or on the agency's own initiative where the employer has been found a willful violator. The investigator examines the public access file, payroll, the applications and the petitions. Remedies include back wages, penalties in tiers, debarment and reinstatement, and a determination is contested by requesting a hearing.Immigration Sponsorshiphttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/sealed-bidding-and-negotiated-procurement/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/sealed-bidding-and-negotiated-procurement/Sealed bidding is required where time permits, award will be made on price and price-related factors, discussions are unnecessary, and more than one bid is expected. Bids are opened publicly and award goes to the responsible bidder whose responsive bid is most advantageous considering price alone. Negotiated procurement evaluates proposals against stated factors, permits a competitive range and discussions, and allows an award to other than the lowest price where the solicitation says so.Government Contractshttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-settlement-proposal-after-an-early-ending/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-settlement-proposal-after-an-early-ending/On a convenience termination the contractor stops work, terminates subcontracts, protects and disposes of property, and submits a settlement proposal within one year of the effective date unless the period is extended in writing. Recoverable amounts include preparations and work done, initial costs, settlement expenses, subcontractor settlements, and reasonable profit on work performed. Anticipatory profit is not recoverable, and a loss contract carries no profit.Government Contractshttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/overpayments-and-the-sixty-day-refund/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/overpayments-and-the-sixty-day-refund/A person who receives an overpayment must report and return it by the later of sixty days after the overpayment was identified or the date any corresponding cost report is due. An overpayment is identified when it is knowingly received or retained, using the knowledge standard of the false claims statute. The deadline can be suspended during a timely good-faith investigation of related overpayments, and by a self-disclosure or an extended repayment request. The lookback period runs six years.Healthcare Regulationhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/layoffs-and-the-duty-to-notify-and-consider/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/layoffs-and-the-duty-to-notify-and-consider/Where the employer has laid off workers in the area of intended employment, in the occupation for the job opportunity or in a related occupation, within a defined period before filing, it must document that it notified and considered all potentially qualified workers who were laid off, and the result of that consideration. A layoff means an involuntary separation other than for cause. A related occupation is one requiring a majority of the same essential duties.Immigration Sponsorshiphttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/produce-safety-covered-farms-and-exemptions/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/produce-safety-covered-farms-and-exemptions/A farm is covered by the produce safety rule if its average annual produce sales exceed the monetary threshold. A farm below a higher food sales threshold that sells the majority of its food directly to qualified end-users has a qualified exemption with modified requirements. Produce rarely consumed raw, produce for personal consumption, and produce receiving commercial processing that adequately reduces pathogens are excluded. Agricultural water requirements differ before and after harvest.Agricultural & Food Lawhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/school-certification-and-the-recertification-cycle/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/school-certification-and-the-recertification-cycle/A school that enrolls nonimmigrant students files Form I-17 and is certified for named campuses and named programs of study. The petition must be updated within twenty-one days when the underlying facts change. Certification runs on a two-year cycle, with the recertification petition filed inside a window before expiration. Student records must be produced within three work days of a request, and failure on any of these supports withdrawal of approval.Immigration Sponsorshiphttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-duty-to-bargain-in-good-faith/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-duty-to-bargain-in-good-faith/Section 8(d) defines bargaining as the mutual obligation to meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith over wages, hours and other terms of employment, while compelling neither agreement nor concession. A party seeking to modify a contract must give sixty days' written notice and notify federal and state mediation agencies within thirty days after it. On genuine impasse an employer may implement its pre-impasse offers.Labor Relationshttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/equipment-leasing-and-owner-operator-protections/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/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.Motor Carrier Lawhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/telehealth-licensure-across-state-lines/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/telehealth-licensure-across-state-lines/State law almost uniformly treats the practice of medicine as occurring at the patient's location, so a clinician furnishing a remote encounter needs a license in the patient's state. Interstate compacts reduce the cost of obtaining one but work differently by profession: some expedite full licensure in each state, others confer a privilege to practice on a single home-state license. Prescribing authority, payment rules and malpractice coverage are separate questions with separate answers.Healthcare Regulationhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/dues-checkoff-union-security-and-right-to-work/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/dues-checkoff-union-security-and-right-to-work/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.Labor Relationshttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/cost-allowability-allocability-and-reasonableness/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/cost-allowability-allocability-and-reasonableness/A cost is allowable only if it is reasonable, allocable, consistent with applicable accounting standards or generally accepted principles, consistent with the terms of the contract, and not limited by the cost principles themselves. Reasonableness asks what a prudent person in competitive business would incur, and no presumption favors the contractor. Allocability asks whether the cost is assignable by benefits received. Named costs fail regardless of both tests.Government Contractshttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/sentence-computation-and-time-credits/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/sentence-computation-and-time-credits/Under 18 U.S.C. 3585 a sentence commences on the date the person is received into custody awaiting transportation to or arriving at the designated facility. Prior custody credit is given for time spent in official detention before the sentence commenced, as a result of the offense or of related conduct, but only where that time has not been credited against another sentence. Good conduct time under 18 U.S.C. 3624(b) and earned time credits then reduce the time actually served.Correctional Lawhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/organic-certification-and-its-exclusions/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/organic-certification-and-its-exclusions/An operation that produces or handles agricultural products sold as organic must be certified by a USDA-accredited certifying agent unless an exclusion applies. Certification requires an organic system plan, an on-site inspection, and annual update and inspection thereafter. Land must have had no prohibited substance applied for three years before harvest. Four labeling categories exist, with the seal available to the top two. Records are retained for five years.Agricultural & Food Lawhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-job-order-and-print-advertisement-rules/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/the-job-order-and-print-advertisement-rules/The job order is placed with the state workforce agency serving the area of intended employment and runs for a period fixed by regulation, with the start and end dates entered on the application. Two advertisements run on different Sundays in the newspaper of general circulation most appropriate to the occupation. An advertisement must name the employer, describe the vacancy and the area specifically, and may not state requirements exceeding those filed.Immigration Sponsorshiphttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/document-abuse-and-unfair-documentary-practices/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/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.Immigration Sponsorshiphttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/testing-programs-and-the-clearinghouse/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/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.Motor Carrier Lawhttps://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/administrative-and-disciplinary-segregation/https://lawwisegroup.com/handbook/administrative-and-disciplinary-segregation/Disciplinary segregation is a sanction imposed after a disciplinary finding, for a term set by the severity of the prohibited act, and it carries the full procedural protections owed at a hearing. Administrative detention is non-punitive placement pending investigation, transfer, classification or protection, and it requires only informal review with periodic reassessment. Under Sandin v. Conner a liberty interest arises where the restraint imposes atypical and significant hardship.Correctional Law