Blog, Community, Uncategorized
Restrictions Remain in Indiana for Limited Gatherings and Events
*This blog has been updated.* Restrictions will remain in place with limited participation for employers and organizations planning to host small or large events in the coming weeks. On Feb. 24, 2021, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb extended two executive orders for 30 more days. The orders – Executive Order 21-02 and Executive Order 21-03 – were set to expire on March 1 but will continue with the county-based measures and restrictions for social gatherings and events. The latest extension also impacts the NCAA tournament hosted in Indy with 25 percent fan attendance. For employers hosting sporting or other extracurricular events, an “event” is defined as: an assembly or convening of multiple individuals from separate households in a single space – indoors or outdoors – at the same time but where the main purpose is not necessarily for individuals to interact with others outside of one’s household but to engage in or attend a business/commercial function, single event, or events of limited duration – such as conferences, conventions, concerts, shows, sport or athletic competitions (community, K-12 extracurricular, collegiate and professional), fairs, festivals, carnivals, parades, graduation ceremonies, community holiday celebrations, fundraisers or other entertainment events. The executive order strongly recommends that overall size of a social gathering or event be limited in overall attendance based on a county’s color-coded metric, which is as follows: designated as red– may not exceed 25 individuals designated as orange– may not exceed 50 individuals designated as yellow– may not exceed 100 individuals designated as blue– may not exceed 250 individuals If a safety plan is submitted at least five…
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Uncategorized
Letters of Intent: Binding or Non-Binding
When should you call your attorney in regards to an LOI? Here are questions to consider. business sale – whether it’s a piece of real estate or a whole business – begins as an idea while financial and strategic information is gathered. It then starts to form into a mutual interest where the owner wants to sell for a price the other party thinks they might pay. This often results in a letter of intent or LOI. The LOI is intended to set out the principal terms of the proposed transaction and define what needs to be investigated and confirmed to consummate the deal. Usually an LOI comes after some preliminary investigation by the buyer. An LOI that precedes any investigation will usually be too vague to be of much use. That is, unless the buyer is already engaged in the same business and is familiar with just what it needs to complete the transaction. So what do buyers and sellers need to consider in deciding to use an LOI? First Question: Are the parties in a hurry? The time spent drafting an LOI could be better spent just drafting the purchase agreement, which must follow. An LOI and a purchase agreement are distinctly different animals, so there are definitely additional costs in the two-step process. Yet in complex transactions, much time can be wasted if the parties didn’t identify their main concerns in an LOI. Second Question: Is the LOI to be binding, non-binding or partially binding? Seventh Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook described the recurrent…
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Uncategorized
The EEOC Is Coming! The EEOC Is Coming! Big Changes To Investigation Strategy Coming From EEOC’s Indianapolis District Office
Background – What is EEOC and What Do They Do At A 30,000 Foot Level? The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the primary federal agency tasked with enforcing laws against employment discrimination. In most cases, someone who wants to sue a current, former, or would-be employer first must file a charge with EEOC and pursue that charge through their administrative investigation process before they can file suit in court. EEOC can also investigate employers for suspected unlawful practices even in the absence of an individual charge. Whether an investigation is initiated by an individual charge or not, EEOC itself can sue if it concludes after investigation that the employer has done something wrong. Nationwide, the EEOC is divided into 15 districts, all of which follow numerous shared guidelines and regulations originating from “headquarters” in Washington D.C. Across the country, in virtually every case, employers are notified when a charge is filed against them and given a certain amount of time to submit a position statement explaining their defenses (EEOC offers mediation in most cases too, though that’s beyond the scope of this article). In some cases, EEOC requires information beyond the position statement from a responding employer, and they ask for it through formal written Requests for Information (RFIs), witness interviews, onsite inspections, or – where those other methods fail – subpoenas. EEOC investigators are trained to hunt for evidence of discrimination and retaliation specific to the allegations in each charge and also evidence of other/unrelated violations of federal employment laws that may show…
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Construction Law, Uncategorized
Timber!
Timber is coming to tall building construction. The International Building Code is set to include all-wood high rise construction, up to 18 stories, in its 2021 edition. Depending on fire resistance, allowable heights from 85 feet to 270 feet would be available to architects and engineers. Indiana incorporates many parts of the IBC into the building code and can accept or reject these new construction regulations once issued. Wood is a carbon-neutral building material and can perform as well or better than concrete or steel. Testing by the Federal ATF and Department of Agriculture indicated that mass timber structures provided more fire protection than currently required by the IBC for conventional tall building construction. We can expect vigorous lobbying by the American Wood Council as the states debate the new code provisions. As expected, the Portland Cement Association thinks this is a bad idea.
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Uncategorized
Should non-dischargeability of student loan debt be subject to arbitration?
While it is possible to discharge student loan debt in a bankruptcy proceeding, a debtor seeking to do so has to show the Bankruptcy Court that repaying the loan would create “an undue hardship.” This can be a very big hurdle. And lenders are now attempting to create another impediment: mandatory arbitration provisions. Such provisions require the student loan borrower to submit any claim arising under the note to arbitration. Although some bankruptcy judges have been persuaded by the lenders’ claims that arbitration provisions are applicable to whether the debt is dischargeable under the Bankruptcy Code. Bankruptcy Judge Jeffrey J. Graham of the Southern District of Indiana Bankruptcy Court is not among them. Judge Graham recently denied a lender’s motion to compel arbitration as to whether a student loan was dischargeable as an undue hardship pursuant to 11 U.S.C. §523(a)(8). The order, entered on November 16, 2018 in In Re.: Mathew Richard Roth, Case 18-50087, articulated two reasons for the denial. First, compelling arbitration within a bankruptcy proceeding is contradictory to the Code, the primary purpose of which is to give the debtor a fresh start. “The primary tool for effectuating a debtor’s fresh start is the discharge.” Requiring arbitration would remove this “essential function of bankruptcy law from bankruptcy courts.” Permitting parties to opt out of the bankruptcy process would permit them “to contractually overrule the application of federal bankruptcy law”, and specifically the discharge provisions of the Code. Second, Judge Graham wrote that having all of a debtor’s obligations determined promptly and efficiently by the…
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