News & Insights

The Maryland legislature has joined national efforts to clamp down on misclassification of employees as independent contractors through amendments to the state unemployment law that create interest assessments on unpaid unemployment contributions, civil penalties for misclassification, and cross-age... Read more >

The Maryland legislature recently made several modifications to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program ("PDMP"), which collects and securely stores information on drugs that contain controlled dangerous substances ("CDS") and are dispensed to patients in Maryland.  Some of these changes affec... Read more >

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently issued new regulations creating notice requirements for employers intended to improve employee reporting of work-related injuries and illnesses.  The new regulations take effect August 10, 2016. Under these new regulat... Read more >

Maryland’s highest court just granted parental rights to individuals who are not biological or adoptive parents of children but who are considered to be de facto parents. Before this landmark decision, there were only two categories of people who could petition Maryland courts for custody or vi... Read more >

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (sometimes called the “OCR”) has launched Phase 2 of the HIPAA Audit Program.  The audits are designed to assess whether covered entities and their business associates are complying with the HIPAA Privacy, Security, an... Read more >

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (sometimes called the “OCR”) has launched Phase 2 of the HIPAA Audit Program.  The audits are designed to assess whether covered entities and their business associates are complying with the HIPAA Privacy, Securit... Read more >

After a long delay, the federal Department of Labor published its new overtime regulations changing the base salary requirements for exempt executive, administrative, and professional (“white collar”) employees on May 17, 2016.  The regulations do not change the job duties tests used for de... Read more >

State and federal laws require employers to pay their employees equal pay for equal work.  Although this is a long-standing legal standard, discriminatory compensation practices persist.  These practices are, in large part, enabled by policies or practices of employers prohibiting employee... Read more >

Effective January 1, 2016, all District of Columbia employers (not including the United States or DC governments) with 20 or more employees were required to provide at least one of three transportation benefit programs.  The first program gives employees a pre-tax fringe benefit— meaning t... Read more >

On June 23, 2015, the Montgomery County Council (Maryland) enacted a new law entitled “Earned Sick and Safe Leave Act” (“ESSLA”), which will take effect on October 1, 2016. Under this new law, every employer with one or more employees in Montgomery County will be required to provide paid ... Read more >