Legal Focus

After December 1, 2017, school bus contractors with 20 or more employees will be required to report workplace injuries electronically. OSHA, at 29 CFR § 1904, requires employers to keep records of workplace injuries on forms 300, 300A, and 301. After December 1, 2017, the required reporting will be done on the OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA). More reporting information can be found at https://www.osha.gov/dcsp/osp/states.html.

The compliance date for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) electronic logging device (ELD) requirement (keeping mileage logs electronically instead of on paper) is December 18, 2017. School bus operations are generally exempt from the federal ELD requirement according to 49 CFR 390.3 and 390.5. But, school bus contractors should be aware of the scope of the exemptions.

Homeless student transportation is an ongoing issue for many school districts. It is especially problematic if the student’s drop off location changes multiple times throughout the school year. The costs of transporting a single student outside of typical routes can be costly. Fortunately, the federal government created the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 (“McKinney-Vento”), as a way to provide funding to help pay for the school transportation needs of homeless students. This ...

In 2014 New York legalized medical marijuana with passage of the Compassionate Care Act (CCA). This NY state law allows doctors to prescribe marijuana in a non-smokable form to patients with serious ailments that are recognized by the state on a predefined list of conditions. New York is one of twenty-nine states in the U.S. to have legalized marijuana. But, all of the state laws legalizing marijuana are in conflict with current federal law. This article discusses the conflict of the New York la...

In May 2016, the Department of Labor published its final rule, more than doubling the threshold for overtime pay. In December 2016, a federal court in Texas issued a nationwide injunction preventing enforcement.

Across the nation there are currently 24 states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes. Medicinal marijuana can be used as a treatment for multiple conditions ranging from chronic pain to epilepsy to cancer. But, while many states have legalized medicinal marijuana, individuals using marijuana in compliance with state law are concurrently violating federal laws prohibiting the use of marijuana. Discussion and guidance follows.

On August 2, 2016, the Treasury Department released a proposal to modify the tax regulations for transferring interests in family owned corporations, partnerships, LLCs and family farms. If the proposed regulations are approved in their current form, the transfer tax cost of transferring interests in a corporation to family members will increase significantly.