The Library

W. David Paxton In a combination of reports released, the federal government has made an effort to revive the debate regarding the disparity in pay and position between many men and women which is frequently referred to as the Glass Ceiling phenomenon. [1]  GAO Report. In November, 2003, the General Accounting Office reported that women earn only about $.80 for every $1.00 paid to a man, which is the same pay gap that has persisted for nearly 20 years. The report entitled Women’s Earnings: Work Patterns Partially Explain Differences Between Men and Women’s Earnings. According to this report, several key […]

HIPAA’s Impact on Litigation J. Rudy Austin Robyn Smith Ellis Congress enacted the Privacy Standards of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to protect patients from unauthorized disclosure of their medical records. HIPAA regulations require healthcare providers to establish policies and procedures that comply with the Privacy Standards. One of the many questions raised by HIPAA is the effect of the Privacy Standards on statutes in many states, including Virginia, that allow lawyers defending claims or lawsuits brought by patients against their own physicians or others, under certain proscribed circumstances, to have ex parte (without the patient or […]

Robyn Smith Ellis On April 7, 2004, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security administration released Field Assistance Bulletin 2004-1 which provides enforcement guidance to field investigators on health savings accounts (“HSAs”). The guidance is intended to facilitate the adoption of health savings accounts by employers. The Department of Labor believes that HSAs will lead to more choices and lower health care costs for American workers and their families. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (“Act”) permits eligible individuals to establish HSAs effective January 1, 2004. Generally, eligible individuals are those who are covered under […]

W. David Paxton While neither the Fourth Circuit nor Virginia courts have yet addressed the issue, the California Court of Appeals has held that current or former employees who post defamatory statements about a business on the Internet can be held legally accountable for such false statements. In Varian Medical Systems, Inc. v. Delfino, H024214 (Cal. Ct. App. 2003), two former employees posted numerous derogatory messages about Varian and two of its executives. A jury found the defendants liable for defamation, invasion of privacy, breach of contract and conspiracy, awarding $425,000 in general damages and $350,000 in punitive damages. On […]

Introduction The new Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (“Act”) permits eligible individuals to establish Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) starting January 1, 2004.  HSAs are similar to Archer Medical Savings Accounts (“Archer MSAs”) as well as Individual Retirement Accounts (“IRAs”).  They offer tax-sheltered savings like an IRA, and withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax-free.  After a beneficiary attains the age of 65, withdrawals for anything other than qualified medical expenses (which continue to be tax-free) are treated the same as distributions from traditional IRAs. Like an Archer MSA, an HSA is established for the benefit of […]

A HIPAA Checklist and Authorization for Release of Protected Health Information is available in pre-formatted PDF format under the Additional Reading section.

BUSINESS VALUATIONS IN LITIGATION 101: A BASIC GUIDE James C. Joyce, Jr. Kevin W. Holt The need for business valuations arises in a variety of types of litigation from domestic relations to minority shareholder suits, from disputes over the sale of a business to taxation and estate litigation. In all such cases, the basic issue is the same—how much is the business or an ownership interest in it worth and how do you measure it. This article discusses business valuations in litigation.  The article explores general expert witness issues in the specific context of valuations for purposes of litigation.  The article reviews […]

Virginia’s new Industrial Storm Water General Permit, covering “point source” discharges of storm water “associated with industrial activity” to surface waters of the Commonwealth, became effective June 30, 1999. The general permit mandates the development and implementation of a facility-specific Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) for each covered facility, and various monitoring and sampling requirements depending on a facility’s industry sector. Point source discharges are those that flow through any discernable, defined and discrete conveyance (such as, a ditch, channel or swale ), as compared to uncollected “sheet-flow” run-off. Facilities conducting industrial activities required to have registered under the […]

The aging process frequently produces results that are neither expected nor wanted. Such is the case with many former waste disposal sites sprinkled throughout the State. Recent news reports have alerted us to the proposition that in the near future the consequences of earlier unsophisticated, or careless, waste disposal practices are likely to revisit us. Indeed, we have seen that the regulatory authorities such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality have identified dozens of old disposal facilities that are known to be “leaking.” Many of these facilities when operated were managed in […]