Results 1-10 of 2828
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Allegheny County Reassessment Update – More Details Released Regarding Appeal Deadlines
February 03, 2012
All property owners in the City of Pittsburgh, Mount Oliver and the municipalities generally east of Pittsburgh (east of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers) should have received reassessment notices. On January 27, 2012, the county mailed these notices to property owners in the eastern suburbs. Property owners in these municipalities have the same deadlines as those in the City of Pittsburgh as set forth below.
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Petroplus Group Enters Insolvency Proceedings
January 31, 2012
Petroplus, the largest independent refiner and wholesaler of petroleum products in Europe entered into various insolvency proceedings in Switzerland, England and Wales, France, Germany and Belgium on 24-27 January 2012 after the group failed to reach agreement with its creditors to extend the deadline of its loan repayments.
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Overview and Analysis of the Proposed Federal Sunshine
January 30, 2012
On December 19, 2011, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") published a proposed rule (the "Proposed Rule") related to section 6002 of the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as the "Physician Payment Sunshine Act" (so referenced herein, or as the "Act").1 The Physician Payment Sunshine Act requires applicable manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologicals, or medical supplies covered under Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP to report annually to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services ("Secretary") certain payments or other transfers of value to physicians and teaching hospitals. Additionally, applicable manufacturers and applicable group purchasing organizations ("GPOs") must report certain information regarding the ownership or investment interests in them that are held by physicians or their immediate family members.
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Iran and Syria - Sanctions Update
January 26, 2012
The latest sanctions against Iran have been much publicized and are set against a backdrop of Iranian officials threatening to escalate the situation further by blocking the Strait of Hormuz. This alert focuses on the key developments and also provides an update on the sanctions against Syria.
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Seventh Circuit Holds That Voluntary Product Refund Programs Can Defeat Class Certification on Adequacy Grounds Under Rule 23(a)(4)
January 23, 2012
Class action litigators should be aware of a recent Seventh Circuit decision affirming the denial of class certification in a product mislabeling suit on grounds that the class representatives were not adequate under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a)(4). In re Aqua Dots Prods. Liab. Litig., 654 F.3d 748 (7th Cir. 2011) (Easterbrook, C.J.). The district court in Aqua Dots had denied certification on grounds that class litigation would not be "superior" to the defendant's voluntary product refund and replacement program as required by Rule 23(b)(3). The Seventh Circuit rejected the district court's "superiority" holding but found that the class representatives were not adequately protecting the class members' interests because they were pursuing costly class litigation to obtain a refund that was already available to the class members. In so doing, the Seventh Circuit--just as the U.S. Supreme Court did last summer in its watershed class action decision in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 131 S.Ct. 2541 (2011)--has breathed new life into Rule 23's adequacy requirement and given defendants substantial new support for adequacy challenges to class certification.
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MF Global UK – Special Administration update as at 23 January 2012
January 23, 2012
The constitution of the creditor and client committee for MF Global UK Limited ("MF Global") has been announced with BB Energy (Gulf) DMCC and Unipec Singapore Pte. Limited being voted in as the creditors' representatives, and MF Global Inc, Peabody Coal Trade International Limited and KIT Finance Europe AS being voted in as the client representatives. The special administrators have said that they will be shortly contacting the companies to complete the formalities of establishing the committee and will then call the first meeting. The special administrators have further said that the committee will only be formally constituted when they issue a certificate of due constitution, and that details of how to contact the creditor and client representatives will then be published.
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Reflections on the Indonesian Coal Market in 2011 and its impact on Indian Power Projects
January 20, 2012
Reflections on the Indonesian Coal Market in 2011 and its impact on Indian Power Projects Indonesia accounts for 50% of all thermal coal imports into India. Its vast coal reserves have provided attractive opportunities to investors and coal buyers alike. In particular, the wide variety of quality within Indonesian coal allows for blending to meet specific buyer requirements, whilst the lack of a generally applicable minimum purchase quantity (such as that associated with Australian coal) appeals to a wider variety of buyer. The facts that these reserves have been relatively low priced and its geographical position (giving it a competitive edge on freight) have meant that Indian power companies have looked to Indonesian coal supplies as an important part of the solution to mid-to-long-term thermal power generation.
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Proposed D.C. Combined Reporting Regulations to be Published Tomorrow
January 20, 2012
On January 20, 2012, the Office of Tax and Revenue ("OTR") will publish its proposed combined reporting regulations. Reed Smith's D.C. State Tax Team has obtained a copy of the proposed regulations in advance of tomorrow's publication in the D.C. Register. For a link to an advanced copy of the proposed regulations, please visit www.reedsmith.com/dctax.
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Recent Amendments to Federal Removal Statutes Create New Possibilities and Potential Pitfalls for Litigators
January 18, 2012
Litigators should be aware of recent noteworthy amendments to the federal removal statutes. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1441, 1446. The removal amendments, brought about by the Federal Courts Jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act of 2011, PL 112-63, December 7, 2011, 125 Stat 758, apply to all actions "commenced" in state court on or after January 6, 2012. The first change resolves a circuit split over the time for removal in a case involving multiple defendants, where each defendant is not served at the same time. The second change strips federal district courts of removal jurisdiction they previously possessed over state law claims not within the court's original or supplemental jurisdiction. These changes present litigators with significant tactical choices and opportunities.
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Dodd-Frank Act: New Test for Bank Expansion
January 18, 2012
On December 23, 2011, the Federal Reserve Board ("Board") issued a statement setting forth the rationale for its December 19 approval of a bank acquisition, subject to the newly added criteria under the Dodd-Frank Act ("Dodd-Frank") that the Board must provide in its analysis of bank expansion applications. Section 604(d) of Dodd-Frank amended Section 3(c) of the Bank Holding Company Act (12 U.S.C. 1842(c)) ("BHC Act") to require the Board to determine whether a proposed bank acquisition would lead to greater or more concentrated risks "to the stability of the United States banking or financial system." This new standard of weighing the risk to the financial stability of the U.S. banking or financial system applies to expansion by acquisition of banks and/or bank holding companies by banks, bank holding companies, financial holding companies and systematically important financial institutions ("SIFIs").