The Subcommittee of Women Environmental Litigators, one of the groups under the umbrella of the American Bar Association Litigation Section’s Environmental Litigation Committee, initiated this 50-state survey to address a question that our members identified as one that frequently arises for environmental litigators and other attorneys who work on projects involving contaminated properties. The question we posed to each of the authors was: describe any statutory or regulatory provisions that your State has which are similar, or have a similar purpose, to the innocent landowner and/or bona fide purchaser protections found in CERCLA.
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Here Today, Gone Tomorrow and Other Consequences of Being Fraudulently Avoided
The Bankruptcy Code provides the debtor or trustee with a variety of tools to augment the estate through avoidance and recovery actions. This paper will address recent cases of interest involving fraudulent transfers within the 10th Circuit and in other jurisdictions. It has been stated that “[t]he purpose of fraudulent [transfer] law is to make available to creditors those assets of the debtor that are rightfully a part of the bankruptcy estate, even if they have been transferred away.” If it were only that simple to determine what is rightfully part of the debtor’s estate – however, it is not. With the constructive fraud provisions found in the Code and applicable state law, the transferee of the debtor’s property will frequently have a different view as to its entitlement to retain the transferred property.
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Brave, new, and unregistered world
CFOs understand the basic rules about raising money by selling stock or other equity securities to fund their businesses. They can do a private offering to a limited number of select investors, and maybe someday they can register a public offering with the SEC and sell stock to thousands of investors.
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HIPAA Privacy Rule Policy and Procedure Manual for Mental Health Practitioners in Colorado
The HIPAA Privacy Rule states that an individual’s health information cannot be used internally or disclosed to others without the individual’s permission, unless there is a specific regulatory exception. However, as the book details, there are significant exceptions in the regulations. Now that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has made HIPAA enforcement a priority, mental health providers should ensure that their compliance programs are up to date to avoid costly and time consuming HIPAA violations.
The manual, which was written for private mental health practitioners who are practicing in the State of Colorado, is available for sale here.
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From a Legal Perspective: Mineral Lessee’s Rights to Conduct Seismic Operations
As the seismic work in Colorado has both increased and moved into more populated areas, we are seeing an increase in disputes between surface owners and mineral lessees over surface access to conduct seismic operations. We explain here the basic law in Colorado that defines the mineral owner’s rights to access and use the surface estate to conduct seismic acquisition.
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Nuisance, opportunity in oil and gas development
Recent press reports on U.S. Rep. Jared Polis contemplating a lawsuit to halt oil and gas development near his farm illustrate several important points. To begin with, this type of development is creating new opportunities for small businesses, like Sundance Energy, which is drilling the well at issue.
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When Choosing Pleaded or Pled, Grammar Pitted Against Popular Usage
Since law school, I’ve been engaged in what seems to be a never-ending debate over the use of “pleaded” versus “pled.” For the record, I prefer pleaded. As a graduate of legal writing guru Bryan Garner’s alma mater–and his school of thought–I learned early on that pleaded is the correct past-tense form. According to Garner’s “A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage,” pled is an “alternative past tense form to be avoided.”
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Black Letter Law
Tim Flegleman and Amy Krasner were married in an outdoor ceremony at a property in the foothills of Denver. The venue, owned by one of Flegleman’s clients, had a main house, a guest house, and a party hall. There was a lawn just the right size for all the guests split by a paved path that served perfect as an aisle. The property afforded sweeping views of Denver and its suburbs, eliciting oohs and ahs from the guests as they arrived for the midday Saturday event.