Blog

As 2022 is drawing to an end, amidst the holiday parties and merriment, employers may want to consider a New Year's resolution to conduct regular internal reviews of their immigration and visa recordkeeping policies. Here are a few important categories to address:I-9 COMPLIANCEMost U.S. employers are required to complete Form I-9 to document verification of the identity and employment authorization of each new employee. While the form and document requirements appear, on first glance, to be [...]

Over the last three years, Whiteman Osterman and Hanna attorneys Thomas Shepardson and T.J. Ruane have brought dozens of lawsuits against some of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders and servicers on behalf of several New York State municipalities under the State’s Zombie Property Law (New York Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law §1308, et seq.). Their efforts have resulted in court orders and judgments requiring these lenders and servicers to remediate, and in a few [...]

Over the past week, federal and New York State laws have been enacted to require certain employers to provide paid benefits to employees who cannot work as a result of COVID-19. New York State Law Obligations As of March 18, 2020, New York State’s COVID-19 Quarantine Leave Law (Quarantine Leave Law) requires employers, with limited exceptions, to provide job protection and up to 14 days of paid quarantine benefits to employees who are unable to work because they are subject to a [...]

With the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) expanding literally by the hour, Whiteman Osterman & Hanna is doing everything possible to support the safety, health and well-being of our attorneys, paralegals and staff.  At the same time, the Firm has business continuity plans in place to ensure our ability to continue to serve our clients’ needs in the event of a disruption of our office operations or quarantine due to COVID-19.Business ContinuityIn order to ensure our ability to [...]

STATE ISSUESThe Governor of the State of NY has addressed State regulated wetlands in his budget bill proposing to do away with the regulatory freshwater wetlands maps and merely have them in place for educational purposes. This means that like the Army Corps, the State DEC staff will be able to go out in the field and identify areas as wetlands even if they do not show up on a map. Moreover, although to a degree the DEC staff have already begun doing this when reviewing how State mapped [...]