Why is the foreclosure machinery of our nation’s largest banks grinding to a halt? Failure to follow the legal rules. In other words: Compliance Failure. The latest comes from my home state of Massachusetts. The state’s highest court rulet that two foreclosures were invalid because they were not properly assigned to the foreclosing party. The [...]
Tag Archives | Massachusetts
Hedge Fund Hotels and Compliance
The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth has been investigating hedge fund hotels. Start-up hedge fund managers receive reduced-rent office space in return for send their trading business to the landlord. UBS AG has agreed to pay $100,000 to settle charges that it failed to disclose the relationship. Galvin charged there was a conflict that harmed [...]
Snow and Ice in August
It’s August, but here in Massachusetts we need to start thinking about snow and ice. Not because of climate change, but because of the Supreme Judicial Court. They just issued a ruling that changes the standard of liability for snow and ice hazards. The standard in the Massachusetts had been that a property owner could [...]
April 15 is Tax Day, Except for Flooding
With the recent flooding in Eastern Massachusetts, several counties were declared federal disaster areas. The bonus is that you have an automatic extension for filing your taxes. If you live in Bristol, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk or Worcester County in Massachusetts, you have until May 11 to file your income taxes. that applies for [...]
Data Breaches and Knowledge Management
One of the features of the new Massachusetts Data Privacy Law is that it forces some knowledge management on companies in the context of data breaches. Since the law required compliance on or before March 1, 2010, I assume you already have the policy and safeguards in place. That is, if you have social security [...]
Today is the Deadline for the Massachusetts Data Privacy Law
March 1 is the compliance deadline for the Massachusetts Data Privacy Law. 201 CMR 17.00 requires you to be in full compliance on or before January 1, 2009 January 1, 2010 March 1, 2010. If your company receives, stores, maintains, processes or otherwise has access to “personal information” acquired in connection with employment or with [...]
New Massachusetts Lobbying Law is now in Effect
In mid-2009, the Massachusetts Legislature was rocked by the highly public federal indictments of a state senator and speaker of the Massachusetts House. In response, the legislature passed a sweeping overhaul of its campaign finance, lobbying and government ethics laws. There are new rules in the Commonwealth that went effective on January 1. (Massachusetts is [...]
Data Accountability and Trust Act Passed by House
The Data Accountability and Trust Act (H.R. 2221) was passed by the House on Tuesday. This act would requires the Federal Trade Commission to promulgate regulations requiring each person engaged in interstate commerce that owns or possesses electronic data containing personal information to establish security policies and procedures. This bill would preempt any state laws in [...]
Massachusetts Amends Its Strict Data Privacy Law (Yet, Again)
Massachusetts has revised its data privacy regulations one more time. The revised regulations are less demanding that the original version released over a year ago. But this law is the strictest in the country and will be the de facto law of the land for many companies. Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation released [...]
No Bribe, Just a Thanks
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Ethics Commission fined Norfolk property developer Jack Scott for violating section 3 of M.G.L. c. 268A, the conflict of interest law, by offering an illegal gift to a municipal employee. Scott offered a free week’s stay at his fly-fishing cabin in Pennsylvania to the chairman of the Norfolk Conservation Commission at [...]
