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State Government Can't Sue Itself, Court Rules
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/31 08:52
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According to Courthouse News, an Indiana agency that protects the interests of patients with developmental disabilities can't sue the state's social services administration to obtain the medical records of a mentally ill patient who died, the 7th Circuit ruled.
A branch of state government cannot draw on federal civil rights laws to sue another branch of government, the Chicago-based appeals court decided. "Yet that is exactly what Advocacy Services is trying to do," Chief Judge Easterbrook wrote. "This suit might as well be captioned Indiana v. Indiana."
Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services sued the LaRue Carter Memorial Hospital and the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, along with various state officials, over the state-run hospital's refusal to turn over medical records of a deceased patient who was mentally ill.
Advocacy Services, which oversees federal grant money for people with developmental disabilities, was looking for evidence of abuse that could be used to spur medical improvements. |
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Health Care Legislation Back On Track
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/30 09:00
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Courthouse News reports that disagreements between House Democrats that stalled the progress of health-care reform legislation were bridged Wednesday with a White House-orchestrated compromise that cuts the cost of the bill and delays the vote.
"I'm especially grateful that so many members, including some Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce Committee, are working so hard to find common ground," President Barack Obama said.
Of the five committees charged with working on health-care reform, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Senate Finance Committee are the only ones that have not yet agreed to legislation.
The energy committee, after a 10-day impasse, has returned to marking up the bill, and is expected to agree to a bill by the end of the week after Democratic leaders compromised with more conservative Democrats.
The agreement would shrink the overall cost of health-care reform, and it would also push a floor vote on the legislation until after the August recess. |
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'Grandfather' Pollution Limits to Stay Suspended
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/29 10:57
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Courthouse News reports that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to suspend "grandfather" provisions in the Implementation of New Source Review program for nine more months.
If not suspended, the provisions would allow the agency to consider applications for new source particulate matter emitters received before July 10, 2008 to be reviewed under the agency's less restrictive 1997 policy which allowed particulate matter up to 10 micrometers, rather than recently adopted standards which limit particulate matter to 2.5 micrometers. |
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US Ordered To Account For Indian Land Royalties
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/28 09:06
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Courthouse News is reporting that the D.C. Circuit threw out a $455.6 million award for American Indians based on the government's failure to account for land royalties, saying the lower court "erred in freeing the Department of the Interior from its burden to make an accounting."
In 1996, beneficiaries of the Individual Indian Money trust accounts filed a class action accusing government officials of failing to properly keep track of their assets, including profits from the sale of tribal lands.
The district court found the government in breach of its fiduciary duty as trustee, but determined that a full accounting would be impossible, because Congress would never appropriate the money needed to fund it.
Instead, the lower court awarded the plaintiffs $455.6 million in restitution.
The Washington, D.C.-based appeals court said the ruling essentially allowed the government to "throw up its hands and stop the accounting." |
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Credit Card Rate Hikes Require Warning
Headline Legal News |
2009/07/27 10:09
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Courthouse News reports that credit card users will have 45 days notice of rate increases and changes in terms, and more time between receiving a bill and its payment being due, starting Aug. 20, according to a Federal Reserve rule implementing the Credit Card Act.
Credit card companies also must review each consumer account whose rates have been increased, to consider whether changes in the conditions leading to the increase call for a reduction in rates. Each of these accounts must be reviewed automatically at least once every six months, and credit risk calculations are not to take these reviews into account.
Additionally, the rule requires that the due date and the grace period on interest no longer be determined by a set number of days after the end of the previous month's billing cycle. Instead, the 21 day clock will run from the day the statement is mailed or received by the consumer. |
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