Client Alerts

The COVID-19 health crisis and resulting economic downturn have many struggling to make rent or mortgage payments, on the one hand, and many worried about receiving relied-upon income from rental properties, on the other. On April 20, 2020, the Massachusetts legislature passed An Act Providing for a Moratorium on Evictions and Foreclosures during the COVID-19 Emergency (the “Moratorium”), which provides significant protections to certain renters against evictions and mortgagors against foreclosures during the period of the state of emergency due to the pandemic. The Moratorium is currently set to expire the earlier of August 18, 2020 or 45 days after the COVID-19 emergency declaration has been lifted. Eviction and Rent Provisions The Moratorium only protects tenants of residential units and “small business premises units.” A “small business premises unit” is defined as premises occupied by a tenant for commercial purposes, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, unless the tenant, or a party that controls, is controlled by or is in common control with the tenant: (i) operates multi-state; (ii) operates multi-nationally; (iii) is publicly traded; or (iv) has 150 or more full-time equivalent employees. The protections also apply only to “non-essential evictions.” Evictions for non-payment of rent or resulting from a foreclosure...

Emergency legislation just signed by Governor Baker will temporarily allow notaries in Massachusetts to acknowledge the signature of people who are present by video conference. This important law allows people who want to sign legal documents from their homes to do so.  The person signing will show the notary identification in the video conference and then have the documents delivered to the notary. The notary will sign a detailed affidavit regarding the remote notarization. Both the notary and the person signing have to be located in the state of Massachusetts at the time of the signing.  The person signing has to disclose who is in the room – an important precaution to assure that the person signing is doing so of their own free will. This new law will allow our clients  to update and  sign important estate planning documents – such as  wills and trusts, health care proxies and powers of attorney – without  being having to be in physical contact with anyone else.  Our clients will also be able to authorize their attorney to complete transactions for them through a power of attorney, including the buying and selling real estate.  For documents that are to be recorded in...

As the COVID-19 public health emergency continues to spread, we remain available and committed to meeting all of our clients’ legal needs, including providing guidance on the novel and difficult challenges that the global pandemic presents in the workplace. We have made some changes to our own workplace in order to be able to provide that continued service while at the same time protecting the well-being of our employees, clients and community members.  Here is what we have done: We have leveraged our technology to enable all of our attorneys to work remotely, keeping a skeletal staff presence in our main Pittsfield office to handle those functions that cannot be handled remotely. All of our attorneys are available by telephone and email.  While you will be able to reach us by calling our central office number, our attorneys are also providing clients with our direct cell phone numbers. Your calls will be answered and your emails responded to promptly. We have suspended all in-person office meetings and events. We have video/audio conferencing capability for all meetings. We are each day monitoring guidance from health and government officials as well as pending emergency legislation and regulations. Please contact us should you have...

On October 1, 2018, Massachusetts law governing non-compete agreements and the protection of trade secrets changed.  While much remains unclear on how these new laws will be interpreted by the courts, here is what we do know: Non-compete Agreements The new noncompete law applies to all employees (and independent contractors) who are employed in or a resident of Massachusetts.  Under the new law, noncompete provisions in employment agreements: Are not enforceable against (i) hourly employees, (ii) undergraduate or graduate students employed as interns, or (iii) minors; Are not enforceable if an employee is terminated without cause; Must be in writing, be provided to potential new employees at least 10 days prior to the start of a job or before offering the job, and must expressly state that the employee has the right to consult with a lawyer prior to signing; Must include  additional consideration for the noncompete obligation other than “continuation of employment” for existing employees, and must provide those employees with the same 10 days’ notice and right to consult with a lawyer prior to signing; With limited exceptions, must be no longer than one year; Must be reasonable in geographic scope and reasonable in the scope of the...

On July 1, 2018, the updated Massachusetts Equal Pay Act[1] will go into effect to remedy the continuing gender wage gap between male and female wage earners. Under the new legislation, all Massachusetts employers are prohibited from paying employees of different genders a different wage for performing comparable work. The law’s scope includes out-of-state employers who have employees with a primary place of work within Massachusetts. Under existing law, an employer must pay equal wages where jobs are comparable in skill, effort, responsibility, working conditions, and substantive content.  For example, while food service work and janitorial work require comparable skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions, the jobs are not comparable because they are substantively different and therefore, unequal wages between the two jobs is acceptable. Under the new law, however, comparable work is more broadly defined. Even if two jobs are substantively different, they can be considered comparable, thus requiring equal pay. Thus, a food service job may be considered comparable to a janitorial job if the two jobs require similar skills, effort, responsibilities and working conditions, even though they are substantively different positions. “Wages” includes incentive pay, deferred compensation and the opportunity to participate in benefit programs under the...

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (the “Act”)[1] goes into effect April 1, 2018. Are you ready?   The Act applies to all employers with six or more employees. In creating a new protected class, the Act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of pregnancy or a condition related to pregnancy.  An employee may have a condition related to pregnancy during or after pregnancy.  Examples are morning sickness, lactation, or the need to express breast milk. No later than April 1, 2018, employers must provide written notice, in a handbook, pamphlet, or some other form, to all employees of the “right to be free from discrimination in relation to pregnancy or a condition related to the employee’s pregnancy, including, but not limited to, lactation or the need to express breast milk for a nursing child, including the right to reasonable accommodations for conditions related to pregnancy.”[2] In addition to the general notice requirement, written notice of rights under the Act must be provided to (1) all new employees at or prior to commencement of employment; and (2) to employees who notify the employer of a pregnancy or an employee who notifies the employer of a pregnancy-related condition, no more than 10...

Employers may be required to pay overtime when employees voluntarily work during their lunch breaks, even if the employees fail to record these hours. In VItali v. Reit Management and Research LLC, an employee  regularly worked during her lunch break.  She sued her employer for overtime pay that she would have received had this time been recorded.  The employer claimed that it did not owe the employee overtime pay because (1) she never reported the hours in question; and (2) she had not complied with a company policy requiring her to obtain her manager’s approval before working overtime. The Appeals Court ruled in favor of the employee. It noted that the employer should have known employees worked during lunch because many employees had asked how to record lunch hours.  It also noted that the overtime policy was not consistently enforced and would not necessarily apply to hours worked during lunch. To ensure that your business complies with the overtime pay laws, keep the following in mind: Make it is easy for employees to record any hours they work during lunch. Train employees on how to use your time-keeping system. You, not your employees, are responsible to ensure that all employee...

CLIENT ALERT July 1, 2015 Under Massachusetts’s new sick leave law, voted into law on November 4, 2014, employees are entitled to forty hours of sick time per calendar year, with one hour of sick time accruing for every thirty hours worked. Employers with eleven or more employees must provide paid sick time. Employers with fewer than eleven employees may provide unpaid sick time. The Attorney General has issued Final Regulations that address ambiguities in the new law. They retain the main points contained in the Proposed Regulations and described in CLIENT ALERT: ATTORNEY GENERAL ISSUES PROPOSED REGULATIONS TO NEW SICK LEAVE LAW. The Final Regulations also expand upon the Proposed Regulations by answering the following questions in more detail. May I Cap Accrual of Sick Time at Forty Hours? Yes. When an employee accrues forty hours of sick time in a calendar year, no additional time is accrued regardless of additional hours worked. Where an employee’s sick time bank reaches forty hours, you may opt to delay further accrual until the employee draws down the bank to below forty hours. May Earned Sick Time Run Concurrently with FMLA and Other Federal and State Leave Laws? Yes. Earned sick time...