Legal Alerts

This article is a summary of the upcoming Colorado Privacy Act and its potential impacts on Colorado businesses and business owners. 

"As coronavirus spreads across the world and the country, businesses are experiencing a major shift in their day-to-day operations, including employee interaction, business strategy and more."

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act is almost a reality.  With the U.S  Senate passing the bill on Wednesday, expectations of the House doing the same on Friday and the President prepared to sign the bill into law, there are many clients asking, “What must I do to apply for a portion of the $350 billion (potentially forgivable) loan program designed to assist small businesses (less than 500 employees)?”

Equal pay is the law in Colorado.  Governor Polis signed a bill that made Colorado the tenth state in the country to pass an equal pay law. Colorado’s law goes into effect on January 1, 2021 and is more demanding than federal law.

Government shutdowns affect employers by rendering E-Verify services unavailable.  E-Verify is an electronic, internet-based system that compares information from employees I-9 to records available to the U.S Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to confirm employment eligibility.

On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed the much-anticipated Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017  (“TCJA”).  The TCJA makes many significant changes to the Internal Revenue Code including changes to the estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes. 

Under the Affordable Health Care Act, clients that have an existing Medical Expense Reimbursement Plan (MERP) should contact their current health care insurance professional and determine whether their MERP plan is in compliance with the new regulations by the deadline of December 31, 2013.  It may need to be terminated before January 1, 2014.

Yesterday, the Colorado Court of Appeals decided that it is legal to fire an employee who tests positive for marijuana EVEN if the employee has a state-licensed Medical marijuana card and uses marijuana on personal time.

Recently, an employee of American Medical Response of Connecticut (AMR) posted critical remarks about her supervisor on her personal Facebook page, from her home computer, on her own time.  

On May 31, 2011, the Colorado Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals decision in the Lucht’s Concrete Pumping, Inc. v. Horner matter.

Since Colorado legalized the medical use of marijuana, employers are questioning whether their drug free workplace policies are still enforceable.

With the CDC’s recent elevation of the pandemic alert to Level 5 for Swine Flu, employers should be prepared to consider the following issues: