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As one of the final acts of its 99th Legislative Session, the Michigan Legislature passed amendments to the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (MMFLA), as well as changes to the Marihuana Tracking Act. These amendments were signed by outgoing Governor Rick Snyder on December 28, 2018, with the MMFLA amendments effective January 1. The Tracking Act amendments took effect immediately. MMFLA amendments Generally speaking, the MMFLA amendments (Senate Bills 1262 and 1263) make the…
CLOSE OR BE DENIED!  In a major year-end development, the Michigan Court of Claims today dismissed the last of the cases that allowed unlicensed Michigan medical marihuana facilities to operate. All court orders preventing Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) from setting a date by which the so-called temporary operators must close have now been dissolved—technically, that leaves in place the emergency rule by which unlicensed facilities must close by October 31, 2018,…
On the last day of the legislative session, the Michigan Legislature passed House Bills 6330, 6331, and 6380 to create the Industrial Hemp Research and Development Act (IHRDA). If signed by the Governor, IHRDA will require the registration of industrial hemp growers and processors as a prerequisite to grow or sell industrial hemp. Oversight authority is given to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD). To register, growers and processors would be required…
The amendments require that ordinary business expense reimbursements are no longer voluntary—which means that, because the IWPCA already provides for a private cause of action, including attorney’s fees and  liquidated damages of 2 percent per month of any unreimbursed amounts, the potential exposure for litigation increases dramatically. Even for relatively small amounts of unpaid expenses, the incentive for employees to file individual and class actions under the IWPCA is significant considering the penalties and attorney’s…
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One of the key provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act rollback law signed by President Trump on May 24, 2018, hasn’t met its early promise for U.S. community banks. Recently proposed rules to implement simplified capital requirements have fallen short of the industry’s expectations when the bank deregulation law was enacted in May. On November 21, 2018, the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency jointly…
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Continuing from last week’s post, here is the second half of our “Top 10 List” of key issues U.S. financial institutions, non-banks providing financial services, and financial technology (fintech) entities should plan for and watch throughout 2019. OCC Fintech Charter On July 31, 2018, after several years of discussion, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced that it is accepting applications for special purpose national bank charters for fintech companies. Long…
On December 4, 2018, the Michigan Legislature pared back the minimum wage and paid sick leave laws it passed last September in an effort to preclude those issues from being on the November ballot. Had the Legislature not adopted the language of the ballot initiatives legislation, the measures would have been on the November ballot and it would have needed a vote of three-fourths of each house to amend the law if adopted by the…
On November 6, 2018, Michigan voters approved Proposal 1 and made Michigan the twelfth U.S. jurisdiction to legalize recreational marijuana. The Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act (MRTMA) went into effect December 6. What has been lost in all the smoke from the past several weeks is how MRTMA impacts the regulation of industrial hemp. Industrial hemp, as generally defined in federal and by other states, is a low THC-concentrate version of the plant…
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As an eventful 2018 comes to a close, we look ahead to 2019 and our “Top 10 List” of key issues U.S. financial institutions, non-banks providing financial services, and financial technology (fintech) entities should plan for and watch throughout the upcoming year. The first five items on the list are discussed below, and the remainder of our list will follow shortly in another post. Brexit We will start the list with a couple of topics…
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Over the last several years, the emphasis on privacy and data protection has grown significantly. With the amount of data collected by companies and technology skyrocketing, the need to protect personal information has been at the forefront of states’ legislative agendas. While all 50 states now have breach notification statutes, states are now taking a closer look at issues such as tracking online behavior and the use of biometric data. What used to be futuristic…