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Allocation: Still An Open Question in Wisconsin
Allocation often is a key issue in insurance coverage cases where courts have found that long-term bodily injury or environmental contamination has taken place over many years. Occurrence-based policies typically provide coverage only for damages from injury taking place during the policy period. In many cases, courts have found it impossible to determine as a matter of fact precisely when injury took place or how much injury took place in any given period. They have thus presumed that injury took place over the entire period ' often a very lengthy period ' during which it may have taken place (eg, from first “exposure” until diagnosis of the injury or discovery of the contamination).
Assuming, therefore, that there have been multiple years of injury, the question arises as to how to allocate damages associated with the bodily injury or property damage. Under a pro rata allocation method, courts have allocated damages equally across all triggered years, regardless of the amount of insurance, if any, in each year. In states where “joint and several liability” has been adopted, courts have allowed the policyholder to “pick and choose” any year in its coverage program to respond to the claim, thus allowing the policyholder to potentially avoid years in which it may have no coverage, not enough coverage, SIRs, insolvencies or settled policies.
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations
This article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.
The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs
The parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.
CLE Shouldn't Be the Only Mandatory Training for Attorneys
Each stage of an attorney's career offers opportunities for a curriculum that addresses both the individual's and the firm's need to drive success.
Discovery of Claim Construction and Infringement Analysis May be Compelled Prior to a Markman Hearing
A defendant in a patent infringement suit may, during discovery and prior to a <i>Markman</i> hearing, compel the plaintiff to produce claim charts, claim constructions, and element-by-element infringement analyses.