Features
Certificate of Merit Laws Under Fire
In last month's issue we began a discussion of <i>Putman v. Wenatchee Valley Medical Center</i>, in which the Supreme Court of Washington struck down that state's law requiring the filing of a certificate of merit in medical malpractice lawsuits. Part Two herein concludes the discussion.
Features
The Law of Unintended e-Consequences
Everyone who has ever worked on a tech project, whether in e-commerce or general business, has probably seen situations in which an assumed solution creates a bigger mess than the original problem. It's called <i>the law of unintended consequences.</i> A recent federal appellate ruling shows how this rule can work in the law.
Features
Current Trends in Long-Arm Jurisdiction
Particularly in these times when many people have had to travel out of state just to become or remain employed, an important but overlooked aspect of matrimonial law practice remains personal jurisdiction.
Features
The Rights to Pre-Embryos Upon Divorce
While courts have failed to recognize a property interest in a person's body parts or tissue, they have, through recent litigation, attempted to answer the question whether to classify pre-embryos ' a particular configuration of human cells, which are created during a marriage ' as marital property.
Features
The CPSIA : One (Difficult) Year Later
Though its enactment in 2008 was well-intentioned, implementation of the CPSIA has been a logistical nightmare ' largely because this far-reaching law was enacted without providing adequate resources to the CPSC to enforce it or giving sufficient forethought to its implications for the affected businesses.
Features
Practice Tip: The Economic Loss Rule
A relative youngster in terms of legal doctrines, the Economic Loss Rule has quickly gained widespread acceptance in state and federal courts. First recognized by California in 1965, it has now been endorsed in some form by the U.S. Supreme Court and nearly every state.
Features
Climate Change and Global Warming
This article examines four avenues for addressing the problems of climate change and global warming: international diplomacy, litigation, regulatory agency action, and legislation. Various aspects of these avenues impact product manufacturers and, in turn, product liability litigation.
Features
The Evolving Economy and Four Resulting Trends for the Legal Profession
The following is an updated version of an article first published by Blane Prescott, Vice President with Hildebrandt, in the closing months of 2008.
Features
Social Networking in the Workplace
The first part of this article addressed issues surrounding the effect of the Internet on hiring and firing in the 21st Century. The conclusion herein discusses the laws that impact social networking in the workplace, and provides guidance on developing a social networking and blogging policy.
Features
Can Your Retirement Plan Survive an ADEA Claim?
In <i>Kentucky Retirement Systems v. EEOC</i>, 128 the Supreme Court held that, where an employer adopts a pension plan that includes age as a factor, and the employer then treats employees differently based on pension status, an employer will only be liable for disparate treatment under the ADEA if the plaintiff can adduce sufficient evidence to show that the differential treatment was actually motivated by age and not pension status.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis 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.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›