Litigation

Features

The Third Circuit recently took a "pragmatic approach" when affirming lower court orders denying a stay of bankruptcy settlement distributions pending appeal. After holding that the district court's "stay denial order" was "final" for jurisdictional purposes, it also confirmed "the applicable standard of review" on motions for stays pending appeals.

Features

The Data Explosion vs. Recovery Model Stagnation Firms are struggling with a legacy practice of writing off litigation support/e-discovery and related costs but have been challenged to identify and implement recovery models or managed services models that are both acceptable to the firm and to their clients. On top of all of this, many firms simply fail to dispose of the data at the matter closing and costs continue to accumulate year over year. Mattern has launched the first ever e-Discovery and Litigation Support Cost Recovery Survey to gather that needed data to help drive firms' better business decisions.

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Part One of a Two-Part Article This article outlines the basic elements of an SNDA and will explain the differences between the concepts of "non-disturbance" and "recognition," while contending that lease recognition is more important to the tenant than not having its possession disturbed.

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Voluntary Turnover or Face Contempt Lessors who repossess property immediately prior to a lessee bankruptcy filing may be required to return such property or face sanctions by the bankruptcy court. Federal courts are currently split on the issue of whether the lessor must voluntary surrender property seized pre-petition or may hold such property until such time as the debtor seeks, and obtains, an order of turnover.

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Following the Delaware Chancery Court's ruling in In re Trulia, Inc. that effectively closed the door to 14(a) disclosure-based settlements in Delaware state court, federal courts saw an influx of 14(a) "merger objection" litigation. More often than not, these suits are quickly dismissed following the company's issuance of a supplemental proxy with additional disclosures and the parties negotiate a mootness fee. The transaction closes and all parties move on — or so we thought. An emerging trend suggests that exposure to 14(a) claims may coming back from the near dead.

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Collecting the Legal Fees It Cost You to Collect Legal Fees Does your New York commercial lease form expressly provide that the landlord may recover the legal fees it incurs to recover legal fees from its tenant? If not, then the landlord may be out of luck trying to recover such "fees on fees," as they are known. But it wasn't always this way.

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The significance of the Crime Victims' Rights Act (CVRA), which is intended to guarantee crime victims a role in federal criminal proceedings, has been highlighted in the case of Jeffrey E. Epstein, the financier accused of sexually trafficking underage girls. Because the government's noncompliance with the CVRA in negotiating Epstein's plea deal in 2008 led to Alexander R. Acosta losing his cabinet position as Secretary of Labor, practitioners can expect prosecutors and judges to be more focused on the CVRA going forward.

Features

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently held that a debt incurred as a result of a willful and malicious injury may nevertheless be dischargeable notwithstanding the provisions of 11 U.S.C. Section 523(a)(6).