Litigation

The federal government engages in certain tactics to reduce the effort associated with white-collar criminal litigation. Among the most criticized are the government's efforts to pressure corporations to waive the attorney-client privilege or work-product protection.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman had declared online fantasy sports a form of illegal gambling, ordering industry giants DraftKings and FanDuel to shut down operations in a state that generated about 10% of the companies' revenues. The companies countered by suing. Then, faced with enormous legal costs, the companies chose a second course of action. They would pursue state legislation to legitimize their operations while offering consumer protection language ' and a cut in revenues ' in return.

In a recent U.S. Eastern District decision, the court compelled arbitration of a dispute based on language contained in the Terms of Use on an Internet access provider's website. The language contained an operative arbitration clause that the court found binding on the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs claimed the clause was not apparent to them and therefore they never provided any consent to arbitrate.

Full and frank communication with another party's legal counsel is often necessary effectively to defend a client and to ensure compliance with the law. Thus, the question, "Under what circumstances may a company share privileged information with a third party?" is an important one.

The widespread use of social media, and the corresponding ability to create, share, and misappropriate content ' all in an instant ' has radically increased the number of unwitting copyright owners and infringers.

A man convicted of murder in New Haven, CT, is asking the state Supreme Court for a new trial on grounds that the judge should not have allowed evidence from Facebook at trial. The defendant argues that photos from his Facebook profile that were presented to the jury were used to portray him as a "thug" and improperly swayed the jury. Police were also able to locate the defendant, Derrick Bouknight, through his Facebook page. '

At least six class actions have been filed against Yahoo! Inc. in the wake of last month's announcement of a security breach that compromised an estimated 500 million account holders.

Gilbert Chagoury, a British billionaire and philanthropist was denied a visa last year to enter the United States because, according to the U.S. government, he was suspected of supporting terrorism. Chagoury denies the allegation, saying the U.S. Department of State relied on bad intelligence. And now he's suing federal agencies that he claims leaked information about him to a reporter. His suit is thought to be the first case brought under the Judicial Redress Act, which President Barack Obama signed in February.