Litigation

In our day-to-day practice as family law practitioners, we help clients negotiate their way through the maze that is divorce. Besides the usual parenting and financial issues, some clients experience abuse at the hands of their spouse, a significant other or another household member. If this happens, the victim can obtain a Protective Order. However, as is too often seen in the newspapers, the Protective Order is merely a piece of paper and does not guarantee safety.

In June, the Supreme Court unanimously held that Enron's former CEO Jeffrey Skilling did not commit "honest services" fraud, ruling that the statute under which he was convicted must be limited to bribery and kickback schemes to avoid constitutional concerns over vagueness. The decision should curtail prosecution of a variety of conduct that the government would otherwise seek to criminalize through the statute. In contrast, the courts are expanding the reach of other criminal statutes to encompass conduct previously regarded as outside their scope.

Evidentiary Restrictions on Proving Copyright Substantial Similarity
Profits Accounting for Use of Band Name Is Nondischargeable Debt
Third Amended Complaint Allowed in Karaoke Case

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York dismissed a federal RICO claim that alleged the defendants took the basis for their TV program The Great American Road Trip from a TV show idea created by the plaintiffs.

Recent rulings of key importance.

In a rare ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously held that a franchisee that stays in business cannot sue for constructive termination under the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act.

In most leases, the landlord and tenant are specifically prohibited from orally modifying the lease. However, a decision recently handed down by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania illustrates how such a provision may be waived through the conduct of the parties.

A federal appeals court on Oct. 20 granted the government's emergency motion for a temporary stay of a worldwide injunction barring enforcement of "don't ask, don't tell," the military's ban on openly gay service members.