When their 15 minutes of fame came, two Santa Barbara County prosecutors didn't shy away ' one authored a book based loosely on a rape case she was handling and the other consulted on a movie about an alleged killer he was trying to bring to justice. But their foray into the entertainment world went awry in October 2006 when a state appellate panel threw both prosecutors off their cases. Joyce Dudley's novel, 'Intoxicating Agent,' hewed far too close to her real-world rape case, the court held, while Ronald Zonen shouldn't have allowed producers of the movie 'Alpha Dog' access to highly sensitive files in his sensational death-penalty case. As a result, the court ruled, keeping the prosecutors on the cases would deny both criminal defendants a fair trial.
- April 29, 2008Mike McKee
More than 40 sanctions cases ' resulting in millions of dollars in fines ' have been decided in one year since revisions to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ('FRCP') took effect. In contrast, only two have been recorded under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act since it was put into place in 2002. The 2006 changes to the FRCP specifically require that companies ensure all potentially relevant electronically stored information ('ESI') associated with litigation is preserved and protected, with a subset ultimately produced when required. While on the surface this may sound simple, those in the trenches on both sides ' legal and IT ' have war stories to tell of hard lessons learned. Organizations that do not take a comprehensive approach to managing ESI for discovery may fall prey to fines, sanctions and worse.
April 29, 2008Browning E. MareanIn Rico v. Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the California Supreme Court adopted the 'fair and reasonable approach' originally formulated by the Second District Court of Appeal in State Compensation Ins. Fund v. WPS, Inc., and set forth the duties of attorneys upon receiving inadvertent disclosures.
April 29, 2008Douglas W. LytlePlaintiffs' counsel recently have been changing their tactics in product liability class action litigation. In place of filing traditional injury class actions, they instead have been filing more and more economic 'no-injury' class actions, in which the proposed class members seek to recover not for personal injury, but for their alleged economic losses in purchasing a product that is worth 'less' than they paid for it because of some alleged defect.
April 29, 2008Kurt HamrockThose who download music to their computers now have two unlikely heroes: Janet Bond Arterton, a federal judge who sits in New Haven, CT; and Christopher David Brennan, a young Waterford, CT, resident who has reportedly downloaded songs by Billy Joel, Hootie and the Blowfish and other artists. Brennan is one of about 30,000 people sued by the music industry in recent years for allegedly taking music from the Internet without paying for it.
April 29, 2008Thomas B. ScheffeyRecent happenings that may affect your practice.
April 28, 2008ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |In matrimonial litigation the marital residence often constitutes the parties' most valuable asset. Equitable distribution of this asset can involve issues that may or may not have been anticipated at the outset of the litigation. Within the process of accomplishing an equitable division of the home are considerations of separate property credits, capital gains taxes, expenses relating to the residence and timing of valuation of the home. In this month's issue, we discuss separate property credits.
April 28, 2008Mark I. PlaineThe latest happenings for your review.
April 28, 2008ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |Recent rulings of interest to you and your practice.
April 28, 2008ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |