Litigation

There has been a great deal of publicity in the medical community about apology programs ' programs that encourage doctors to affirmatively admit medical mistakes to patients and their families. While there is a lot of support for the idea, there is also a good deal of controversy over whether these programs actually work to reduce litigation and the cost of medical malpractice claims. What, realistically, can apology programs do ' and what can they not do?

Confidential physician peer reviews may be disclosed to plaintiffs in federal discrimination and antitrust cases in three federal circuits, even though all 50 states and the District of Columbia recognize a privilege against disclosure of the performance ratings. This growing federal-state divergence will make federal courts more attractive to plaintiffs filing civil rights suits involving doctors, attorneys say. At the same time, it may have a chilling effect on peer review participant candor and on the ability of health care facilities to recruit peer review team members.

Tortious-Interference Claims

Satellite Television/Programming-Exclusivity Agreements.

Every night in Las Vegas, Baby Boomers plunk down $47.30 each and file into the Sahara Hotel & Casino's Congo Room to revisit the sounds of their youth. They've come to spend an evening with 'The Platters, Drifters, Coasters.' It's a performance steeped in nostalgia, save one element: None of the artists on stage were ever members of the musical groups that most remember as the Platters, the Coasters or the Drifters.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided that the unlicensed use of songs for karaoke recordings was not a fair use. Zomba Enterprises Inc. v. Panorama Records Inc., 06-5013.

If a music file is downloaded to a computer and no one is there to play it, does it constitute a performance? This is not some question from a digital-age freshman philosophy seminar ' it was the legal issue recently facing Judge William C. Connor in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in United States v. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), 485 F.Supp.2d 438 (S.D.N.Y. 2007).

Recent court decisions may force the Recording Industry Association of America ('RIAA') to re-evaluate its litigation tactics. In the past, RIAA members were able to file actions against the owners of Internet addresses if their sites were used by others to file share.