Litigation

Other than holding that courts cannot use race as a criterion for decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has not delved deeply into defining the constitutional rights of divorcing parents in the context of a custody dispute. In Shepp v. Shepp, 906 A.2d 1165 (Pa. 2006), however, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently held that a divorced parent had a constitutional right to advocate his sincere religious belief in polygamy to his 9-year-old child.

Wherever you turn these days, there seems to be a new CLE seminar being offered or white paper being written on the 'sweeping changes' to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as they relate to the discovery of electronically stored information.
And most of them are tied together by a common thread: an alarmist air of hype.

Verdicts of interest to you and your practice.

The misappropriation theory of insider trading, which was first recognized by the Supreme Court in United States v. O'Hagan, 521 U.S. 642 (1997), establishes liability for individuals who are not typical 'insiders' of companies and also appears to offer such defendants a specific defense to insider trading charges. The O'Hagan Court based the misappropriation theory on a duty owed by the defendant to the source of non-public material information, rather than to the shareholders of the company whose stock was being traded. Because a defendant prosecuted under the misappropriation theory had a duty only to his source, the Court explained that a defendant's disclosure to the source of information prior to trading or tipping could neutralize the acts of deception necessary for a securities fraud claim.

Litigation involving asbestos, which was used for decades as a fire retardant in many products, has littered the legal landscape for years. Several major companies have over the course of the last several years filed for bankruptcy as a result of the onslaught of this litigation. Since the 1980s, many asbestos manufacturers, including Johns Manville, declared bankruptcy under the weight of liability payouts. To date, an estimated 85 companies have filed for bankruptcy claiming asbestos liabilities as the cause. A Rand Institute for Civil Justice report indicates that more than 730,000 asbestos claims have been filed since the early 1970s. Roughly 200,000 claims are still pending in state and federal courts nationwide. Estimates predict that up to 2.4 million claims still may be filed before asbestos litigation finally runs its course.

An end-of-year (Nov. 29) Delaware Chancery Court decision, Esopus Creek Value LP v. Hauf, No. 2487-N (Del. Ch. Nov. 29, 2006), is receiving a great deal of attention from corporate transactional and corporate restructuring attorneys alike. In Esopus, the Delaware Chancery Court prevented a financially sound company that was prohibited by federal securities law from holding a shareholder vote, because it failed to meet its reporting requirements, from executing an agreement outside of bankruptcy to sell substantially all of its assets under Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code without first obtaining common stockholder approval as required under Section 271(a) of the Delaware General Company Law ('DGCL').

Thirty-four states have enacted security breach notification laws. And Michigan passed such a law with an effective date of July 2, 2007. These laws cover the notification that a company must make in the event of a breach of security of its system with respect to computerized personal information. How are these laws enforced in the event of a violation? These laws vary in terms of enforcement and penalties, as more particularly described below. This article provides an overview of the enforcement of these laws and describes examples of penalties.

In today's litigation world, corporate counsel struggle to contain the ever-increasing costs of document discovery. The explosion of electronically stored information ('ESI') is often a huge contributor to the expense of discovery. Consultants, vendors, and e-discovery software can help bring greater efficiencies and cost-savings to the process. But while there is a dizzying array of options available, they are not all created equal. Finding the right solution requires that you do your homework.