Features
Pamela R. Kaplan
It is a fact pattern common to asbestos-related lawsuits: A plaintiff recalls generally working around different products that may or may not have contained asbestos, but cannot pinpoint specific time periods or locations where those products were present and could have exposed the plaintiff to asbestos. Typically, the alleged exposure occurred three or more decades ago, with no potential corroborating documents or witnesses surviving to the present date. This scenario places defendants in the untenable position of defending a claim without access to any information on the products, or the alleged exposure, that will either confirm or deny that the identified products were both present in the plaintiff's workplace and actually contained asbestos.
Features
David J. Kaufmann
A number of conflicting decisions over the past year and a half concerning whether provisions prohibiting waiver of duties or liabilities under the New York Franchise Act prohibit franchisors from interposing franchisee "non-reliance" franchise agreement disclaimers when confronting fraud actions brought under the Act makes clear that this critical area of law will remain muddied until the courts decisively rule on the subject.
Columns & Departments
GAO Finds FDA's Safety Tracking System Lacking
Columns & Departments
Stan Soocher
Deactivated Facebook Page of Band Not a "Use in Commerce"<br>New York Federal Court Declines Request From Elvis Presley Enterprises To Obtain Royalty Documents From Sony Music for Litigation Against Arista Music in Germany
Features
Robert D. Boyd
&
Brooke M. French
Going through a divorce can be tumultuous for everyone involved. When one of the parties is a partner in a law firm, those challenges are sometimes elevated for both the partner and the law firm.
Features
Celia Ampel
Just because it's on "Page Six" of the <i>New York Post</i> doesn't mean it cannot be defamatory, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The appellate court revived a defamation lawsuit by a member of The Fugees hip-hop group against the <i>Post</i> for an item in its "Page Six" gossip column, finding reasonable readers might take the story as true.
Features
C. Ryan Barber
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has fired a shot across the bow of the burgeoning online-payment industry, taking an enforcement action this week that marked the agency's first foray into regulating cybersecurity.
Features
Lynne Strober, Jennifer Presti, Elizabeth Lai Featherman
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Joan M. D'Uva
Intellectual Property (IP) is a highly complex type of property and, as we saw last month in Part One of this article, there are few cases addressing its valuation in the context of divorce. On top of this, because of the emphasis on mediation and arbitration, fewer cases are being litigated in the court system, resulting in fewer court decisions addressing these complex issues. That means there is less guidance for the practitioner, as different treatments of similar facts and great ways of addressing IP valuation remain unreported.
Features
R. Robin McDonald
A suit against Hollywood writers and producers by 54 refugees who became known as 'the Lost Boys' after they fled brutal persecution in Sudan has cleared an initial legal hurdle, a federal judge in Atlanta has ruled.
Features
R. Robin McDonald
The Home Depot will pay $13 million to resolve claims by customers whose personal information was exposed to hackers during a massive data security breach in 2014. The settlement agreement, filed in March in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, would certify a class of Home Depot customers to include all U.S. residents whose personal information was compromised after they used payment cards at self-checkout lanes at U.S. Home Depot stores between April 10, 2014, and Sept.'
