Features
Brent R. Austin, David M. Simon,
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Nancy F. Afrasiabi
A question often faced by counsel in a class action is whether to contact absent class members. Pre-certification communications, for example, can be valuable to develop a more complete evidentiary record on the issue of whether a class should be certified in the first place. Courts have not always agreed whether therules of professional conduct permit these communications. American Bar Association Formal Opinion 07-445, issued in April 2007, supports the view that the rules of professional conduct permit these valuable communications before a class is certified.
Features
Amaris Elliott-Engel
In the rare exercise of a mechanism that the federal courts may use to consult state courts about purely state questions of law, the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to address the permissible scope of bystander recovery under Pennsylvania's product liability law for a little girl whose left foot was mangled by a lawn mower driven by her grandfather.
Features
ALM Staff
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Law Journal Newsletters
Analysis of recent rulings.
Features
Marvin N. Bagwell
Just in case you missed it, here is the most recent addition to the list of famous last words: "Your honor, you just don't understand how things work." According to press reports, that is how Judge Christopher A. Boyko of the Federal District Court in Cleveland, OH, characterized the foreclosing lender's counsel response to the judge's request for proof that the lender, Deutsche Bank, actually owned the 14 unpaid mortgages that the lender was asking the court to foreclose.
Features
ALM Staff
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Law Journal Newsletters
Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.
Features
Samuel Fineman, Esq.
Congress Considers New Net Neutrality Bill<br>Judge Cuts Court Award in Internet Defamation Case
Features
Stan Soocher
Copyright Infringement/Rule 12(b)(6) Motion<br>Record Labels and Their Lawyers/Malicious Prosecution<br>Songwriter Royalties/State Levy Statute<br>Video Games/ Celebrity Trademarks<br>UPCOMING EVENT: SXSW Music Conference 2008 CLE Program
Features
Stan Soocher
The Court of Appeal of California, Second District, decided that any interests in Superman copyrights or termination rights held by Laura Siegel Larson, daughter of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel, were her separate property, rather than community property of her marriage.
Features
Marcia Coyle
As a child, Geoffrey Gerber grabbed comic books out of his dentist's treat bag after checkups. As an intellectual-property partner at Husch Blackwell Sanders, he grabs comic books ' key elements now in a substantial portion of his practice ' out of his litigator's case. 'There's a tremendous amount of comic-book litigation out there,' says Gerber, who practices in St. Louis for the newly merged firm. He adds that comic books, which hit it big in the 1930s as mainstream media, are 'fairly new media' in the scope of entertainment.
Features
Jay Rosenthal
It's time to start thinking about work for hire again. Technically, 2013 is the first year qualified recording artists may exercise the termination right that will result in reversion to them of the copyrights in their sound recordings from their record labels. There is no doubt about it: Whether referred to hyperbolically as a 'time bomb' or more benignly as a 'leak' in the record company's vaults, how the sound recording work-for-hire problem is resolved will have enormous financial and political impact on both record labels and recording artists.
