Failure to follow the purpose and logic of precedent risks irrational outcomes and unjust results. These risks are apparent in recent efforts to apply a "future benefits" rule in cases alleging bad faith by commercial insurers.
What is a garnishment? Part One of this two-part series explains in depth.
The recent decision in Tiffany v. eBay is a well-considered exploration for finding secondary e-marketplace liability for facilitating infringing sale of goods without selling a product, and for the marketplace maker to avoid infringement liability for sellers on its site.
Property insurance policies typically require repair and replacement of damaged property to be made with "like kind and construction" as the original. Occasionally, a policy will include another phrase that is similar to "like kind and construction," such as "like kind and quality" or "like construction and use." How to interpret such phrases, including how far an insurer must go to maintain the design and aesthetics of the pre-loss property, is an important issue in the claims process.
No one would confuse the stereotypical IT geek with someone as cool as one-time hip-hop mogul M. C. Hammer. Yet, sometimes when the IT staff sacrifices lawyers' work habits on the altar of implementing a "litigation-hold" policy, it seems like Hammer's simple musical advice rules the day: "U Can't Touch This." From the lawyers' side of the divide, the IT department's well-intentioned effort to comply with procedural rules to enforce a litigation-hold policy often seems like interference with our professional duties to clients, and how we do our jobs.
Now can I ship wine to out-of-state consumers? That's what people at wineries, and even retailers, have been asking e-commerce counsel since the Supreme Court decided Granholm v. Heald, which struck down wine-shipping regulations in Michigan and New York as discriminatory under the Dormant Commerce Clause. There are at least 50 answers to the question.
Who's doing what; who's moving where.
If you have registered a few dozen Uniform Franchise Offering Circulars ("UFOCs") and spent the better part of 2008 converting your current stable to the Amended Rule's disclosure format, you can probably relate to the throbbing headache we experienced during this spring's annual filing season when we registered our clients' freshly converted franchise disclosure documents ("FDDs") with state franchise agencies. Before the annual spring filing crunch, we had found clear sailing in registering FDDs early.'
In many states, the statutory definition of "franchise" has been, and could be, construed broadly to include relationships between brand owners and their trademark licensees, even though neither party intended to create a franchise relationship. Brand owners can only avoid the franchise surprise if they know the rules of the game.
