Practice Tip: 'Quintessential Expert for Hire' -- Sixth Circuit Upholds Greater Rigor in Evaluation
While it is too early to determine the long-term impact of the Sixth Circuits ruling in <i>Johnson v. Manitowoc Boom Trucks, Inc.,</i> it does suggest that courts are increasingly willing to assert their gatekeeping role when considering the growing number of experts who are willing to testify regarding a broad range of unrelated products.
Will Metal Bats Make a Hit? Product Liability and the Legislation of Baseball
Recent attempts to ban the use of non-wood baseball bats, based on the perception that they may have changed the game and increased the potential for injury, have gained more steam and publicity. Proponents of a ban appear to be more prone to raise the issue in legislative forums where strict product liability standards are not necessarily controlling.
The Leasing Hotline
Highlights of the latest commercial leasing cases from around the country.
Features
How Much Control? Municipalities and Real Property Matters
Part One of this series discussed the origin of the authority to make property use regulations and an increasing trend by municipalities to regulate aesthetics and use through the development of 'chronic nuisance' statutes that permit property closure and regulation of vacant properties. This second installment discusses the manner in which the Chicago Municipal Code functions.
Features
Movers & Shakers
News about lawyers and law firms in the product liability field.
Case Notes
Highlights of the latest product liability cases from around the country.
Features
Question of Law on Bystander Recovery Sent to PA High Court
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.
Separate NY Arbitration on Adjustments to Historic Tobacco Settlement
New York State Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Ramos of Manhattan has set the framework under which New York State's entitlement to approximately $800 million a year from the tobacco industry will be tested.
Features
A Good Deed May Go Unpunished: Parties That Voluntarily Clean Up Sites Can Sue for Cost Recovery Under CERCLA
One U.S. Supreme Court decision this past term brought welcomed news to those labeled 'potentially responsible parties' under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. In <i>United States v. Atlantic Research</i>, the Court unanimously agreed that PRPs that voluntarily clean up contaminated property may bring suit for cost recovery against other PRPs under '107 of CERCLA. The Court's opinion left certain questions unanswered and even raised one or two new questions.
In the Spotlight: Shopping Center Lease Assignments -- Bankruptcy Changes Could Hamper Debtors
Certain amendments to Title 11, United States Code (the 'Bankruptcy Code') implemented by the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 received little notice, but one such change made to §365(f)(1), a section commonly utilized by debtor/ tenants to invalidate anti-assignment provisions contained in commercial leases, could have a wide-ranging impact in retail bankruptcy cases.
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MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent TrollsWith trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.Read More ›
- Private Equity Valuation: A Significant DecisionInsiders (and others) in the private equity business are accustomed to seeing a good deal of discussion ' academic and trade ' on the question of the appropriate methods of valuing private equity positions and securities which are otherwise illiquid. An interesting recent decision in the Southern District has been brought to our attention. The case is <i>In Re Allied Capital Corp.</i>, CCH Fed. SEC L. Rep. 92411 (US DC, S.D.N.Y., Apr. 25, 2003). Judge Lynch's decision is well written, the Judge reviewing a motion to dismiss by a business development company, Allied Capital, against a strike suit claiming that Allied's method of valuing its portfolio failed adequately to account for i) conditions at the companies themselves and ii) market conditions. The complaint appears to be, as is often the case, slap dash, content to point out that Allied revalued some of its positions, marking them down for a variety of reasons, and the stock price went down - all this, in the view of plaintiff's counsel, amounting to violations of Rule 10b-5.Read More ›
- Meet the Lawyer Working on Inclusion Rider LanguageAt the Oscars in March, Best Actress winner Frances McDormand made “inclusion rider” go viral. But Kalpana Kotagal, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll had already worked for months to write the language for such provisions. Kotagal was developing legal language for contract provisions that Hollywood's elite could use to require studios and other partners to employ diverse workers on set.Read More ›
- Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar InvestigationsThis article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.Read More ›
- The DOJ Goes Phishing: The Rise of False Claims Act Cybersecurity LitigationWhile the DOJ Civil Cyber-Fraud Initiative is still in its early stages and cybersecurity regulations are evolving, whistleblower plaintiffs have already begun leveraging the FCA to pursue alleged noncompliance with government cybersecurity requirements.Read More ›