After the enactment of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, some confusion has arisen as to whether Congress' failure to specifically incorporate the Means Test into §707(a) prohibits courts from considering a debtor's income, ability to pay, and lavish lifestyle in non-consumer bankruptcy cases under the 'bad faith' standard or otherwise.

Although venture debt financing is in the midst of a strong rebound, there are signs that the recovery might not last. Some of the conditions that caused a swift decline in venture lending earlier in the decade have resurfaced, threatening the growth of this form of financing.

News about lawyers and law firms in the product liability field.

Features

Highlights of the latest product liability cases from around the country.

Although the Eleventh Circuit in <i>Lowery v. Alabama Power Co.</i>, attempted to grapple with some of the thorny issues presented by CAFA's 'mass action' provisions (and removal generally), many questions remain unanswered.

Features

Although the Ninth Circuit did not rule that extra-judicial circumstances should be added to the four Supreme Court Daubert 'factors,' there is, nevertheless, superficial support by some courts in dicta that <i>Daubert II</i> held that an extra-judicial opinion is more reliable than one born out of the litigation. A closer look at this idea will reveal it is not one that should be adopted as a factor.

Features

There is much uncertainty surrounding if and how well-established defenses to traditional product liability claims will translate in non-personal injury consumer fraud actions. At the forefront of this uncertainty is the applicability of the learned intermediary doctrine in consumer fraud actions involving pharmaceuticals or medical devices.

Rule 34 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure permits a party to 'inspect, copy, test, or sample any designated documents or electronically stored information.' However, what exactly does that mean for corporate litigants? Can a plaintiff demand to show up at a client's offices and expect a seat in front of a keyboard? Will a client be forced to hire a third party to copy its hard drives &mdash; online shopping Web history and all &mdash; and hand them over to the opponent?