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On Feb. 20, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark decision on punitive damages in <i>Philip Morris USA v. Williams</i>, when it found a jury's $79.5 million punitive damage award, assessed in conjunction with $821,000 in compensatory damages for negligence and deceit in misleading a smoker to believe that smoking was safe, was unconstitutional. Instead of reducing yet another runaway punitive damage award, the 5 to 4 majority of the Court attacked the root of the problem: unfair punitive damages trial procedures. This decision may indicate that the Court, operating under Chief Justice Roberts, is considerably more aggressive in protecting the constitutional rights of punitive damage defendants than was the Rehnquist Court.
Congress suffered yet another setback on March 22 in its ongoing efforts to shield children from sexually explicit content on the Internet when a federal judge struck down the Child Online Protection Act, a 1998 federal law that makes it a crime for commercial Web site operators to allow children access to "harmful" material.
Features
In-depth analysis of the latest verdicts.
The Zoning Resolution of the City of New York provides a mechanism for the transfer of unused development rights from one owner's property to another adjacent owner's property. That mechanism is a zoning lot merger. The Zoning Resolution uses 'zoning lot,' not tax lot, as the basis for all zoning calculations. A zoning lot is a tract of land comprised of one or more tax lots within a single block.
Coming to terms with retirement is difficult and, like most things, is even harder if you are a law firm partner. As soon as you begin to think about throttling things back a tad, your clients demand a quicker response time and your partners want you to bring in more business. At the same time, what seemed just a short time ago to be a distant respite is now looming over you and you may not even know what to do or if you can even afford to do it. Moreover, even if you do not want to retire, your partnership agreement may have a mandatory retirement provision that takes away your choice.
When involuntary employment terminations become necessary, employers often seek protection from possible post-employment claims by conditioning severance pay on the signing of a general release and agreement not to sue. As a general rule, such waivers are enforceable if they are 'knowing and voluntary.' Less clear, however, is under what circumstances an employer may condition severance payments on a promise by the departing employee that he/she will not pursue a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ('EEOC') in connection with an allegation of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.