Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.
Insurance coverage disputes regarding long-tail claims, such as toxic tort or environmental damage claims, often lead to protracted and expensive litigation. Dollars spent on that litigation often would be better spent in compensating the underlying case plaintiffs, such as victims of toxic torts, or in cleaning the environment. Further, such litigation is a substantial drain on already overburdened judicial resources. In resolving insurance coverage disputes, therefore, an important consideration should be whether a particular approach will encourage or discourage settlement of future disputes, while being fair to the litigants. An emerging issue that can have a significant impact on whether future coverage disputes will be settled or litigated to judgment is whether a non-settling insurer will receive a credit based upon settlements an insured has reached with other insurers in regard to the same occurrence and, if so, how that credit will be calculated. At least three approaches have begun to emerge. The approach chosen will have a substantial impact on whether litigants are treated fairly and whether settlement of future disputes will be encouraged or discouraged.
Features
e-Commerce Web sites' only constant is change. They must nimbly adjust prices and offerings on the fly to meet market conditions and customer profiles. And those aren't all of these sites' ongoing change requirements.<br>One thing that doesn't change, however, is their reliance on data ' customer preferences as well as transaction information. Although e-commerce Web sites are an inherently transient medium, that data is as worthy of preservation as a treasure map or share certificate of old, because, in many ways, it is worth more than money.<br>For these firms, a record-keeping and record-retention policy seem to be electronic oxymorons, as much as an 'inexpensive lawyer' or 'friendly litigation' may seem to many people The controlled destruction of records typically associated with such policies in the post-Enron and Arthur Andersen era appears to fly in the face of the needs and realities of e-commerce, as much as do traditional notions of photocopying and saving every paper business record.
With the e-commerce activity of collecting 'people data' for employment comes regulations, a collection of which the evolution of the Internet requires periodic updating and the application of new rules.<br>On February 6, new U.S. Department of Labor rules that require federal contractors to collect information concerning Internet applicants went into effect. But compliance with another set of regulations doesn't necessarily mean that employers or contractors will find themselves in a bog meant to keep recruiting orderly, and compliant.
Features
Law firms use contract attorneys to aid in large-scale document reviews such as those often required in e-discovery, and for mergers, internal audits and other matters that require an influx of temporary help. Of course, the subject matter involved in these wide-ranging projects varies, which makes contractors an ideal solution for dynamic business. If a project requires that attorneys or other workers who are or may be involved have a specific background, then law firms, or the agencies they hire, may well be better positioned using temporary workers who also may be making a specialty of the work required. And often, projects require only a general legal background, which makes finding candidates far easier. But whatever the situation that demands looking for short-term or long-term employees ' for staff positions or contract work ' firms should consider the key factors when hiring contract attorneys.
Features
Most firms use a billing options analysis to determine the mix of hourly rates used to accomplish the work. However, almost any case or project can be broken into tasks; and each task can be priced separately and differently, to create multiple pricing schemes within a single transaction based on client preferences and value perceptions. <br>Different clients can be approached differently. Creating a matrix can demonstrate to clients those areas where costs can be controlled and where costs are inherent, and educate clients about what can be done to lower the overall cost of a project.
Last month, Part One of this article provided tips by Christopher A. Jones and Scott A. Weinberg. This part discusses other possibly problematic lease provisions regarding the name/address of the building, rules and regulations, legal fees and expenses, and the sale/exchange and assignment of the lease by the landlord.
Features
Law firm managers seeking graphic insights for business monitoring and quantitative decision support have much to gain from Wayne W. Eckerson's new book Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business (2006: John Wiley & Sons). In this article, I'll review some of Eckerson's ideas that seem highly applicable to large law firms, and add a few thoughts of my own.
National rulings of interest to you and your practice.
Features
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. It works to ensure the safety of consumer products — such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals, and claims it has contributed significantly to the 30% decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years. The site, <i>www.cpsc.gov</i>, offers information (in English and Spanish) that could help protect consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard, or can injure children.
