LJN Newsletters

  • Resolving Mass Torts with Bankruptcy Funds

    The ongoing effort to resolve globally the problem of overwhelming mass-tort liability continues this year through legislation. A Senate bill to create a trust administered by the Department of Labor, funded by industry and insurance contributions, was voted down in April. Whether this proposed resolution ultimately fares better than those preceding it remains to be seen. In the meantime, however, the Rand Institute for Civil Justice reports that by the end of 2002, at least 56 companies had turned to bankruptcy to find the resolution and finality they needed to get back to their business. Others will undoubtedly follow before any global solution is ultimately reached.

    September 01, 2004Kami E. Quinn

  • News from the FDA

    All the latest from the Agency.

    September 01, 2004ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • Index

    A guide to everything inside this issue, case by case.

    September 01, 2004ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • Real Property Law

    Recent rulings of importance to your practice.

    September 01, 2004ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • County Planning Board Review and General Municipal Law Section 239-m

    The right to adopt controls on the use of land in New York, although derived from the state's power, has largely devolved to local municipal governments through New York's Town Law and Village Law, and similar legislation for cities. There are areas, however, where the state still exercises control, frequently as general oversight in perceived problem areas -- coastal erosion and flood zones for example. The state also exercised its power, beginning in 1960, to allow for the creation of county-wide planning boards, to allow for the input of regional and county-wide considerations in local land use decisions.

    September 01, 2004Linda U. Margolin

  • Landlord & Tenant

    All about the latest rulings.

    September 01, 2004ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • Development

    The latest cases in the Development arena.

    September 01, 2004ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • Marriage Protection Act of 2004 Moves Forward

    Congress approved legislation on July 22 that aims to strip the federal courts of the ability to decide cases challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Proponents of the largely Republican-backed bill, the Marriage Protection Act of 2004 (H.R. 3313), indicate it is necessary to keep federal courts from invalidating the part of the act that says states can't be forced to recognize same-sex marriages entered into in other states. They say state courts should be the exclusive forums for challenges to the act because states have traditionally decided who shall be allowed to marry within their jurisdictions.

    September 01, 2004ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |

  • When Grandparents Take On the Parental Role

    Although statistics tell us the rates of teenage pregnancy in the United States are going down, the number of underage parents is still high as compared with generations past. More than a few parents will find themselves having to deal with the news that their teenager will soon make them a grandparent. Some may choose to help raise that grandchild by obtaining legal custody over it. Over time, because they may be doing the bulk of (or all of) the child rearing and are probably providing the grandchild with much of its financial support, such grandparents may come to think of their grandchild as one of their own. Any interruption of that relationship could prove traumatic, both for the grandparent and for the grandchild. Many grandparents who gain custody of a grandchild -- usually with the consent of one or both of the child's parents -- believe they have acquired rights over the child that they'll retain unless they voluntarily give him/her up. This is not the case, and grandparents (or aunts, uncles, etc.) in such custodial situations must be made aware of the limited rights they acquire when they obtain mere legal custody over a child, as opposed to adopting it.

    September 01, 2004Janice G. Inman