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Recent rulings of importance to you and your practice.
Many parents abandon their children, leaving them to be raised by the other parent or a third party, refusing to have meaningful contact with them or even to provide financial support. The remaining parent or caregiver may make attempts to bring the uninterested parent back into the child's life, or to force him or her to pay child support, but these efforts are often unsuccessful. So, what's to be done? The caregiver may be forced to give up and raise the child alone, perhaps gaining some comfort in knowing that the recalcitrant parent at least will not interfere in the child's life. But, is this necessarily the end of the story? As evidenced by a case holding last month, delivered by the Appellate Division, Third Department in a Workers' Compensation case, in New York at least, the missing parent can still cause trouble, even years after the child has reached majority.
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Thirteen gay and lesbian couples brought suit in the state Supreme Court in Albany on April 7, alleging their state constitutional rights to equal protection, privacy and due process were violated when they were recently denied marriage licenses. The couples were joined in their suit by the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union. One of the complainants is Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, brother of television and movie personality Rosie O'Donnell, who was, herself, recently married to her lesbian partner in California.
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National cases of interest to you and your practice.
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The latest rulings you need to know.
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Mediation is not litigation. Many lawyers, though, approach mediation with courtroom techniques that may not advance their clients' interests. Today, when court-sponsored mediation is increasingly common, and especially where the parties are paying for the services of a professional mediator, you owe it to your clients to get the most out of the process. This article focuses on the mediation of employment disputes and identifies some of the most familiar pitfalls for lawyers. Avoid them, and your clients will come out of mediation with better results.
Avoiding litigation risks involves focus. One of the key areas of focus should be on hiring; more specifically, the application process. Over time, employers have found questions of what can, and cannot, be asked during an interview to be particularly troublesome. Similarly, use of consumer reports has proven equally concerning. While employers have struggled to find footing in these areas, an additional concern has risen: How to handle job applications submitted via the Internet.
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On April 20, 2004, the US Department of Labor (DOL) released its much-anticipated changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime regulations. The new rules revise the salary and duties tests used to determine whether an employee is entitled to overtime pay under federal law. Organized labor and other groups had criticized the DOL's proposed rules, claiming they would deny overtime pay to numerous employees who currently are entitled to such additional pay. The DOL appears to have taken into consideration some of the concerns voiced by the critics during the rulemaking process. The final rules were scheduled to be published in the April 23 Federal Register, and will take effect on Aug. 21, 2004.
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An economist once said that the reason talk is so cheap is because the supply generally exceeds demand. Not so with information. No matter how much is produced, people always seem to want more. And more information means more databases, and the amount of work involved in compiling and organizing information into databases can be staggering. Yet, in many cases, anyone can copy the stored data and essentially replicate all or a portion of the database at a mere fraction of the cost of creating the database in the first place. Some have argued that this freedom to copy acts as a disincentive for anyone to organize information into databases. After all, if the creator can't expect to reap a fair economic reward for the effort expended, why bother?
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Patent prosecutors typically are cautious when making arguments that distinguish their client's invention from the prior art. This caution was traditionally based on the concern that later, when the client enforced its patent rights against a potential infringer, these arguments may provide the basis for restricting the range of equivalents available to the patentee under the doctrine of prosecution history estoppel. Prosecution history estoppel normally limits the range of equivalent elements that are available to satisfy a claim element under a doctrine of equivalents analysis (<i>ie</i>, when there is no literal infringement of that claim element). Recent decisions by the Federal Circuit not only reaffirm the significance of statements made during prosecution; they also extend their impact to a literal infringement analysis. A patentee who during prosecution "clearly and unequivocally" disavows the prior art (or even defines the invention) may affect the literal scope of the claims. This doctrine is now regularly referred to as prosecution history disclaimer.
