The Benefits Of Macromedia Flash In The Courtroom
August 30, 2005
By now, virtually everyone is familiar with the Internet. What surprises many trial lawyers is the fact that the technology that powers the interactive Web sites on the Internet is increasingly being used to present evidence and illustrative material in the courtroom. Specifically, lawyers and their trial teams are successfully relying on Macromedia Flash to organize their cases, display trial graphics, create effective 2-D animations, educate judges, and persuade jurors.
Effectively Managing Duplicate Electronic Documents In Discovery
August 30, 2005
One of the most common and vexing challenges of e-discovery is that of duplicate documents. And the problem is as old as it is widespread. Company archives have always contained duplicate records, and reviewers have long struggled to keep track of them during document review. In decades past, a reviewer may have encountered a paper document that had a duplicate somewhere else in the stack of boxes that comprised the document collection, but there was no easy way to know which box contained the duplicate. In large collections, where numerous revi-ewers would examine many boxes over the course of several weeks or months, it was virtually impossible to identify every duplicate document.
Corporate Compliance And How It Relates To Litigation Data-Management
August 30, 2005
If we counted a penny for every general counsel, chief information officer or information-technology director who laments the passing of the regulatory-agency laissez faire policies of old, we'd give Donald Trump a run for his money. The simple truth is, there is no going back -- Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, the Safe Harbor Protection Act and European Data Protection Directive -- they're all here to stay.
Electronic Discovery Market Takes Leap
August 30, 2005
e-Discovery services have come a long way in just a couple of years as a technological medium and a legal service, according to a recent comprehensive and authoritative survey of the genre.
Creating a Defensible Evidence Preservation/Collection Plan
August 30, 2005
Most companies have fairly comprehensive document retention/destruction policies for both paper and electronic information. Often, these policies have been crafted to meet a disparate range of state, local, federal and regulatory laws (HIPPA, SEC, Sarbanes-Oxley, etc.) that impact document retention schedules. For large companies that face regular, complex litigation (<i>ie</i>, "serial litigants"), the greatest challenge is when the company has to suspend these policies in response to litigation. A company's obligation to preserve data does not necessarily begin at the exact moment a complaint is filed. Rather, recent case law, local statutes, and American Bar Association (ABA) guidelines prescribe that a company's obligation to preserve data begins at the time litigation becomes likely.
New FLSA Regulations And Recent Opinion Letters By The DOL
August 30, 2005
The Department of Labor's new Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (Wage and Hour Regulations) regulations, which went into effect Aug. 23, 2004, are an attempt to modernize pay scales, increase employee coverage, and clarify rules for employers. The salary levels had not been updated since 1975. The Korean War had not yet begun the last time the primary duties regulations were revised, and until last August, the regulations included such anachronistic titles as "legmen," "straw bosses," and "key punch operators." Nevertheless, if one were to judge merely by the sheer number of opinion letters the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued since the regulations went into effect, it would seem that the new regulations have generated as much confusion as the previous regulations.
Walking the Compensation Committee Tightrope
August 30, 2005
Many people believe that the most difficult job of a director is being a member of the Audit Committee. However, in many ways being a member of the Compensation Committee is more challenging and much more likely to result in the director becoming subject to public scrutiny and possibly criticism.
The Increasing Importance of Corporate Minutes
August 30, 2005
As corporate scandals continue to dominate the financial press, the actions taken by members of corporate boards of directors are under attack by the civil class action bar, the Securities and Exchange Commission, federal prosecutors, and state regulators. As the activities of board members are increasingly subjected to challenge in civil and even criminal proceedings, the existence of a clear record of the board's activities has become an increasingly critical element in establishing a corporation's decision-making process. Thus, boards of directors should take a fresh look at how their decision-making process is described in corporate minutes to ensure that the minutes will permit the directors to defend the actions taken in the boardroom, as well as to demonstrate that the directors have performed their oversight duties with appropriate care.
