FTC Signs Off on Internet Legal Referrals
August 31, 2006
It may not be a match made in heaven, but Internet legal-referral services that promise to match lawyers with potential clients have a powerful new admirer ' the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
e-Commerce Contracts: Boilerplate or Common Sense?
August 31, 2006
Do clients actually read the contracts that lawyers write? Even if your carefully drafted documents are read, do you ever feel that they don't make a difference in how decisions are made, or cases get decided? To paraphrase the Miranda warning immortalized by Sgt. Joe Friday and a long line of TV police officers, sometimes the contract you write can and will be used against you in a court of law ' as happened to a company that tried to enforce a boilerplate rule against a former employee that even its own executives didn't follow.
A National Breach Law Is Inevitable
August 31, 2006
On July 21, the Financial Data Protection Act (H.R. 3997) was reported out of the House Financial Services Committee. If passed, this act would impose a business-friendly, national standard for the protection of private consumer data, and notification of consumers in the event of a data-security breach. Although the House leadership sought a quick floor vote on the bill, fierce opposition from consumer groups forced the vote to be rescheduled until after the summer recess. Despite this delay, a number of factors seem to be converging that will make a national data-breach law inevitable.
Confronting Issues of Personal Jurisdiction and Interactive Web Sites in Patent Litigation
August 31, 2006
Questions of personal jurisdiction, especially with respect to forum contacts arising out of Internet-related activities, have been litigated now for nearly a decade. During that time, courts have had occasion to analyze and rule upon all sorts of activities through the constitutional lenses of 'minimum contacts' and 'purposeful availment.' While most circuits appear to have developed relatively robust lines of authority to analyze whether personal jurisdiction exists where the type and nature of the contacts remain grounded in Internet-related activities, the jurisprudence of the Federal Circuit in this area is of relatively recent vintage. At least one district court appears to have concluded that the Federal Circuit's jurisprudence concerning personal jurisdiction and Web site interactivity remains unsettled. A district court sitting in Indiana noted that, '[t]he Supreme Court and Federal Circuit Court of Appeals have provided very little guidance regarding the concept of personal jurisdiction established through a party's Internet activities.' <i>Aero Industries, Inc. v. Demonte Fabricating, Ltd.</i>, 396 F. Supp. 2d 961, 967 (S.D. Ind. 2005). This article examines recent patent cases by district courts where Internet-related forum contacts appeared to be present or significant to the courts' rulings on personal jurisdiction grounds.
Total Staff Training in Legal Ethics
August 31, 2006
Legal ethics training has traditionally focused on attorneys. Law school training and continuing legal education are staples of the professional development require-ments for lawyers. Ethical training must be widened, however, due to tremendous growth in the num-ber of law office support personnel, the complexity of practicing in a multi-jurisdictional environment, and the ever-changing use of technology. Failure to implement an office-wide ethics plan with training for all employees can have practical and financial repercussions for lawyers.
Claims for Breach of Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing: Viability Typically Depends on Success of Breach of Contract Claim
August 31, 2006
In many insurance coverage disputes, an insured that brings a claim for breach of the insurance contract also claims breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The carrier then must determine how to successfully defend both claims. The strategy employed in defending those claims must take into consideration the nuances of a claim for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. In most jurisdictions, the best strategy may be to focus on defeating the contract claim, because the dismissal of the contract claim typically extinguishes any claim of breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
Liability Without Harm: Is There a New Source of Catastrophic Liability Lurking Within Your State's Consumer Protection Statute?
August 31, 2006
The $10.1 billion judgment entered against Philip Morris in an Illinois state court in 2003 received national attention, as did the reversal of that judgment in December 2005. <i>Price v. Philip Morris Inc.</i>, No. 00-L-112 (Ill. Cir. Ct. March 21, 2003), <i>rev'd</i>, No. 96236 (Ill. Sup. Ct. Dec. 15, 2005). Less well known, however, is the theory under which the plaintiffs won their judgment at trial. Unlike the plaintiffs in some other large tobacco verdicts, the plaintiffs in Price did not claim personal injury or wrongful death. Instead, the plaintiffs alleged that Philip Morris deceived them into believing that 'light' cigarettes were safe and caused an entire class of people to pay more for the cigarettes than they should have.
Workplace Privacy
August 31, 2006
Last month, we discussed HIPAA, Security Breach Notification Laws, and Safeguarding Personal Information. We conclude with a brief analysis of electronic privacy issues.
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
August 31, 2006
In a recent decision written by Judge Richard Posner, The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit determined that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) may be used to bring a private cause of action against a former employee who permanently erased confidential data from his company-issued laptop before returning it to the company. <i>International Airport Centers, L.L.C. v. Citrin</i>, (Slip Op.) No. 05-1522 (7th Cir. March 8, 2006). In so holding, the Seventh Circuit has joined the current tide of federal courts that have permitted companies to use the CFAA as a means with which to defend themselves against the malicious and competitive acts of departing employees.
