<b><i>Online Extra:</b></i> Sony Settles Suit Over Hacked Data
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. will pay up to $8 million, including $3.5 million in attorney fees, to settle claims tied to the infamous 2014 hacking scandal, according to proposed terms filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
<b><i>Online Extra:</b></i> California Leads the Way in Digital Privacy
Last month, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a crucial law with groundbreaking implications for privacy, the Internet and free speech. Sacramento's adoption of the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act, also known as CalECPA, makes California the largest state to adopt digital privacy protections including both the content of messages and location data.
Verdicts
Case involving a question for the FL high court: Is an attorney fee cap permissible?
The Equitable Mootness Doctrine
Over time, equitable mootness, a court-created doctrine, had been consistently applied and embraced by appellate courts. The doctrine, as it has been applied, provides that appeals from orders confirming Chapter 11 plans will be considered moot ' and thus not subject to appellate review ' if: 1) a plan has been substantially consummated; and 2) granting appellate relief would unravel the plan or be inequitable to third parties relying on the order confirming the plan. Based on, and consistent with, decisions such as that of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in In re Chateaugay , 94 F.3d 772, 776 (2d Cir. 1996), and the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in In re Continental Airlines , 91 F.3d 553, 560 (3d Cir. 1996) ( en banc ), the equitable mootness doctrine has been read broadly to create a presumption that if a plan has been substantially consummated, appeals of the confirmation order are equitably moot.
