Legal Articles
September 1, 2010
Jason Strain - Baker DonelsonMany major national title insurance companies have just announced they
will no longer provide "creditors' rights" coverage in
connection with new policies of title insurance. Therefore, commercial
real estate lenders and purchasers will now bear certain insolvency risks
that were often covered by title insurance endorsements in the past. Full Story
September 1, 2010
Patrick Hulla - Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak, & Stewart, P.C.April 27, 2010, with Justice Samuel Alito writing for the 5-3 majority
(Justice Sonia Sotomayor abstained), the U.S. Supreme Court addressed
class-action arbitration when the parties' agreement was silent regarding
the aggregation of multiple parties' claims. According to the Court, the
arbitration panel's imposition of class arbitration – despite the
parties' stipulation that they had not reached an agreement on this issue
– is "fundamentally at war" with the Federal Arbitration
Act (FAA) principle that arbitration is a matter of consent. Full Story
September 1, 2010
Michael Chartan and Brian J. Markowitz - Duane Morris LLPIn late 2009 a federal District Court sitting in Orlando, Fla., sent
shockwaves through the in-house general counsel world. The case,
Swofford v. Eslinger,1 is the first reported case to
sanction in-house counsel for spoliation of electronic evidence. Full Story
September 1, 2010
Lewis Wiener, B. Knox Dobbins, Gail L. Westover, Wilson - Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLPOn May 24, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari
in Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, No. 09-893, to address the
question of whether the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts state law
rules limiting the enforceability of arbitration agreements.
In Concepcion, the Supreme Court will consider whether the
FAA preempts California state court decisions that class action waivers
are unconscionable in consumer arbitration agreements as a matter of
public policy Full Story
September 1, 2010
Alexander McIntyre Jr. - Baker DonelsonThe Supreme Court recently released its unanimous opinion
in American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League, 560
U.S.___ (2010), 2010 WL 2025207 (American Needle), its latest
foray in the area of competitor collaboration under the antitrust laws
(and specifically Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1).
In American Needle, the 32 member teams of the National
Football League formed National Football League Properties (NFLP) to
develop, license and market their intellectual property Full Story
July 9, 2010
Leslie Paul Machado Originally enacted to combat hackers, the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030, et seq. (“CFAA”), is increasingly being asserted by employers against disloyal employees who were authorized to use a company computer, but accessed that computer to serve interests adverse to the company. Because a viable CFAA claim allows a plaintiff to bring the suit in federal court and increases the defendant’s exposure (because the CFAA is primarily a criminal statute with corresponding criminal penalties), it is important that employment attorneys are familiar with the law in this developing area. This article provides a brief background of the CFAA and highlights those courts that have endorsed – and those that have rejected – a CFAA claim against a disloyal employee. Full Story
June 21, 2010
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak, & Stewart, P.C. This morning, with Justice Antonin Scalia writing a unanimous opinion, the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case brought by a group of African-American
firefighter applicants who alleged that the city of Chicago's applicant
selection process had a disparate impact on African-Americans in violation
of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Full Story
June 21, 2010
Kathleen Bonczyk, Esq. - Rubinton & Laufer, LLCOn April 20, 2010, an explosion on the mobile drilling rig Deepwater
Horizon occurred some 130 miles southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana.
As of May 23, 2010, it is estimated that a minimum of 6 million
gallons of crude oil have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of
this incident. However, a growing number of scientists assert that
they believe the count is even higher than that troublesome figure. Full Story