February 10, 2022 By: Tracy A. Warren, Kathryn B. Fox, and Michelle K. Meek On Thursday, February 9, 2022, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would prohibit companies from compelling to arbitration cases where there are allegations of sexual assault or sexual harassment, even where an employee has signed an otherwise enforceable arbitration agreement. The bill, the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, was previously passed by the U.S ...
On March 27, 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The $2 trillion bipartisan legislation serves as a third round of federal government support in the wake of the economic fallout from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Among other things, the Act provides significant relief to air carriers and aviation employees. We outline some of the key provisions below ...
For over 240 years, Congress has allowed citizens of different states to litigate in federal court and, for equally as long, has permitted defendants to remove such cases from state court to federal court in cases exceeding the jurisdictional minimum. Judiciary Act of 1789, 1 Stat. 79 Section 12 ...
A recent Supreme Court decision means that owners of closely held companies with company-owned life insurance policies should take extra precautions to avoid an unexpectedly large estate tax bill from the IRS. On June 6, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States decided in Connelly v ...
Many companies provide annual earnings guidance and quarterly updates to the analyst and investor communities. Guidance is also frequently updated during industry conferences and in nondeal roadshows. A failure to meet the market’s earnings expectations can negatively impact management’s credibility and, in turn, the price of the company’s common stock. The importance of earnings guidance is heightened during an equity offering when a company is actively soliciting investors ...
The Supreme Court has this week (8 February 2023) handed down a judgment considering whether landlords have management discretion to vary service charge percentages in residential leases. S.27A(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (the Act) gives the First-tier Tribunal (FtT) the ability on application to make various decisions about service charges in residential dwellings, including whether it is payable or not ...
On 10 July 2023, the Maltese Parliament resolved in favour of several amendments to the Consumer Affairs Act. These amendments serve two purposes. Firstly, the Consumer Claims Tribunal can now hear consumer claims of up to €10,000. This amendment represents a significant increase in the value of the claims that can be heard by the arbiter given the previous threshold of €5,000 ...
In vacating a jury’s award of almost $54 million based on a finding of willful trademark and trade dress infringement, an Illinois federal district court granted the defendants’ motion for a new trial, finding the trial “fundamentally unfair due to the admission of unreliable and prejudicial expert testimony.” The Black & Decker Corporation et al v. Positec USA Inc.,No. 1:2011cv05426 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 11, 2017) ...
The Ninth Circuit recently ruled against the government on jurisdictional grounds in the False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case, United States v. United States ex rel. Thrower, No. 18-16408, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 24621 (9th Cir. Aug. 4, 2020), holding that a district court’s denial of a government motion to dismiss an FCA action is not immediately appealable under the collateral order doctrine and dismissing the government’s appeal ...
The Supreme Court on 10 May 2023 considered whether damage caused by an oil spill in 2011 could constitute a “continuing nuisance” – and so extend the limitation period for a claim ...
It behooves construction professionals, be they materials manufacturers, general contractors, or lower-tier subcontractors, to carry some form of commercial general liability insurance (“CGL Insurance”). Having such coverage alleviates some of the potential risk and financial exposure a construction professional carries on a particular project. That is, of course, unless the construction professional gets sued and the insurer refuses to pay ...
Irish Shell Limited v JH McLoughlin (Balbriggan) Limited, unreported High Court, 4 August 2005, Mr Justice Clarke This case is a good illustration of the application of the legal principles involved in granting an injunction while a related trial is pending (known as an interlocutory injunction). Facts: The plaintiff (Shell) sold a filling station in Balbriggan, County Dublin, to the defendant company in 2004 ...
Misrepresentations and unfounded assertions of fact made to a party during pre-contractual negotiations can come back to bite you if they induce that party to enter into the contract. The Supreme Court case has emphasised that misrepresentations made to a non-contracting party can also result in liability for the party that made the misrepresentation ...
On April 7, 2023, two federal judges in Texas and Washington State issued dueling opinions about the abortion medication Mifepristone, just hours apart. These two decisions come in the midst of growing tension about abortion laws in the United States after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision released by the Supreme Court in 2022.[i] The Texas and Washington court opinions do not help reduce the confusion among healthcare providers and residents of the United States ...
The Singapore Convention cements the Lion City’s reputation as a dispute resolution hub, making mediation easier to enforce globally. Clients who come to see me about commercial disputes often ask for the same thing: fast resolution. I tell them that there are two tried-and-tested ways to resolve financial claims. First, you can litigate in court and have a judge make a legal ruling on the dispute, in the full gaze of the public ...
As a part of our conversation with clients webinar series, Helen Wilson, Head of Legal at Weetabix joined Sebastian Price, Partner at Shoosmiths to talk about her experience of career development including success insights, job changes, individual versus organisational impact on progression and more ...
Reprinted with permission from the February 7, 2014 issue of Corporate Counsel. © 2014 ALM Media Properties, LLC. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. All rights reserved. On Nov. 12, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant a writ of certiorari in Cariou v. Prince, leaving intact the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on copyright fair use in the context of appropriation art ...
From re-sharing cat videos to creating memes, tweaks in our three-decade-old Copyright Act will help clarify what’s permissible and what’s verboten as we continue to indulge in our insatiable appetite for social media. Chinese New Year Eve, 2019. Social media was ablaze with a viral video (YouTube link) of an altercation between a Malay Gojek driver and his Chinese passenger objecting to a route that would incur ERP charges ...
Remember Nirvana? There have been reports about an interesting copyright infringement case involving the grunge band Nirvana, a band that is still associated by many with frontman Kurt Cobain. Yet this case does not involve music copyright. Rather it deals with copyright in an artistic work, a drawing. How about Dante’s Inferno? The case has been brought by a lady called Jocelyn Susan Bundy. Bundy is the granddaughter of C.W. Scott-Giles, a heraldry expert who died in 1982 ...
The legislator acts - Special regulations on, among other things, deferral of claims, insolvency law, tenancy law and loan agreements in Germany to come. At the end of March, the German legislator adopted special regulations in response to the COVID 19 pandemic in fast-track proceedings. The law was passed by the German parliament (Bundestag) on Wednesday, March 25, 2020, and, in a special session, also by the German Federal Council (Bundesrat) on Friday, 27 March, 2020 ...
Soccer matches played to 100,000 empty seats. Marathons with 200 runners in silent streets. Business blocks deserted. Restaurants closed. Those areas hardest hit by coronavirus can look like something out of an apocalyptic movie. And now, just two months after the new type of virus was first identified in China, Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) has hit the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control, coronavirus has been found in over 80 countries and 13 U.S ...
On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization declared the existence of a public health emergency of international importance (PHEIC) and classified the virus SARS-CoV2 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Around the world, governments and organisations are seeking to introduce contingency rules to deal with the epidemic and the disease (COVID-19) caused by it.This situation has had an enormous effect on football, with the suspension of virtually all football competitions across the globe ...
A state of emergency was declared in Portugal by Decree of the President of the Republic 14-A/2020 of 18 March and this was renewed by Decree of the President of the Republic 20-A/2020 of 17 April. Following this declaration, exceptional and temporary measures have been adopted in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic ...
The international public health emergency due to the new Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to the urgent and succession introduction of a range of legislative measures. These measures are an exceptional and temporary response to the pandemic in Portugal and they include the declaration of a state of emergency across the whole country that has already been extended twice ...
