A U.S. Supreme Court ruling this week will slow down an area of employment litigation that has been on the rise for years — claims that an employer retaliated against a worker for complaining about discrimination.
Read More »Author Archives: SYLVIA HSIEH, BridgeTower Media Newswires
US high court takes up parental abduction case
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a petition for the return of an abducted child by a parent under the Hague Convention can be equitably tolled when the abducting parent concealed the whereabouts of the child from the other parent.
Read More »Are ‘trial-spin’ websites the wave of the future?
In the first week of a high-stakes trial in which the plaintiffs planned to ask a major health corporation for billions of dollars in damages for medical injuries, their lawyers noticed something they had not anticipated: The defendant had launched a website putting its spin on the case.
Read More »How-to guide explains identity theft policies for businesses
A how-to guide has been published by the Federal Trade Commission to help businesses comply with rules requiring a written policy and procedures to prevent and respond to identity theft.
Read More »Harsher sentencing guidelines violate Ex Post Facto Clause
Sentencing a criminal defendant under later guidelines that provide for a higher sentence than those in effect at the time the crimes were committed violates the Ex Post Facto Clause, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 5-4 decision.
Read More »Will Obama’s proposals rein in patent trolls?
The Obama Administration has announced five executive actions and seven legislative proposals aimed at holding back the tsunami of litigation by patent trolls, and lawyers are weighing in on whether the recommendations will wall off the tidal waves or merely be sandbags on the shore.
Read More »US Supreme Court will decide standing factors in Lanham Act claims
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide the factors that determine whether a party has standing to sue for false advertising under the Lanham Act.
Read More »Debt scheme lawyers ensnared in 1st criminal referral by consumer agency
In the first criminal complaint referred to prosecutors by the watchdog agency Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a debt relief company and two lawyers have been indicted in an alleged fraud scheme.
Read More »US Supreme Court lets stand indirect funding of abortion providers
The U.S. Supreme Court will not review a court ruling striking down a state law that threatened to put abortion providers out of business by banning all money to clinics that perform abortions, even if it is earmarked for non-abortion services.
Read More »Employers brace for in-person investigations over FMLA
All in attendance sat up and took notice when midway through a three-day conference on employment compliance, a branch chief of the U.S. Department of Labor’s enforcement division said that the agency expects to increase on-site investigations into whether companies are complying with the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Read More »Lawyers uneasy about national loan data collection
Recent Senate hearings have sparked renewed debate over a national mortgage database that will hold information about millions of mortgage, credit card and auto loans, loan terms, borrowers’ credit profiles and financial information.
Read More »Supreme Court creates another snag for class actions
The U.S. Supreme Court dealt another blow to class actions in its recent decision allowing an employer to get rid of a wage class action by “picking off” the named plaintiff before it begins.
Read More »US cracks down on worker classification
In an effort to fend off an official investigation of its books, a major tobacco company hired a law firm to audit the classification of 5,000 workers.
Read More »Sequester cuts, closures, furloughs hit federal courts
With no solution in sight to end the automatic federal budget cuts that began in March, federal judiciary officials are announcing plans to close courthouses, limit trials and hearings and furlough federal prosecutors, defenders and U.S. Marshals Service officers, all while warning that the move will compromise the federal court system.
Read More »Employers besieged on all sides for misclassifying workers
In an effort to fend off a real audit of its books, one of the major tobacco companies hired a law firm to look into whether it was classifying its 5,000 workers correctly.
Read More »Mass tort builds over Mirena IUD injuries
A mass tort is taking shape over the Mirena IUD, a device that many women claim migrates after insertion and becomes embedded in the uterus or punctures organs, requiring surgical removal and sometimes causing infection and other injuries.
Read More »Trials of the century and juror bias
The 1968 capital murder trial of Black Panther Huey Newton. The Charles Lindbergh kidnapping case. Both are cases that stick out in public memory and both offer lessons to be learned about trial work.
Read More »Propecia litigation picks up momentum
Litigation over the hair loss drug Propecia has picked up momentum with over 400 lawsuits pending in state and federal courts.
Read More »Class action settlements face growing scrutiny by objectors, courts
Facing new objectors, class action settlements are attracting greater scrutiny from appellate courts, which are gutting those settlements and sending them back to be renegotiated.
Read More »Commentary: How to avoid pitfalls of the ‘of-counsel’ relationship
Many lawyers and law firms are seeking the benefits of entering into “of-counsel” relationships without paying enough attention to the potential risks.
Can employers stop class actions before they start?
Can an employer, faced with a purported class action under the Fair Labor Standards Act, avoid litigation by immediately offering a settlement to the sole plaintiff before a class is certified?
Read More »Student loan law: A niche for a few good lawyers?
With huge numbers of students facing crushing debt and national student loans surpassing credit card debt, some lawyers have found a new niche: representing clients hounded by student loan creditors, debt collectors and loan servicers.
Read More »After verdict, defendant settles wrongful death suit for $105 million
A lawyer who won one of the largest jury verdicts last year for the family of a woman killed by a power line that fell into her backyard, has settled the case post-verdict for $105 million.
Read More »Toyota settles two sudden-acceleration cases
Toyota has settled two high-profile cases involving sudden unintended acceleration that were set for trial in February, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Read More »Below the fiscal cliff: Estate planning attorneys navigating new landscape
The new law that averted the “fiscal cliff” contains major changes for estate and gift tax rules that will affect not only the advice lawyers give to their clients, but the future landscape of estate planning law for years to come.
Win against Apple signals more work for IP lawyers
In a major milestone in the smartphone patent wars, a federal jury recently found that Apple Inc. infringed on three patents in its iPhone with regard to the camera feature and the handling and rejection of calls.
Read More »The trap of ‘accidental clients’
A hefty legal malpractice verdict in 2012 reminded attorneys to beware of “accidental clients.”
Read More »Lawyers still skeptical of litigation funding
Litigation funding companies are increasingly marketing their services to cash-strapped plaintiffs who have large medical bills but possibly an even larger legal recovery on the horizon.
How trial lawyers can use the iPad in new ways
Trial lawyers keep finding new ways, some expected and others surprising, to put the iPad to work in all aspects of litigation.
Read More »New Yaz lawsuit filed in federal court in Illinois
A new lawsuit against Bayer over the birth control pill Yaz has been filed in federal court in Illinois.
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