Civil Litigation - Page 57
This is FindLaw's collection of Civil Litigation articles, part of the Litigation and Disputes section of the Corporate Counsel Center. Law articles in this archive are predominantly written by lawyers for a professional audience seeking business solutions to legal issues. Start your free research with FindLaw.
Civil Litigation
Civil Litigation Articles
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This newsletter covers a new rule issued by the Food and Drug Administration regarding the Medical Device Amendments Act of 1976 which would not only expose manufacturers to more lawsuits, it would deny consumers access to some life-saving or life-enhancing products. -
This article discusses a potentially far-reaching decision by the California Court of Appeals, which ruled that the state statute that forbids insurance coverage for "willful acts" prohibits indemnity for malicious prosecution. -
This article highlights the key U.S. Supreme Court Opinions decided during the 1999-2000 session. -
Last year, the California Supreme Court issued its decision in Dowhal v. SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare, holding that when a Proposition 65 warning directly conflicts with requirements under federal law, the federal requirement prevails. -
The aggregate disclosed value of announced M&A transactions involving Canadian companies in the first nine months of 2004 was C$86.5 billion, up 38% from C$62.7 billion for the first nine months of 2003. Included in this total is C$44.0 billion of acquisitions or sales of foreign companies by Canadian companies (as compared to C$36.5 billion of such acquisitions or sales of foreign companies in the corresponding period of 2003). -
This past August, the Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling that will give employers an added measure of protection from large jury verdicts in employment discrimination and harassment cases. -
Last January, we discussed the emergence of jury waiver agreements. (See Steering Clear of the Runaway Jury, Thompson Coe Labor & Employment News, Vol. 5, Issue 1). Jury waiver agreements are contractual agreements in which the parties agree that if a dispute arises and suit is filed, the parties waive their right to a trial by jury. The case is still filed in court, but if the matter proceeds to trial, the trial judge hears the testimony and decides the case. -
From Thanksgiving through this past Christmas, lawyers scrambled to settle (mostly through mediation) their clients' sex harassment employment claims to beat Congress's year-end legislation triggering psychological injury damage (without physical injury) awards to become taxable earned income as of January 1, 1996. In other words, employment claims for psychological injury from sexual harassment would become taxable, spiraling upward demands to settle for the same net recovery and costing companies more. As a result, these claims poured into year-end mediation funnels nationwide in order to be settled by December 31. -
During the mid-1980s, courts in three states (Alaska/California/Florida) began upholding the civil tort of spoliation of evidence, permitting the recovery of money damages from persons or companies who destroyed evidence relevant to a civil claim. Juries were allowed to award damages for such claims, albeit normally small awards. But today, the awards can approach or exceed "seven figures" if the evidence destruction is viewed as outrageous and significantly prejudiced an injured party from pursuing his or her injury-recovery day in court. -
On December 22, 2000, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a guidance that explains when temporary worker agencies and their company clients are responsible for providing reasonable accommodations to disabled workers. This likely will require agencies and employers to consider new forms of contracts and make negotiations between the two more difficult. The guidance makes clear that the temp agency and employer must make efforts to provide reasonable accommodation to disabled workers.