Civil Procedure

Civil Procedure Articles

• Pennsylvania Considers New Confidentiality Privilege for Insurers

  The Commonwealth becomes the 23rd state to consider industry-sponsored legislation to create a so-called "self-critical analysis" privilege against disclosure of certain internal documents. Only three states have enacted such laws, including New ...

  Read More »

• Pennslyvania Supreme Court Rules that Unemployment Compensation Referee’s Factual Findings can be Re-Tried in a Civil Trial

  On June 16, 1998, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court determined that the factual findings of unemployment compensation referees do not bind parties in subsequent civil litigation. This is an extremely important decision for Pennsylvania employers who ...

  Read More »

• New Law Extends Fair Credit Reporting Act Preemption, ImposesNew Requirements on Credit Bureaus and Users

  On December 4, 2003, President Bush signed into law the "Fair and Accurate Transactions Act of 2003" ("FACTA"). This Financial Services Alert article emphasizes the provisions of FACTA that most significantly affect lenders and other users ...

  Read More »

• New Government Report On Possible Links of EMF to Adverse Health Effects May Stir Controversy

  On May 4, 1999, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) issued a report evaluating the evidence of a risk of cancer and other human disease from exposure to the electromagnetic fields (EMF) around power lines. This report is ...

  Read More »

• Sixth Circuit Upholds Trial Court’s Power to Decide Landfill Issues

  The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held that a trial court in Ohio had jurisdiction to determine whether the City of Dayton, was estopped from refusing to approve Waste Management of Ohio's (WMO) construction of ...

  Read More »

• Update on Medical Malpractice in Pennsylvania Under the New Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Act

  After much anticipation and debate, the Pennsylvania legislature passed legislation known as Act 13. Shortly thereafter, on March 20, 2002, Governor ...

  Read More »

• Work Product Privilege Applies To Reinsurance Documents In Illinois

  The Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, recently decided that correspondence between a ceding company's attorney and the company's reinsurers, directly or through a reinsurance broker/intermediary, is ...

  Read More »

• Selected Ethical Issues in the Representation of Shareholders in Closely-Held Corporations

  Traditionally, corporations have been viewed as "entities" separate and apart from their stockholders, officers and directors. ABA Model Code of Professional Responsibility Ethical Consideration (EC) 5-18 states that an attorney for a "corporation or similar entity owes his allegiance to the entity", not persons "connected with the entity".

  Read More »

• What are the Benefits to Alternative Dispute Resolution?

  According to statistics compiled by Judith Resnik, 95 percent of all federal lawsuits settle, most of them on the courthouse steps (see Judith Resnik, Falling Faith: Adjudicatory Procedure in Decline, 53 U. Chi. L. Rev. 494, 511-12 1986 ...

  Read More »

• Con: It’s Not Our Job

  Lawyers have traditionally been able to provide their clients with dispassionate legal advice based on a full understanding of the relevant facts. Because of the evidentiary privilege that attaches to attorney-client communications, and the strict ...

  Read More »