Interrogatories represent a fundamental discovery tool and provide litigants with an important mechanism for extracting and obtaining information. Written interrogatories may be useful to particularize and elaborate pleadings and to define and narrow the eventual issues to be litigated at trial. Continue Reading
Re-Register Takedown Agent or Lose Copyright Shield
If your website allows for posting of user-generated content and you filed an agent designation insulating you from copyright infringement claims, you may be about to lose that legal protection. All existing paper-filed agent designations will be terminated as of December 31, 2017, because the Continue Reading
Commentary of ABA RPTE Taskforce on Do-It-Yourself Estate Planning
The phrase “do it yourself” evokes images of a weekend trip to the Home Depot, a bruised thumb, and the feeling of satisfaction that comes from a freshly painted room, a repaired deck, or a newly constructed patio planter. But even the experts at do-it-yourself publications such as This Old House Continue Reading
Avoiding Verbosity in Legal Writing
Whether you are writing a brief, a research memorandum or a client report, what you write, and how you write it, communicates your ideas to your audience. Are your sentences wordy and rambling, or crisp and to the point? Judges have full dockets to manage and countless briefs to read. Your clients Continue Reading
Board’s Adoption of a Plan of Dissolution Held Not to Be a Breach of the Directors’ Fiduciary Duties
In The Huff Energy Fund, L.P. v. Gershen, C.A. No. 11116-VCS (Del. Ch. Sept. 29, 2016), the Delaware Court of Chancery dealt with the issue of whether a company’s decision, approved by its board of directors and its stockholders, to dissolve the company following the sale of a significant portion of Continue Reading
Coal Plant Shutdowns: Operators Need to Manage Community Relationships
Imagine this scenario: A company operates a coal ash landfill. Local citizens protest and organize ad advocacy group against it and create a Facebook page. The company responds by suing the individual members of the group for defamation. The American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”) comes in to defend Continue Reading
Invoking the Fifth Amendment in Audits With Offshore Issues: Required Records Under the Bank Secrecy Act, Greenfield, and Continuation Penalties
The IRS continues to deliver on its promise to audit taxpayers who made quiet disclosures, who imprudently entered into the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures (" Streamlined Program"), or who never disclosed offshore accounts. These audits, which are typically based on third-party information Continue Reading
Coal Plant Shutdowns: Plant Operators Should Engage Local Communities
Coal plant operators would be wise to work with local communities when planning to wind up operations. A report issued last week by governmental actors offers guidance to local communities affected by any large power plant shutdown. The report, titled When People and Money Leave (and the Plant Continue Reading
Federal Appeals Court Sanctions National Labor Relations Board in Ongoing Battle over Management Rights Provisions in Collective Bargaining Agreements
Most collective bargaining agreements contain “management rights” provisions that many employers, unsurprisingly, believe grant them the right to manage their businesses without union interference. The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “Board”), however, has taken an increasingly dim view of Continue Reading