1/13/22
By: Kevin G. Kenneally In the recent decision entitled Doe v. Hopkinton Public Schools, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit rejected students’ contention that posting abusive and embarrassing video of another student online was protected speech. The student members of the high school hockey team sued the Hopkinton (Mass.) school district, the…
Purdue Pharma has potential to upend common channeling-and-release practice in bankruptcy courts
1/4/22
By: Travis Knobbe For the most part, the nuances of bankruptcy law go unnoticed by our colleagues who do not frequent the bankruptcy courts. Some issues we deal with, however, have broad application to the practice of law generally. Consider, for example, how a coverage attorney analyzing various claims filed against the manufacturer of an…
It just became more difficult for plaintiffs to scream ‘Counter-Offer’
12/13/21
By: Matthew S. Jones The California Court of Appeal for the Sixth Appellate District recently analyzed the issue of an agreed upon amount of a settlement and memorializing the settlement terms. In the case CSAA Ins. Exchange v. Hodroj (2021) Cal.App.LEXIS 1009 (ordered published on December 1, 2021), Plaintiff’s counsel wrote to the insurer stating…
Will a California Court’s ruling on an Anti-SLAPP Motion arising from a revenge-porn case stand?
12/10/21
By: Parisa Saleki In 2017, when Kathryn Hill announced her candidacy for the United States House of Representatives for California’s 25th congressional district, the talk of the town was whether she could beat incumbent representative Steven Knight. In 2018, the topic of conversation was Hill’s victory. Few could have predicted that in 2019, the topic…
12/9/21
By: William E. Gildea In Zoll Medical Corp. v. Barracuda Networks, Inc., et al, United States District Court, District of Massachusetts Civil Action No. 20-11997-NMG, (D. Mass. Sept. 21, 2021) (Gorton, J) (“Zoll”), Plaintiff Zoll Medical Corp. (“Zoll Medical”) sued a third-party IT vendor over a data breach that exposed protected health information (“PHI”). Zoll Medical did not directly contract with the third-party IT vendor. The District Court of Massachusetts granted the Defendants’ motion…
Animals at large – or, when the cows don’t come home
12/8/21
By: D. Jeffrey Grate Imagine you are the owner of a farm in rural Georgia and were awakened by the knock on your door by a deputy sheriff who advised you that one of your cows had caused a motor vehicle accident. The deputy explained that a car collided with a cow on a nearby…
Proposed amendments to Federal Rule of Evidence 702
11/2/21
By: Jacob E. Daly The federal judiciary’s Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules has proposed two significant amendments to Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, which governs the admissibility of expert testimony. These amendments would change Rule 702 as follows (additions are underlined; deletions are lined through): A witness who is qualified as an expert by knowledge,…
10/28/21
By: Tia J. Combs Kentucky’s Farm Animals Activity Act (“FAAA”), KRS 247.401, et seq. acts to limit the liability of those engaged in farm animal activities by, inter alia, bars most claims by participants in farm animal activities against farm animal activity sponsors and professionals. Despite the prevalence of these sorts of activities in the Commonwealth, the Act’s immunity provision, KRS 247.402, is rarely the…
10/21/21
By: Daniel Wolcott In Mildred Toomer in her capacity as Administrator of the Estate of Milton Mcbride v. Metro Ambulance Services, Inc., Georgia Court of Appeals Docket No. A22A0160, the Court of Appeals is going to decide the limits of the relation-back doctrine under O.C.G.A. §9-11-15, and the right of a plaintiff to amend pleadings…
Georgia Supreme Court upholds its stance on general personal jurisdiction… for now
10/1/21
By: Tyler S. Connor For years, corporations throughout the United States were subject to broad general personal jurisdiction allowing plaintiffs to “forum shop” for a plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction. In Daimler AG v. Bauman, 517 U.S. 117 (2014), the United States Supreme Court limited the scope of the “general” personal jurisdiction doctrine to those states where a corporation is incorporated or…
9/20/21
By: Aaron Miller The Supreme Court of Georgia on August 10, 2021 issued an opinion significantly limiting the apportionment statute in Georgia. The case, Alston & Bird, LLP v. Hatcher Management Holdings, LLC S20G1419, severely limits the situations in which a defendant can apportion fault to a non-party based on statutory law. The statute, O.C.G.A.…
Exculpatory clause in gym membership contract holds water in favorable NJ summary judgment ruling
9/15/21
By: Nicholas J. Hubner and William H Catto The New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, affirmed a favorable summary judgment ruling for the defendant Life Time Fitness, Inc. (“Life Time”) against plaintiff-gym-patron on plaintiff’s negligence claim, and refusal to grant application to amend the complaint during oral argument. In Skarbnik v. Life Time Fitness, Inc., the plaintiff brought a negligence claim against Life Time,…