Articles Posted in Business Litigation

For the second time in the last year a judge has precluded expert testimony regarding bath faith claims asserted against insurance companies. The most recent case out of the Western District of Pennsylvania involved a motor vehicle accident where the insurance company offered $13,000 on a policy with a $300,000 limit. In response to the…

New proposals coming from the White House this week should give small business owners hope for relief from costly patent troll litigation. This type of lawsuit has been an increasingly expensive threat to small businesses, most of which never imaged they’ll be involved in patent litigation. The common perception is patent disputes are for manufacturers…

On May 29, 2013, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided an interesting case regarding how an initial offer letter to a prospective employee can potentially impact a restrictive covenant in an employee’s employment agreement. Before discussing this case, we need a very brief summary regarding what courts look to when deciding whether to enforce a restrictive…

Last month the New Jersey Legislature introduced Assembly Bill 3970 that if passed will invalidate any restrictive covenant in an employment contract if the affected employee was eligible to receive unemployment compensation benefits. The reasoning behind this rule is that an employee who lost his job through no fault of his own (and thus be…

Companies today that routinely perform criminal background checks as part of their hiring process run the very real danger of running afoul of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and other federal and state statutes. Generally speaking, an employer may conduct a criminal background check only with the consent of the job applicant. Upon receiving…

Companies today are increasingly allowing employees to use a company issued smartphone or iPad for personal use. Companies actually invested money and polled employees and found that employees hated having to carry around a business and personal mobile device. While it may have seemed like an easy concession to appease employees, there are hidden dangers…

The New Jersey Uniform Limited Liability Company Act (the Act) was enacted in 1994 and governs NJ limited liability companies (LLCs). The Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act (the Revised Act) is the first major revision to the Act since its inception. Only NJ LLC’s formed after March 18, 2013 will currently be governed by…

The vast majority of family owned businesses fail to reach the next generation of owners as a result of poor succession planning. In fact, according to the Small Business Administration, while almost 90% of business are family owned, less than 30% of these businesses survive its second generation. Family businesses face unique intra-familial succession issues…

Effective December 24, 2012, Pennsylvania became the 29th state to adopt the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act (UIDDA). The UIDDA is a model uniform law that allows out of state litigants to obtain discovery in Pennsylvania quickly and in a more cost efficient manner. Here is a link to to the act as adopted…

Earlier this month the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that border agents may not perform a forensic search of a traveler’s laptop merely because he is crossing the border into the United States. In the current climate of heightened security to prevent terroristic acts, we have sacrificed some of our basic…