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Sixth Circuit Approves Manifest Disregard But Disregards It
January 23, 2014
The trustees of employee stock ownership plans settled claims of breach of fiduciary duty and sought indemnification from...
January 23, 2014
The trustees of employee stock ownership plans settled claims of breach of fiduciary duty and sought indemnification from...
Oral Settlement Agreement Not Enforceable Due to Disagreement over Material Term
January 23, 2014
While the parties agreed that an oral settlement agreement had been reached in mediation, a Delaware court refused to enforce it because of disagreement over the scope of the release, which the court concluded was a material term. Mediation confidentiality was waived by the parties relying on mediation communications. However, statements of the mediator during the mediation were generally excluded as hearsay because the court found no applicable hearsay exception. United Health Alliance v. United...
January 23, 2014
While the parties agreed that an oral settlement agreement had been reached in mediation, a Delaware court refused to enforce it because of disagreement over the scope of the release, which the court concluded was a material term. Mediation confidentiality was waived by the parties relying on mediation communications. However, statements of the mediator during the mediation were generally excluded as hearsay because the court found no applicable hearsay exception. United Health Alliance v. United...
BP Takes Bid to Rewrite Settlement to Full Fifth Circuit
January 23, 2014
BP PLC has petitioned an en banc panel of a federal appeals court to rehear a three-judge panel's recent decision upholding the fairness of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement.
January 23, 2014
BP PLC has petitioned an en banc panel of a federal appeals court to rehear a three-judge panel's recent decision upholding the fairness of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement.
When, and How, Should Cognitive Bias Matter to Law?
January 23, 2014
Recent work in the behavioral sciences asserts that we are subject to a variety of cognitive biases. For example, we mourn...
January 23, 2014
Recent work in the behavioral sciences asserts that we are subject to a variety of cognitive biases. For example, we mourn...
SCOTUS: Patent Holder Keeps Infringement Burden in Dec Action
January 22, 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of medical devices maker Medtronic Inc in its dispute with privately owned Mirowski Family Ventures LLC over whether the larger company infringed on Mirowski's patents in making certain pacemakers. The case stems from Medtronic's decision to ask a judge to rule that some of its pacemakers do not infringe on technology patented by Mirowski and licensed to Boston Scientific as well as Guidant Corp, part of Boston Scientific and Abbott Laboratories. A...
January 22, 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of medical devices maker Medtronic Inc in its dispute with privately owned Mirowski Family Ventures LLC over whether the larger company infringed on Mirowski's patents in making certain pacemakers. The case stems from Medtronic's decision to ask a judge to rule that some of its pacemakers do not infringe on technology patented by Mirowski and licensed to Boston Scientific as well as Guidant Corp, part of Boston Scientific and Abbott Laboratories. A...
U.S. Supreme Court Asked to Review Delaware’s ‘Secret Trials’ Case
January 22, 2014
Delaware asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to review a lower court decision that stopped the state's nationally important business court from overseeing private arbitrations, a process critics compared to secret trials. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld in October a ruling that found the five judges on Delaware's Court of Chancery had violated the U.S. Constitution by overseeing private arbitrations in their courtrooms. All court filings and even the existence of the cases...
January 22, 2014
Delaware asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to review a lower court decision that stopped the state's nationally important business court from overseeing private arbitrations, a process critics compared to secret trials. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld in October a ruling that found the five judges on Delaware's Court of Chancery had violated the U.S. Constitution by overseeing private arbitrations in their courtrooms. All court filings and even the existence of the cases...
Chancery Court Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Revive Arbitration Program
January 22, 2014
The Delaware Court of Chancery has filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appellate court decision declaring its confidential arbitration program unconstitutional. The petition was filed Tuesday, two days before the final deadline for a Supreme Court appeal was set to pass.
January 22, 2014
The Delaware Court of Chancery has filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appellate court decision declaring its confidential arbitration program unconstitutional. The petition was filed Tuesday, two days before the final deadline for a Supreme Court appeal was set to pass.
Arbitration > Empiricism
January 22, 2014
The plaintiff in Diggs v. Citigroup, Inc. sought to resist arbitration of an employment dispute, relying upon a study by Cornell professor Alex Colvin that concluded: “there is a large gap in outcomes between the employment arbitration and litigation forums, with employees obtaining significantly less favorable outcomes in arbitration.” No. 13-10138 (Jan. 8, 2014, unpublished). The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to exclude the study under Daubert, noting...
January 22, 2014
The plaintiff in Diggs v. Citigroup, Inc. sought to resist arbitration of an employment dispute, relying upon a study by Cornell professor Alex Colvin that concluded: “there is a large gap in outcomes between the employment arbitration and litigation forums, with employees obtaining significantly less favorable outcomes in arbitration.” No. 13-10138 (Jan. 8, 2014, unpublished). The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to exclude the study under Daubert, noting...
Seventh Circuit Compels Union into Arbitration by Ratification
January 22, 2014
Since I am getting ready to teach Business Associations for the first time in three years, it is nice to have a case that reviews basic agency principles: On November 25, 2013, a panel of the Seventh Circuit issued a per curiam decision in NECA-IBEW Rockford Local Union 364 Health and Welfare Fund v. A & A Drug Co. and upheld a district court's grant of defendant's motion to compel arbitration. Plaintiff (the Fund) provides health benefits to a Rockford union of electrical workers (Local...
January 22, 2014
Since I am getting ready to teach Business Associations for the first time in three years, it is nice to have a case that reviews basic agency principles: On November 25, 2013, a panel of the Seventh Circuit issued a per curiam decision in NECA-IBEW Rockford Local Union 364 Health and Welfare Fund v. A & A Drug Co. and upheld a district court's grant of defendant's motion to compel arbitration. Plaintiff (the Fund) provides health benefits to a Rockford union of electrical workers (Local...
Just Fifteen Minutes of Mindfulness Meditation Can Improve Your Decision Making
January 22, 2014
Do you have an expensive but uncomfortable pair of shoes or jeans at the back of your cupboard that you never ever wear, but you simply cannot throw away because to do so would be to admit defeat and recognise that you wasted a lot of money? If so, you are suffering from the sunk-cost bias or fallacy. Help is at hand in the form of a new study by researchers at INSEAD in Singapore and The Wharton School at the The University of Pennsylvania. Andrew Hafenbrack and his colleagues claim that just...
January 22, 2014
Do you have an expensive but uncomfortable pair of shoes or jeans at the back of your cupboard that you never ever wear, but you simply cannot throw away because to do so would be to admit defeat and recognise that you wasted a lot of money? If so, you are suffering from the sunk-cost bias or fallacy. Help is at hand in the form of a new study by researchers at INSEAD in Singapore and The Wharton School at the The University of Pennsylvania. Andrew Hafenbrack and his colleagues claim that just...
