Blog Archives
In Possible U.S. First, Law Firm Will Sell AI Software to its Clients
January 26, 2018
In what is said to be a first for a U.S. law firm, a Pennsylvania law firm will sell artificial intelligence software directly to its clients in the health care industry to enable them to better review, analyze and negotiate contracts. The Pittsburgh-based law firm Horty Springer is partnering with the AI software company LegalSifter to offer the product directly to hospitals and health systems. Initially it will allow clients to review business associate agreements required by HIPAA privacy...
January 26, 2018
In what is said to be a first for a U.S. law firm, a Pennsylvania law firm will sell artificial intelligence software directly to its clients in the health care industry to enable them to better review, analyze and negotiate contracts. The Pittsburgh-based law firm Horty Springer is partnering with the AI software company LegalSifter to offer the product directly to hospitals and health systems. Initially it will allow clients to review business associate agreements required by HIPAA privacy...
Gifford on the Role of Technology in Changing Tort Law
January 25, 2018
Don Gifford has posted to SSRN Technological Triggers to Tort Revolutions: Steam Locomotives, Autonomous Vehicles, and Accident Compensation. The abstract provides: Waves of technological change explain the most important transformations of American tort law. In this Article, I begin by examining historical instances of this linkage. Following the Industrial Revolution, for example, machines, no longer humans and animals, powered production. With greater force, locomotives and other machines...
January 25, 2018
Don Gifford has posted to SSRN Technological Triggers to Tort Revolutions: Steam Locomotives, Autonomous Vehicles, and Accident Compensation. The abstract provides: Waves of technological change explain the most important transformations of American tort law. In this Article, I begin by examining historical instances of this linkage. Following the Industrial Revolution, for example, machines, no longer humans and animals, powered production. With greater force, locomotives and other machines...
Court Declares a Settlement Week to Clear Old Caseload
January 25, 2018
The Western District Court of New York is one of the most congested courts in the country, receiving over 3,000 filings annually with individual judges’ caseloads at nearly 800. To reduce a long backlog of unresolved lawsuits, Chief Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr., revived a mediation strategy not used by the court since 1995: a settlement week. The idea of a settlement week is simple, a court designates a week to bring civil litigants and mediators into the courthouse to resolve their disputes,...
January 25, 2018
The Western District Court of New York is one of the most congested courts in the country, receiving over 3,000 filings annually with individual judges’ caseloads at nearly 800. To reduce a long backlog of unresolved lawsuits, Chief Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr., revived a mediation strategy not used by the court since 1995: a settlement week. The idea of a settlement week is simple, a court designates a week to bring civil litigants and mediators into the courthouse to resolve their disputes,...
Arbitration: “except for actions seeking injunctive relief” means – just that.
January 24, 2018
The issue was whether arbitrability was for the courts to decide or the arbitrator. The Fifth Circuit applied “the two-step inquiry adopted in Douglas v. Regions Bank [, 757 F.3d 460 (5th Cir. 2014),] under which the first question is whether the parties “clearly and unmistakably” intended to delegate the question of arbitrability to an arbitrator. Finding that “the interaction between the AAA Rules and the [injunctive relief] carve-out is at best ambiguous,” the Court chose not to resolve...
January 24, 2018
The issue was whether arbitrability was for the courts to decide or the arbitrator. The Fifth Circuit applied “the two-step inquiry adopted in Douglas v. Regions Bank [, 757 F.3d 460 (5th Cir. 2014),] under which the first question is whether the parties “clearly and unmistakably” intended to delegate the question of arbitrability to an arbitrator. Finding that “the interaction between the AAA Rules and the [injunctive relief] carve-out is at best ambiguous,” the Court chose not to resolve...
The Most Overused Negotiating Tactic Is Threatening to Walk Away
January 24, 2018
Professional negotiators and researchers alike hail the BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, or “walk away” outcome) as a negotiator’s primary source of relative power. But relying on even the best of alternatives as leverage can be tricky business. Your relative power in a negotiation is your capacity to use resources to influence another’s circumstances; and a BATNA’s role in that regard can range anywhere from significant to non-existent. Consider the obvious challenge...
January 24, 2018
Professional negotiators and researchers alike hail the BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, or “walk away” outcome) as a negotiator’s primary source of relative power. But relying on even the best of alternatives as leverage can be tricky business. Your relative power in a negotiation is your capacity to use resources to influence another’s circumstances; and a BATNA’s role in that regard can range anywhere from significant to non-existent. Consider the obvious challenge...
Getting the Benefit of Planned Early Dispute Resolution in Construction Projects
January 23, 2018
This short article argues that although mediation usually is better for parties than a trial, when mediation occurs late in litigation, parties can suffer many of the same problems as in litigation. Mediation of individual disputes can resolve particular problems, but parties remain at risk of repeating the same problems in the future. Using a “planned early dispute resolution” (PEDR) system can help parties to efficiently and effectively deal with an ongoing series of problems. This article...
January 23, 2018
This short article argues that although mediation usually is better for parties than a trial, when mediation occurs late in litigation, parties can suffer many of the same problems as in litigation. Mediation of individual disputes can resolve particular problems, but parties remain at risk of repeating the same problems in the future. Using a “planned early dispute resolution” (PEDR) system can help parties to efficiently and effectively deal with an ongoing series of problems. This article...
Maine’s Highest Court Invalidates Arbitration Clause Using Fiduciary Defense
January 23, 2018
Relying on the fiduciary duty in the attorney-client relationship as well as the policies of Maine’s legal ethics code, Maine’s highest court found that attorneys have a duty to explain and make sure a client understands the difference between litigation and arbitration in order for an arbitration agreement to be enforceable in this setting. See Snow v. Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, P.A., No. 17-54 (Maine Dec. 21, 2017) (click here for a copy of the decision). Because the attorney...
January 23, 2018
Relying on the fiduciary duty in the attorney-client relationship as well as the policies of Maine’s legal ethics code, Maine’s highest court found that attorneys have a duty to explain and make sure a client understands the difference between litigation and arbitration in order for an arbitration agreement to be enforceable in this setting. See Snow v. Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, P.A., No. 17-54 (Maine Dec. 21, 2017) (click here for a copy of the decision). Because the attorney...
“Battle of the Experts” = Fact Issue for Trial
January 22, 2018
Cox v. Provident Life involved a dispute about the cause of the plaintiff’s knee problems: “Under the policies, Cox is entitled to receive disability benefits for life if, and only if, his disability resulted from injury rather sickness.” The record showed that: Shelton, the treating physician, gave deposition testimony that, ‘to a reasonable degree of medical probability,’ ‘the trauma to [Cox’s] left knee when he fell in the hole on December 26, 2010, caused or contributed to the cause...
January 22, 2018
Cox v. Provident Life involved a dispute about the cause of the plaintiff’s knee problems: “Under the policies, Cox is entitled to receive disability benefits for life if, and only if, his disability resulted from injury rather sickness.” The record showed that: Shelton, the treating physician, gave deposition testimony that, ‘to a reasonable degree of medical probability,’ ‘the trauma to [Cox’s] left knee when he fell in the hole on December 26, 2010, caused or contributed to the cause...
Lawyers’ Stress is Increasing
January 22, 2018
From Progressive Law Practice: Attorneys are more stressed out at work than they were nearly a decade ago, according to a recent survey from Robert Half Legal. Of the lawyers interviewed, 42% cited reduced stress levels as the one aspect of their job they would like to change. That's up 11 percentage points from the last time the survey was conducted in 2008. Further, 22% of those surveyed called for fewer hours at work and more personal time as the lone aspect they would change, down 8 percentage...
January 22, 2018
From Progressive Law Practice: Attorneys are more stressed out at work than they were nearly a decade ago, according to a recent survey from Robert Half Legal. Of the lawyers interviewed, 42% cited reduced stress levels as the one aspect of their job they would like to change. That's up 11 percentage points from the last time the survey was conducted in 2008. Further, 22% of those surveyed called for fewer hours at work and more personal time as the lone aspect they would change, down 8 percentage...
South Carolina Senator Wants Bigger Fine for Slow Left Lane Drivers
January 21, 2018
One South Carolina lawmaker wants to increase the fine for drivers who go slowly in the left lane. State Sen. Ross Turner said his 200-mile round trip commute from Greenville to Columbia helped convince him of the need for a South Carolina law similar to one that took effect last month in Oklahoma. “I constantly got stuck behind people in the left lane and said, ‘That’s a great idea!”’ the Republican told The Post And Courier of Charleston. Turner’s bill would increase the fine...
January 21, 2018
One South Carolina lawmaker wants to increase the fine for drivers who go slowly in the left lane. State Sen. Ross Turner said his 200-mile round trip commute from Greenville to Columbia helped convince him of the need for a South Carolina law similar to one that took effect last month in Oklahoma. “I constantly got stuck behind people in the left lane and said, ‘That’s a great idea!”’ the Republican told The Post And Courier of Charleston. Turner’s bill would increase the fine...
