The Self-Critical Analysis Privilege: A Critical Analysis
Arnstein & Lehr LLP, Miami, USA
by Jeffrey B. Shapiro and Harley J. Storrings
Often, when a company decides to take corrective action concerning a particular product, it is prompted by the results of an internal investigation which finds a defect in the product. Regarding information obtained during the investigation, the company will seek ways to shield the documents and/or information generated through some form of legal privilege or other available mechanism. However, this goal can be extremely difficult to achieve since the materials gathered typically fall outside the scope of well-established privileges (attorney-client, work product, etc.).
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Creditors Beware: Contractual Attorneys' Fees May Not Be Recoverable in the Debtor's U.S. Bankruptcy Case
Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin, San Francisco, USA
by Gary M. Kaplan
Many if not most commercial contracts in the United States provide for a party to recover its legal expenses, including attorneys’ fees, in enforcing its rights under the agreement. Although the language of such provisions can take a variety of different forms, it typically provides that if one party is required to expend attorneys’ fees in protecting its contractual rights, it can recover these fees from the other party, whose conduct resulted in the first party incurring such expenses. A party to such a contracts may understandably expect that its recovery rights would apply equally to attorneys’ fees incurred in the bankruptcy case of its counterparty.
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Anatomy of a Cargo Claim
Fogler, Rubinoff LLP, Toronto, Canada
by Leah Price
Anatomy is basic to medicine. The human body is comprised of bones, muscles, joints and organs. But the relationship between the parts is as important as the parts themselves. One cannot cure disease if one does not know the relationship of the parts to the whole.
Similarly, litigation is made up of many interlocking parts. Each part must be carefully fitted with each other part. Each step is linked to the next. One cannot succeed in a cargo claim unless one knows its anatomy.
Let me therefore be the anatomy professor, and demonstrate, in general outline, how to construct a cargo claim – step by step.
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Superfund Redux: Will EPA’s New Post Construction Policy Reopen Site Remedies?
Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen LLP
by Steven T. Miano
The Environmental Protection Agency published its Final National Strategy to Manage Post Construction Completion Activities at Superfund Sites on Oct. 12, 2005. According to EPA, the PCC Strategy has two main purposes: (1) to assure that remedies put in place under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or superfund) continue to protect human health and the environment over the long-term; and (2) to focus EPA’s efforts during the next five years on activities to ensure human health and the environment are protected at superfund sites after construction is complete.
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Quebec Courts Question Tacit Acceptance of Forum Selection Clauses
Robinson Sheppard Shapiro, Montreal, Canada
by Jon Robinson & Nick Kmjevic
"This article originally appeared in the May 12, 2006, issue of The Lawyers Weekly published by LexisNexis Canada Inc."
Exclusive jurisdiction clauses give contracting parties the ability to oust the jurisdiction of domestic courts and instead entrust current or future contractual disputes to a foreign authority. Citing their unusual and distinctive nature, Justice Derek Guthrie of the Quebec Superior Court, speaking in Classé Audio inc. v. Linn Products Ltd., [2006] Q.J. No. 432 ("Classé Audio") has expressly queried whether such clauses should be subject to the same presumptions of tacit acceptance that have tradi¬tionally been applied by Quebec courts to more commonplace con¬tractual terms and conditions.
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Military Leave: A Look At Recent Case Law Developments and The New Regulations
McGlinchey Stafford PLLC, New Orleans, Louisiana - USA
by Bryce G. Murray and E. Fredrick Preis, Jr.
On December 19, 2005, eleven years after Congress enacted the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, as amended (“USERRA”), the U.S. Department of Labor issued final regulations under USERRA which became effective January 18, 2006. The final regulations can be found at 20 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 1002. The DOL suggests these final regulations do not impose any new obligations on employers, but rather, serve as an implementation of the statutory requirements, as well as to clarify and interpret areas of the law. However, these regulations, the first ever issued under USERRA, turn the internal guidance of the DOL into binding regulations.
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Doing Business in Canada: A Practical Guide to Cross-Border Trade and Investment
Robinson Sheppard Shapiro, Montreal, Canada
by Sharon G. Druker
Canada is bilingual, bi-juridical and multi-cultural. It is bilingual in that both English and French are federally mandated official languages. It is bi-juridical as all provinces and territories (other than the Province of Québec) draw from the Common Law system, derived from England. Québec (like the State of Louisiana) is governed by the Civil Law system, derived from the French Napoleonic Code, as reflected in the Civil Code of Lower Canada adopted in 1866 (one year prior to Confederation) and replaced as of January 1st, 1994 by the Civil Code of Québec (the “CCQ”).
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Due Diligence: Checklists For Commercial Real Estate Transactions
Arnstein & Lehr LLP, Chicago, USA
by R. Kymn Harp
A KEY element to successfully investing in commercial or industrial real estate
is performing an adequate Due Diligence Investigation prior to becoming legally
bound to acquire the property. An adequate Due Diligence Investigation will assure
awareness of all material facts relevant to the intended use or disposition of the
property after closing.
FOR FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE (PDF)
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