Appellate Law

District Attorneys Office v. Osborne
Continuing in catch up mode, On Monday The Supreme Court agreed to hear District Attorney?s Office v. Osborne. The SCOTUSwiki page is here.At SCOTUS Blog, Lyle Denniston had this initial report...

Motor Carrier Broker Liable for Negligent Hiring of Tractor Trailer Truck Driver
Virginia law recognizes a claim for the negligent hiring of an employee or an independent contractor. With respect to independent contractors, the Virginia Supreme Court recognized a rule of liability for negligent hiring of an incompetent independent contractor, adopting the principles set forth in the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 411 which recognizes a defendant's "liability for physical harm to third persons caused by his failure to exercise reasonable care to employ a competent and careful contractor...

Trade Secrets and the "Best Mode" Requirement -- No. 21
In Trade Secret Blogs Nos. 15 and 19, I asserted briefly but categorically that the "Best Mode" requirement of the Patent Statute is no impediment to the coexistence of patents and trade secrets, because this requirement is a very narrow and subjective one as it applies only at the time of filing, only to the knowledge of the inventor(s) and only to the claimed invention...

Trade Secrets and the Best Mode Requirement: Patent/Trade Secret Complimentariness No. 12
Anent the subject of Patent/Trade Secret complementariness, the best-mode requirement is a big bugaboo, based on the colossal misconception that patents and trade secrets are completely incompatible because of the best-mode requirement...

Do You Know How Many China Employees You Have I'll Raise You One.
The other day I was searching for an email from a client named "Joe" and I came across another Joe from whom I had not heard in quite a while. So I shot the other Joe an email to ask him how his China business was going and he replied to me today by saying he was operating it in "stealth" mode but that it was going well...

Vote to Get Wesley Clark to South Florida
Gen. Wesley Clark is running a nice stunt in which he’ll go and spend a day doing community service in a district where a progressive democrat is running. The stunt part is that where he goes will be chosen on the basis of an online vote (aka email address harvesting operation)...

ANB Financial NA
faces a class action lawsuit claiming negligent mismanagement

Wrongful Death
alleging death was caused by the conduct of negligent defendant.

Negligent Death
Family of New York Times reporter awarded undisclosed settlement for medical malpractice.

Nursing Homes
Many state agencies have reported incidents of negligent care of nursing home residents resulting in death.

Ellsworth School District
4.4% increase in salaries as part of contract settlement.

The Plainfield School District
$10,500 settlement resolves eminent domain dispute.