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Arbitration: Is the Silver Bullet a Dud?
For roughly 25 years franchisors have fought hard in courtrooms, in the lobbies of Congress, and at the bargaining table to ensure that that disputes with franchisees would be resolved by arbitration. In large part, they have succeeded. The Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed both the enforceability of arbitration agreements and the desirability of arbitration itself, despite hostile state statutes and stubbornly recalcitrant state courts. Congress has turned a distracted, if not an entirely deaf ear to the efforts of franchisee- and trial lawyer-pressure groups to take franchise agreements outside the protection of the Federal Arbitration Act for all practical purposes. And arbitration provisions have become a standard term in franchise agreements.
Now, however, on the strength of a substantial body of real-world experience with arbitration as a dispute-resolution norm, many franchisors are asking whether all this effort has really paid off after all ' whether, in fact, their dogged pursuit of arbitration was actually a mistake. Doubts are emerging because the well-known downsides associated with arbitration seem far more worrisome as concrete realities than they did as abstract analytic factors, and because new concerns have appeared as arbitration has become more common in the franchise universe.
Downsides Recognized from the Beginning
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
Legal Possession: What Does It Mean?
Possession of real property is a matter of physical fact. Having the right or legal entitlement to possession is not "possession," possession is "the fact of having or holding property in one's power." That power means having physical dominion and control over the property.
Removing Restrictive Covenants In New York
In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?