Regulation

Legislation signed last month will allow New Jersey judges to restrict Internet access for convicted sex offenders and make it easier for law enforcement to monitor their online activity.

In the days of only paper documents, smaller companies could afford to wait until they became involved in a lawsuit to worry about pre-trial discovery, but today's reliance on digital information makes that a risky and unnecessarily expensive strategy.

If you use software and work for or with a company subject to Sarbanes-Oxley ('SOX'), then 2007 was an interesting year for you. How interesting? I'll raise some issues arising from the intersection of the topic of software use and SOX from last year to help you keep to a minimum the risk that 2008 will be an interesting year in some very bad ways.

The controversial German draft bill designed to amend legislation on communications surveillance and other secret investigation measures, and to implement the European Directive 2006/24/EC ' which was set to introduce mandatory retention of communications traffic data ' went into effect on January 1.

A look at a recent ruling of importance.

In-depth analysis of recent rulings.

Everything contained in this issue, in an easy-to-read format.

In order to discourage and, possibly, sanction an employee for bringing a suit, even where he or she has signed a release, employers have historically added to the release agreement a covenant not to sue. That covenant usually includes a promise that the employee will not sue, and that, if the employee does file suit, he or she must pay the employer's defense costs in addition to his or her own attorneys' fees and costs. Recent cases have called into question the viability, utility, and even the lawfulness of covenants not to sue, such that employers may well decide to forego them when drafting releases of age discrimination claims.