Are Franchisors 'Employers'?
December 31, 2014
The franchise agreement almost always contains a clause specifying that the franchisee is an independent contractor and that the franchisor and franchisee are not intending to create an employment relationship. But a number of recent decisions from around the country have raised the question: Is a franchisee really an employee of the franchisor, despite the written disclaimer in the franchise agreement?
The Enforceability of No-Waiver Provisions in Commercial Leases
December 31, 2014
When faced with the argument that it has violated its lease, a commercial tenant often takes the position that the landlord, by its conduct and/or inaction, has waived such alleged breach. Anticipating such arguments, commercial landlords frequently insert "no waiver" provisions into their leases.
When Does 'Voluntary Payment' Preclude Recovery of Overcharges?
December 31, 2014
When a tenant erroneously pays more rent than a lease requires, can the tenant recover the amount of the excess payments? Answering that question requires exploration of the perplexing voluntary payment doctrine, which continues to rear its head in New York cases.
Security Interests In Railcars
December 31, 2014
The railcar leasing industry in Canada and throughout North America has seen remarkable growth in recent years. The aging and gradual failure of current fleets of railcars, the desire to implement newer technology and the introduction of regulations that require the replacement of tank cars or retrofitting means that railcar leasing activities will continue to increase in coming years. This article provides an overview of the process for registering security interests over railcars in Canada, which is similar in many respects to the process for registering railcar security interests with the Surface Transportation Board in the United States. We also outline several considerations of which to be mindful when registering security interests over railcars in Canada.
Drafting Considerations for Parenting Plans
December 31, 2014
While attorneys and the courts look to parenting plan provisions to alleviate tension and provide a mechanism by which to assist parties in operating on a daily basis, missed parenting plan provisions, or ambiguous ones, can lead to confusion and conflict between parents down the road.
When Your Data Goes Viral: Insurance for Data Breaches
December 31, 2014
Data breaches are part of the technological age. Indeed, 2013 was dubbed the year of the "mega breach," and in 2014, as of October, there had been 621 publicly reported data breaches, exposing 77,890,487 records. In early October 2014, JPMorgan Chase reported a data breach affecting as many as 76 million households and 7 million small businesses, making it one of the largest data breaches ever reported.
In the Courts
December 31, 2014
In-depth discussion of a case in which investors won a Madoff 'fictitious profits' appeal.
Decisions of Interest
December 31, 2014
Analysis of key rulings of important to New York family law practitioners.
Information Governance Career Options
December 31, 2014
Regulatory and business pressures have upped the ante for data management, and information governance (IG) has emerged as the new buzzword for meeting and beating these stakes. IG is a new way of looking at information management that combines the best of what's come before with new perspectives and approaches to keeping information secure, accessible and available.
Ninth Circuit Arguments in <i>Innocence of Muslims</i> Case
December 31, 2014
Actress Cindy Lee Garcia's two-year quest to scrub the Internet of her appearance in the anti-Islamic film <i>Innocence of Muslims</i> was the departure point for roving arguments before an 11-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in December. The Ninth Circuit considered Garcia's claim to a copyright in her performance in the film and whether it warrants an injunction barring Google Inc. from hosting the video on YouTube.
