There is a critical federal statute that all insurance litigators should be aware of when their case is “removed” from a State trial court to a federal court. Insurance companies often remove State court cases to the federal system to take advantage of what they apparently believe is a strategic…
Silverman Thompson lawyers Bill Sinclair and Anna Skelton recently convinced a New Jersey federal judge that he should compel arbitration of their suit, effectively dismissing a federal complaint. The plaintiff, Precision Funding Group, sued its competitor, National Fidelity Mortgage, for alleged interference with contracts and business opportunities (among other business…
For users of the popular Pandora Internet Radio website, the day the music dies has been delayed for at least a few more years. That’s thanks to U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York, who earlier this month saved the music service from being…
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, 47 U.S.C.A. § 230, (CDA) provides online businesses a refuge from civil liability that could otherwise arise from content posted to a website, online blog or other social media platform by a third party. Specifically, § 230(c) of the CDA immunizes…
Depending on the nature of your business, your employees may routinely handle or have access to information that is subject to privacy protection or financial/securities regulations under various federal and state laws. Improper handling or disclosure of statutorily-protected or otherwise private information could potentially result in (1) statutory and privacy…
The processes of setting and communicating prices are two of the most fundamental roles of a business. Price affects a business’s sales, revenue, investment returns, and ultimately profit. As a result, the term “price fixing” has a strong negative connotation, and deservedly so. Restrictions on price competition represent actual threats…
Delaware law permits a court to pierce the corporate veil of a company and hold its owners personally liable “where there is fraud or where [the corporation] is in fact a mere instrumentality or alter ego of its owner.” See, e.g., Geyer v. Ingersoll Publ’ns Co., 621 A.2d 784, 793…
Generally, it is the rule that a corporate director is not personally liable for the misconduct of co-directors where he or she has not participated in the misconduct. See, e.g., Seale v. Citizens Sav. & Loan Ass’n, 806 F.2d 99 (6th Cir. 1986). Corporate officers and directors can only become…
File your tax returns. A week from now will be too late. It can be cumbersome, stressful and certainly annoying. But it’s one of those things in life. Do it and be done with it. Some added incentives to filing: A. Avoid costly consequences Did you know the IRS late-filing…
Very soon, the federal government could know what you bought for dinner last night, or whether you and your wife are having a nasty email fight about something very personal-and they could know this all because of CISPA-The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2013. If you’re using gmail,…
Sure, we’ve all heard that mobile software applications collect more personal data from our smart phones than they need to or should; and the mobile apps’ privacy policies are such a byzantine morass, none of us read them anyway. But the news that the most popular children’s mobile software apps…
Jennifer O’Brien, a tenured New Jersey public school elementary teacher with 13 years of teaching experience and a master’s degree in education, was teaching a class of 23-first grade students (all of whom were minorities and mostly six-years old), when she posted on her own, private Facebook page these comments…
Politics aside (because, let’s face it, it’s all about our own, bottom-line individual/household budgets), let’s look at the impact of yesterday’s tax legislation. As with everything in life, there is good news and bad news. The federal fiscal plunge may not be as steep, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t…
United States citizens have an obligation to report to the IRS on Schedule B of their U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, Form 1040, whether they had a financial interest in, or signature authority over, a financial account in a foreign county in a particular year by checking “Yes” or “No”…
In this economy, many small businesses continue to struggle just to stay afloat and, out of desperation, find means of shuffling business funds around to pay immediately due bills and put off paying others. Some business owners have used employment tax withholding to use the government as a bank to…