New England Biz Law Update

An employee who executed a release as part of his severance package could not later sue his former employer for discrimination, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has ruled.

Tagged with: July 30 2012 issue

A federal appellate court victory secured by a Boston law firm will make it much more difficult for future plaintiffs to prove a defendant willfully infringed on a patent.

Tagged with: July 31 2012 issue

Before the proverbial ink had dried on the online job posting of a newly created virtual law firm, more than 125 Massachusetts lawyers had submitted their resumes.

Tagged with: July 31 2012 issue

If Boston lawyer William F. Burke is going to score any points in his recently filed breach-of-contract case, he’ll have to convince a Massachusetts jury to ignore the fact that the company he’s suing bears the name of the most ...

Tagged with: July 31 2012 issue

Depending on how a legal-malpractice lawsuit is won, practitioners say, it is possible to restore a law firm’s good name. Goulston & Storrs fought back late last month against accusations that the Boston firm and three of its partners had ...

Tagged with: July 31 2012 issue

After a series of rulings that left some litigators questioning the future of class action litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court will wade into the issue once again next term with a decision that could clarify class certification standards, but also ...

Tagged with: July 31 2012 issue

An employer could not rely on the “inevitable disclosure doctrine” to obtain a preliminary injunction restricting the scope of the work two former employees could perform after joining a competitor, a U.S. District Court judge in Boston has ruled.

Tagged with: July 31 2012 issue

Like other factors that increase a criminal defendant’s sentence, facts that determine the amount of criminal fines imposed on a defendant must be decided beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a 6-3 ...

Tagged with: July 31 2012 issue

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held in an issue of first impression that an arbitrator, and not a judge, must decide if an arbitration agreement allows for a dispute to move forward individually or on a class-wide ...

Tagged with: July 31 2012 issue

A bank that required customers to answer security questions before it cleared any electronic withdrawal of more than $1, but allegedly failed to implement further security measures to detect and address suspicious transactions, could be sued under Article 4A of ...

Tagged with: July 31 2012 issue