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In a dispute involving a set of contracts between four corporations, summary judgment for defendants is reversed and remanded for entry of summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs and calculation of damages where: 1) proper construction of the Program Agreement and the Insurance Policy does not allow defendant to unilaterally cancel individual insurance policies, and any existing coverage would survive termination of the Program Agreement, as the language of the Agreement is unambiguous; 2) the continuation proviso in the Finance Agreement would be rendered meaningless under defendant’s reading, and when general language is in conflict with more specific language, the specific language controls; and 3) plaintiff’s claim that defendant breached the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing fails because under New York law, it is duplicative of a breach of contract claim....

Apple factories may soon be getting an outside audit. The move comes in response to outcry over the conditions in some Apple factories abroad, particularly in China. Just last month, The New York Times published a lengthy article about the working conditions inside the factories. Foxconn is one of Apple’s largest – and most important – manufacturing partners. The company operates a major plant in Chengdu. Last year, an explosion ripped through the factory....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. It appears that robots are at least one of the waves of the future. As an example, 23 million of Twitter’s user accounts in fact are autonomous Twitterbots. Why? Apparently, they are there to perform research, heighten productivity, and create enjoyment. However, other such bots have been designed with less than pure intentions – indeed, at times with the goal of wreaking some havoc....

This can be a good thing because it may be a sign a law firm is growing. At the same time, lagging technology may be one of the growing pains. In any case, it is important to assess the firm’s technologies from time to time because technology always affects the bottom line. Technology can increase profits if it increases productivity, but it can also cost more than it’s worth if it is not efficient....

Coffield v. Handel, No. 09-13277, concerned an action claiming that plaintiff was unconstitutionally denied access to the 2008 general election ballot as an independent candidate to represent Georgia’s Fourth Congressional District in the House of Representatives. The court of appeals affirmed the dismissal of the complaint, on the ground that plaintiff was unable to collect a sufficient number of signatures to satisfy Georgia’s requirement that an independent candidate submit a nomination petition signed by at least 5% of the total number of registered voters eligible to vote in the last election for the position the candidate seeks, and the Supreme Court had upheld that requirement....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against various officials of Puerto Rico alleging plaintiffs were terminated from career positions they held with the Puerto Rico Tourism Company in violation of their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, jury verdict in favor of plaintiffs and district court’s additional order of relief against defendant-governor is vacated in part and reversed in part and remanded where: 1) judgment on the First Amendment claim is vacated and remanded as the evidence was sufficiently mixed that it would allow a reasonable, properly instructed jury to find that the defendants had established a Mt....

In US v. Cruz, No. 09-11418, an action by the government seeking to enjoin defendants from operating as tax return preparers, the court of appeals vacated the district court’s order finding that defendants had engaged in deceptive practices in preparing tax returns and issuing an injunction specifically prohibiting them from further engaging in any such conduct, but declining to completely bar them from operating as tax return preparers or require them to notify their clients of the injunction (as the government requested), holding that the district court failed to give any reasons for rejecting the request to compel defendants to notify their customers of the court’s injunction....

MGE UPS Sys., Inc. v. GE Csmr. & Indus. Inc., No. 08-10521, involved plaintiff’s appeal from the district court’s Fed. R. Civ. P. 50(a) dismissal of its Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) claim, and defendants’ cross-appeal from the damages and injunctive relief awarded against them. The court of appeals affirmed in part on the ground that plaintiff failed to show that bypassing its “dongle” infringed a right protected by the Copyright Act, because the dongle merely prevented initial access to the software at issue....

Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who murdered nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church, has not gotten any brighter in prison – whiter, maybe. In appealing his convictions, he sought to fire his court-appointed lawyers because they aren’t white. But that was yesterday’s news; the court denied his request 24 hours later. “The court denies the motion for substitution of counsel on appeal,” the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said....

If you haven’t already, you will eventually have to interact with a client who doesn’t share your values, or one that might even want to do something that runs contrary to your personal beliefs. And while you’re not supposed to be a judge of morals, looking out for the best interests of an individual client can often involve more than just advising about the legal consequences of an action. But what do you do when a potential client comes in with a winner of a case that runs contrary to your personal beliefs?...

We all remember the Duke lacrosse rape allegations, right? In 2007, an exotic dancer claimed that she was raped at lacrosse team party. Over the course of a few hours, the details of her story changed. She was attacked by three men. No, she wasn’t attacked at all. She was attacked by as many as 20 men. The evidence — including extensive DNA analysis — simply didn’t support her claims. Even the prosecutor, former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong — looked at the lack of evidence and said, “You know, we’re f**ked....

Life is not a marathon or a box of chocolates. But it is kind of like them, especially if you are a fan of Forrest Gump. He ran a lot, and learned that you never know what you are going to get. Author Leo Bottary says a good marathon runner – like successful people – improves through disciplined training. Surround yourself with the right people, he says, and you can win, too....

Appeal from Denial of Designated Engineering Representative Certification by FAA In Jones v. US, No. 09-11239, an action alleging that the FAA’s denial of plaintiff’s application to be a Designated Engineering Representative was retaliation for his Equal Employment Opportunity activity while employed at the FAA, the dismissal of the action is affirmed where the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because plaintiff’s claims were inescapably intertwined with a challenge to the procedure and merits of a Federal Aviation Administrative (FAA) order....

Today is Video Games Day (or at least one of them). What does this have to do with law? Not a whole lot, admittedly, but heck, give me a topic and I’ll make it work on a law blog. (See: Ides of March, dog breeds, and online dating.) When “Video Games Day” popped up on my calendar, two thoughts immediately popped into my head: a particular Nintendo game and Stephanie Kimbro’s startup....

It’s a strange new world, isn’t it? Florida, the state famous for hanging chads on its voting machines, is the first to mandate lawyers receive technical training. Perhaps there is no irony in the legal developments, although the hanging chads case made it to the U.S. Supreme Court while the legal profession has been slow to recognize that technology has changed everything in the law. So is it time for mandatory technical training for attorneys everywhere?...

Is there such a thing as office furniture porn? Food porn is a thing (safe for work, non-sexual Wikipedia link). People flick through dozens of pictures of beautifully-presented meals, but oddly enough, there are no recipes, cooking, or eating. They just look at food. It’s never been my thing, but it has a Wikipedia page, so it must be pretty popular. So yes, office furniture porn should be a thing. Odd and functional furniture is far more interesting than a stuffed pepper....

Remember when Groupon was a thing? The company was founded in 2008, and by April 2010, it was valued at $1.35 billion. It was called “the fastest growing company ever,” in an article on Forbes.com which projected that the company would bring in $1 billion in revenue faster than any other company in history. This makes the timing of this ABA Ethics opinion on lawyers and coupon sites especially curious, with both declining relevance of daily-deal sites, and the plethora of state bar ethics opinions that have already addressed the issue (in an arguably clearer manner, to boot)....

In a case that has roots going back centuries, the fight over the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, reached a turning point this week when the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Congregation Shearith Israel properly owned the synagogue and its bells. In issuing their ruling, the First Circuit reversed the lower district court that had ruled in favor of Congregation Jeshuat Israel. This case has been closely followed for the local, and special, interests that surround such a historic landmark....

Attorney-client privilege covers the confidential communications between a law firm’s lawyers and their in-house counsel, even when the law firm faces a possible malpractice claim by a current client, two courts have recently ruled. If you’re an attorney in Massachusetts or Georgia, listen up. Supreme Court of Massachusetts Ruling Until this ruling, the highest court of Massachusetts noted, no court of last resort in the United States had addressed how the attorney-client privilege applies to a law firm’s in-house communications concerning an existing client....

The First Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a first-degree murder convict’s ineffective counsel argument last week, finding that the lawyer’s strategic decision to avoid raising his client’s medical history as part of his defense was reasonable. Victor Smith killed his cousin’s boyfriend after consuming ten drinks and two Artane pills - a medication prescribed to Smith to treat Tourette’s Syndrome – in about six hours. Smith was upset by news that the victim had beat up his cousin, and responded by stabbing the victim 22 times....