Business Interruption Insurance Presents Challenges in Tumultuous Year for Natural Catastrophes An exceptional spate of natural catastrophes in the United States during the first half of 2011 caused approximately $265 billion in economic losses ($60 billion in insured losses), a figure that already...

Data Hosting and Cloud Computing A LexisNexis® Webinar Report Dylan McGuire Cloud computing—or the replication of a law firm’s information technology (IT) server platform as well as its applications and other services on a remote computer platform—is a new buzzword in the...

The Explosion In Social Media Creates New Liabilities While Broadening Companies’ Opportunities Dylan McGuire As the number of people using social media websites—such as Facebook ® , Twitter ® , blogs and more—grows exponentially, corporations are faced with a new set...

Contracting for E-Discovery Competence Jeffrey Ritter, Esq., CEO and Founder, the Ritter Academy Managing digital information as evidence now requires that corporate clients of law firms think differently about the terms of their engagement letter with a law firm. In today’s digital business...

Media Relations Can Work for Your Client in Complex Litigation The widespread use of internet news, videos, blogs and social media to disseminate information about mass tort and other complex litigation has made it easier for parties when they want publicity and harder to avoid it when they don’t...

Social Media Technologies Raise New Liability Concerns The advent of social media—whether it is popular platforms like Facebook and Twitter, or blogs, or interactive websites—has revolutionized the way we communicate in recent years. However, as with any revolutionary technology, along...

NERA Report Shows Surprising Trend of Securities Filings Against Foreign Issuers A report released by NERA Economic Consulting reveals that in the first half of 2011 securities class action filings were initiated at the second-highest semi-annual rate in eight years. More than a third of these cases...

Generics’ Duty to Warn: Supreme Court Decision in Mensing May Reach Beyond Pharmaceutical Industry The 5-4 June 23, 2011 Supreme Court decision in Pliva v. Mensing (131 S. Ct. 2567 U.S. 2011; 2011 U.S. LEXIS 4793 ), in which the Court found that state law failure to warn claims against generic...

Supreme Court’s Gender Bias Decision in Walmart Deemed Great for Employers, “No Shocker,” and “Painful” for Plaintiffs The recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court reversing certification of a nationwide class of 1.5 million female Walmart employees who alleged that...

Before Disaster Strikes: A Checklist for Handling Catastrophic Losses The beginning of 2011 has arguably been one of the worst in years for disasters around the world. Property damage and business interruption insurance claims are still pouring in as companies and their insurers grapple with the aftermath...

When Disaster Strikes, Counsel and Communicators Must Work Together By Samantha Drake Natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, or a major accident, such as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, present special challenges for an organization. Such crises can quickly become a public relations nightmare...

Effective Caseload Management: Tips from Bensen & Myers Applying sound business practices to managing your caseload as in-house counsel is a sound way to increase your effectiveness and your equity in your company. Even though attorneys spend years learning how to practice law, they sometimes...

Social Media Policies Must Address Emerging Privacy Issues The social media revolution is exploding on both the personal and professional fronts. Few lawsuits have been filed over social media disputes in the workplace so far, but legal experts agree it is only a matter of time. Although the potential...

Can Alternative Fees Close the Gap Between Budgets and Talent Costs? Here is the situation. In-house counsel are under increasing pressure to obtain realistic budgets for outside legal services and ultimately to reduce legal fees. Outside counsel are likewise under a marked economic crunch. More...

Deep, Early Analysis of Cases Can Reduce Litigation Costs Does saving money early in the life of a case create risk? What specifically can experienced litigators bring to the initial stage of a case? Are there risks in trying to settle too early? LexisNexis’ Director, Client Relations (Litigation...

GE’s Paul Slater Says Spending Wisely with Preferred Law Firms is Good for Companies -- Especially During Tough Times Paul Slater, Senior Counsel of Corporate Environmental Programs for the General Electric Company will be one of the panelists on the Jan. 26, 2011, LexisNexis® Web event...

Early Case Assessment: Get Experts Involved From Day One Early case assessment. It’s a hot phrase right now amongst litigators, and although it’s been defined in many different ways, it essentially boils down to gathering information, conducting research, and performing other tasks early...

Litigation holds management has never been simple. On the up side, a hold safeguards salient material, including e-files, for discovery purposes, and alerts employees to the severe risk if potentially valuable material is destroyed. Are there alternatives for divying up the responsibility? And is there...

Implementing Best Practices for Discovery Readiness I’ve seen a lot of discovery readiness approaches come and go with the times, and the electronic workplace presents new challenges to adequately and efficiently find and cull data. We recently studied the issue in depth; the outcome was an...

Does Bringing this Suit Make Sense? Once the pertinent facts and applicable law are analyzed and a detailed budget prepared, virtually all of the pieces of information needed to decide whether to bring suit are available except one: the outcome. There is typically no shortage of predictions about...

Many insured and insurers remain unclear as to how the policy should respond in various circumstances and what is the true exposure being covered under a Side A policy. Get an elpaination of many aspects of this largely untested insurance product. Link to the document to learn more .

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Implementing Savvy E-Discovery Practices by Chris Spizzirri I consider myself fortunate: I’ve been able to take my two favorite subjects—the law and computers—and forge them into a career. It was the emerging frontier of e-discovery that allowed me to do it. As I watched firms struggle...

Is Discovery Being Managed Properly? Document Collection. By Eric E. Bensen & Rebecca K. Myers The sixth in a series of articles about how to reduce litigation costs while getting better results. The following is adapted from Chapter III.B.2 of Bensen & Myers on Litigation Management . ...

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