Mitigating Professional Malpractice Risks: Legal And Ethical Challenges Of Mental Health And Substance Abuse Issues
Everyone knows it exists, some choose to ignore it, but what exactly can we do about it? It is no secret that mental health and substance abuse issues are prevalent among professionals. These issues present many risks for professional liability insurers and employers. The most obviou…
ALFA International Publications
Before the pandemic, jury verdicts were already trending upwards, often surpassing traditional expectations. Additionally, COVID has caused many businesses to change operational standards and, in many instances, has negatively affected the popular opinion of corporations. The question now arises: what is the correlation between COVID and the current trend of jury verdicts?
RECAP: Jury Verdicts Pre…
Cyber coverage can be traced back to Errors and Omissions (E&O policies) issued to technology companies. These initial cyber coverages were usually added to E&O policies as “network security” or “internet liability” coverage.
1990s
The earliest cyber liability insurance generally consisted of policies covering online media or errors in data processing. These policies excluded first-party c…
Personal Jurisdiction – Does Evolving Case Law Make it the “First Best Defense?”
For most lawyers both in-house and in their firms, the law school civil procedure course is a distant (and perhaps not too pleasant) memory. International Shoe rings a bell, but why exactly? And yet, for everything there is a season, and the season for contesting personal jurisdiction is now. Early and correct asserti…
It feels like everywhere you turn these days people are talking about implicit or unconscious biases. A brief understanding of what these terms mean and the impact they can have in the workplace (as well as your own personal life) makes it clear why everyone is talking about them.In its simplest form, unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form ou…
What is the “Heeding Presumption” in Products Liability Warnings Cases?
In a product liability case in which the plaintiff is asserting failure to warn claims, the plaintiff ultimately bears the burden of proving that a failure to warn actually caused the plaintiff’s injuries. Meeting that burden of proof is easier in states which recognize or follow the “heeding presumption” doctrine.…
When developing or acquiring a new product the means by which you can protect your company from legal and business risks are, in theory, straight forward. As with most endeavors, the goals are to avoid risk, shift risk, and quarantine risks that cannot be avoided or redirected. Some guidelines for implementing these goals are set forth below.
Avoiding the Risk
Due Diligence
As a rule, the more in…
The “nuclear verdict” is a term recently coined to refer to unexpectedly high damage awards that appear to exceed rational parameters in civil cases. However, verdicts with monetary awards that far exceed expectations, and/or that are considered to be inflated, outlandish or even destructive, have been considered to be a problem for at least a generation (thus the phrase “old wine, new bottles”). …
Hundreds if not thousands of companies market and sell products as their own, even though they do not actually manufacture them in arrangements with product manufacturers that are often referred to as “White Labeling” agreements. Even more businesses rely on vendors for critical components that drive their products.Those AmazonBasics batteries you recently purchased? They were manufact…
Once little more than science fiction, products based on artificial intelligence (“AI”) have found their way into many aspects of our daily lives. Self-driving, autonomous vehicles are on the roads in certain parts of the country. Millions of Americans use and rely on Fitbits and similar products to register and track biometric data and make recommendations for fitness, nutrition and health decis…