Lance Armstrong's defense against the persistent doping allegations leveled against him, and the athlete's subsequent refusal to participate in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's prosecution of several doping-related charges against him, dominated sports headlines this...
Month: September 2012
Beyond Summary Process: The Preclusive Effect of Eviction Actions
Last year, in Bank of New York v. Bailey, 460 Mass. 327 (2011), the Supreme Judicial Court (the "SJC") ruled that a Housing Court judge presiding over an eviction matter could hear a post-foreclosure mortgagor's claim that the foreclosure sale allegedly divesting him...
SJC Decides No Retroactive Application in Favor of Adopted Heirs
Adopted children or "issue" cannot take from an irrevocable testamentary trust executed at a time when adoptees were excluded from the definition of "child" in such instruments, despite adoption legislation aimed at achieving precisely that goal, according to the...
The International Effort to Regulate and Criminalize Cyberattacks
It was recently revealed that the United States government has been launching cyberattacks on Iran's nuclear enrichment program's computer systems for years, with the purpose of delaying and obstructing the development of what U.S. intelligence believes are nuclear...
Important Changes Brought About By The CORI Reform Law
The final changes brought about by the CORI Reform Law went into effect on May 4, 2012 and, with those changes, how employers access and use a job applicant's criminal history has changed. Employers must comply with the new procedures or may face fines up to $50,000....
In the Wake of ‘Connors,’ When Are Section 7 Zoning Appeals Viable?
Just about a year ago, in Connors v. Annino, 460 Mass. 790 (2011), the Supreme Judicial Court left no doubt that an abutter receiving "adequate notice" of issuance of a building permit must act fast (within thirty days of the issue date) to appeal the permit as...
Supreme Court Reaffirms FAA’s Pro-Arbitration Policy
In a harshly worded per curiam decision, the U.S. Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the broad reach of the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA") and restated that the FAA "reflects an emphatic federal policy in favor of arbitral dispute resolution." The FAA is the federal...
Privacy Settings Do Not Prevent Discovery of Social Media
While millions of Americans have become adept at managing their social network privacy settings to keep their postings hidden from the general public, individuals and companies involved in litigation should not expect those settings to shield information from...
Subcontractors Beware: General Contract’s Fine Print May Govern Your Contract Too.
The Supreme Judicial Court recently exhorted subcontractors to make sure they know the terms of general contracts before agreeing to import them in a wholesale fashion into their own subcontract. The SJC's recent decision in Costa v. Brait Builders Corp., 463 Mass. 65...
Supreme Court’s Decision Partial Victory for Obama
On the last week of the current term, the Supreme Court announced its decision in the watershed case of Arizona v. United States, granting the Obama administration a partial victory over the state of Arizona and its efforts to expand the enforcement of undocumented...
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