In American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus v. Parker, the SJC ruled that a life insurance beneficiary designation naming an ex-spouse as beneficiary was revoked following the parties’ divorce by operation of law, pursuant to the Massachusetts Uniform...
In many divorces, the house is frequently sold during or shortly after the divorce. This is generally because one, or in some cases, two streams of income were sufficient to maintain the carrying costs on one household, but would be insufficient to maintain the...
The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts has held that group text messages between plaintiffs and third parties are not protected from disclosure in discovery as “concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual...
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled on December 30, 2021 that litigation could proceed against certain foreign financial institutions. The decision overturned the ruling of the Southern District of New York. The case relates to the...
The general default rule in international law is that the lex arbitri—i.e., the law of the place where arbitration is to take place (the seat)—governs the arbitration and the arbitration clause, while the choice-of-law provision governs the substantive provisions of...
The First Circuit Court of Appeals recently clarified the standard District Courts in the circuit should be using to rule on motions to compel arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). In Air-Con, Inc. v. Daikin Applied Latin America, LLC, the First...
In the Fall of 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives once again passed the Safe and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, with joint support from both parties. And although the Senate has yet to sign off, last month, the bill had 40 co-sponsors therein. The SAFE...
US courts continue to be divided on the enforceability of emergency arbitration awards. As addressed in previous writings, in 2019 the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia refused to enforce an international Emergency Award in the Al Raha case,...
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, has deepened a split among federal appellate courts, holding that government agencies can be sued under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), 15 U.S.C.A. § 1681. The DC Circuit joined the Seventh...
In a recent Rule 23 decision, a panel of the Massachusetts Appeals Court upheld the lower court’s modification judgment shifting legal and primary physical custody of the parties’ two minor children from their mother to their father, noting the mother’s conduct...
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