Plaintiff suspects that a chemical in her city’s water supply has caused her to develop a rare form of liver cancer. Defendant, a company in Plaintiff’s city, has been discharging the chemical into the water for a number of years. Both parties in the toxic tort litigation are at the mercy of an unevenly developed …
I am delighted to be here this morning. Among the many issues confronting law enforcers today, consumer privacy and cybercrime are among the most challenging. The Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) role as the nation’s chief consumer protection agency requires us to focus carefully on these, and a whole host of consumer protection, issues, using the …
In United States v. Councilman, the First Circuit Court of Appeals addressed the complex issue of when the Wiretap Act protects electronic communication. In a split decision, the First Circuit upheld the district court ruling, holding that an Internet service provider (“ISP”) does not violate criminal wiretap laws when it copies and reads customers’ email …
In an era where businesses, industry, and postsecondary institutions recognize the value of and utilize online learning, online education for North Carolina’s public schools may be inevitable. Increasingly, virtual education is seen as “a model for the development of the 21st-century learning skills of working and collaborating with others at a distance.” If North Carolina’s …
The rising speculation in intangible assets by patent trolls may indicate that patents are ready to evolve to the next level. Just as air space rights and carbon emissions before them, patents could be traded on stock exchanges. This evolution could take the form of a Patent Investment Trust, modeled on the popular Real Estate …
In the small town of Truro, Massachusetts, three years had passed and the police could still not find the killer of freelance fashion writer Christa Worthington. Christa was found stabbed to death with her two year old daughter “clinging to her body.” Local police found semen on Worthington’s body, providing a DNA sample, an important …
One of the most controversial provisions of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (“USA PATRIOT Act”) allows the government to track the books people check out of the library. The critics of this provision argue that allowing the government to monitor what books people read …
For the past several years, controversy existed in North Carolina as to the standard for determining the admission of expert testimony. The North Carolina Supreme Court recently put this controversy to rest in Howerton v. Arai Helmet, Ltd. In Howerton, the court flatly rejected the gatekeeping test adopted by the United States Supreme Court in …
In June of 2004, the North Carolina Supreme Court decided Howerton v. Arai Helmet, Ltd., which interpreted the standard for admitting expert testimony under Rule 702 of the North Carolina Rules of Evidence. The issue before the court was whether a North Carolina trial court’s gatekeeping responsibility under Rule 702 is the same as that …
This article analyzes the claims angel investors might bring against venture capitalists who took companies through insider rounds with “abusive” terms. Part II introduces the concept of close corporation law, well-established in American jurisprudence, and concludes that venture-backed start-up companies would likely be treated as close corporations in the eyes of the courts. Part III …
