The state of Maryland passed new regulations last week that stipulate the information that political candidates must disclose on all of their social media account homepages and online advertisements. Candidates running for office in the state will be required to include an authority line on their official Twitter and... click here to read the entire article on Social Media Law.
Tuesday
Top Business Litigation Trends in a Recessionary Environment
Commercial litigation has rapidly evolved in the United States since the deregulatory movement in the 1970s. Today, it is an industry behemoth that impacts and shapes the socio-economic discourse of our society, resulting in applicable legal standards on safety regulations, negligence, commercial competition, antitrust, intellectual property, and bankruptcies, to name a few. Human conduct is parsed and defined in the annals of judiciaries; lawyers construct arguments that may have ramifications for years if adopted, the commercialization process is first filtered through the lens of dispute prevention as an anticipatory measure.
The recessionary environment has proven no less a growing market for litigation, where a 2010 survey taken of a broad swath of the legal industry – law firms and general counsels – points to an anticipated rise in litigation and business disputes in the next 12 months. Indeed, when a dispute arises, nearly 60% of the survey’s respondents choose litigation over other forms of dispute resolution such as arbitration. With a moribund and uncertain economy, companies and businesses are increasingly protective of their commercial and tactical advantages, leading to greater litigation involving complex corporate issues.
As a cornerstone of managing conflict in contemporary America, litigation will always remain a viable choice, albeit one of last resort. The recession merely shifted the focus of litigation. Here are top five trends that provide a general overview of litigation:
1. The Top Five Litigation Areas are: Intellectual Property; Regulatory Investigation; Contracts, Labor & Employment, and Electronic Discovery.
2. With the growing and standard use of electronic discovery as a tool in the arsenal of legal strategy, 80% of respondents agreed that the Rules of Civil Procedure should be modified to limit e-discovery in civil actions.
3. The industries which more often initiate litigation are energy, health care, manufacturing and insurance.
4. More companies are using alternative fee arrangements than 2009, including 61% of the largest Fortune 1000 companies.
5. The changing economy and the uncertain costs of litigation are compelling reasons to often reach an amicable settlement before going to trial.
With emerging industries such as renewable energy and infrastructure, social and digital media, mobile technology and biotechnology fast dominating the market as leaders of economic growth, novel legal issues and commercial disputes are increasingly finding themselves in the courtroom, an ominous forecast of litigation’s staying power.
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Sheheryar Sardar, Esq. and Benish Shah, Esq.
Sardar Law Firm LLC
12 Desbrosses St.
New York, NY 10013
631.838.0178
www.sardarlawfirm.com
Sunday
1986 Laws & Facebook: How does it work
In California, an artist sued an apparel company for putting his designs on items they hadn’t agreed on. Brilliantly, the company’s lawyers mined his social networking tools such as Facebook and MySpace to see if he had ever posted any comments on how he was thrilled to be featured on such products. But a federal judge stepped in and applied a 1986 electronic communications law, stating that as long as the artist’s wall was set to a strict “friends-only” privacy setting, his posts were private and couldn’t be used by the defendants.
In a world of social media crazed communities – where the creators of many of these platforms rely heavily on “sharing” information – the question pops into mind: does this 1986 law apply to the current issues around social networking today? And because the law is often a reactionary measure to the times, how and when will be able to answer that question succinctly?
Guess it’s time for some creative lawyering!
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Thursday
BP and Social Digital Media
Social media law is becoming more intricate and exciting – as is the use of social media. Check out this piece from global. executive. board.
To relate social digital marketing to current news, BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward was recently criticized for taking a break from cleaning up the record-breaking oil spill to attend a yacht race. Even the fact that the public found out so quickly about Hayward’s most recent gaffe is a testament to how important social digital networking has become. Almost instantaneously, twitter and Facebook started to publicize Hayward’s behavior in light of the horrible environmental disaster that BP has caused.
In reality, Hayward attending a yacht race has little to do with the progress of the massive clean-up effort. Perhaps a few years ago, a break to see a boat race probably would have gone unnoticed to the public. Executives had far more privacy and freedom to do what they wanted. But of course the reason for the public outrage for Hayward’s behavior is not so much because it had such a great impact as so much as it reflects a very bad attitude for a CEO who is already under severe scrutiny and criticism.
A few months ago, Tony Hayward was a name that was not even familiar with the general public, yet, in just a few months; he has become a man hated by millions. Such is the consequence of badly using social digital media and managing its CEO. Perhaps if BP has taken the effort to brand Tony Hayward prior to this crisis, his PR could have been better.
In this ultra-connected world, social digital media may as well be as important to a company as it’s finances, management, and efficiency. It could even be true that BP and Tony Hayward is doing their best to clean up the oil spill and working diligently to try and stop the leak but just because of a bad day on the social networking sphere, all the effort made by BP is then ignored by the public. Social digital marketing has become such a force that even on its own, it can shake a giant like BP.
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