Posts on ‘November 17th, 2009’

The Corcoran Group real estate company, a defendant in a lawsuit, has been sanctioned by a New York judge for failing to preserve evidence and persisting in deleting e-mails in spite of the court’s repeated warnings to comply with discovery. A lawyer for the plaintiffs called the ruling “groundbreaking,” saying that it was the first in the state to send the “critical message” that “when you are sued or know you are going to be sued … you have to take immediate and significant steps to preserve electronic evidence.”

Prosecutors in Monroe County, N.Y., who allegedly failed to disclose, in timely fashion, an exculpatory DNA test conducted post-trial are shielded by absolute immunity, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, saying the immunity applied because the DNA testing, conducted while contesting habeas petitions and another initiative, “was undertaken in connection with post-trial proceedings and was therefore integral to the advocacy function.”

The costs of electronic discovery appear to be prompting divergent responses by the federal and New York state courts. Litigants with a choice of forum, says attorney Robert W. Trenchard, should consider these differences in selecting which court best suits their objectives.

Has the tide turned against states in their drug pricing suits against Big Pharma? Last month, a landmark ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court threw out more than $270 million in verdicts against Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, which had been found liable for overcharging the state Medicaid system for drugs. And on Friday, in what the plaintiffs describe as “a major victory” for the defense, a Kentucky jury found for GSK on the state’s Medicare fraud and false advertising claims.

Google has revised its controversial books settlement and revived the debate over who should decide the fate of orphan works: Google or the government. Changes to the settlement were aimed at addressing concerns that Google had grabbed unfair control of orphan works — books whose rights holders can’t be found — by including them in a class action settlement with authors and publishers over its book scanning project. But critics say that Google is still playing God — a task better left to Congress.

In remarks prepared for delivery to Congress today, ex-Bank of America general counsel Tim Mayopoulos covers a range of topics related to the bank’s merger with Merrill Lynch, including the controversial Merrill bonus pool and the projections of Merrill’s eventual $15.3 billion fourth-quarter loss. Mayopoulos was summoned to appear by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at its fourth hearing on the merger, after the bank agreed to a request to waive its attorney-client privilege.