Press, Dozier & Hamelburg Blogs

Does this heading get your attention? Because it is true, even if the statute allowing this was not designed to produce this outcome.

The strict California mediation confidentiality statute allows this outcome, according to the California Court of Appeals, the second such decision upholding the absolute ban on disclosure of any information if it originated in mediation.

Read More

With any commercial enterprise, there are at least two sides of any question to be considered. In the case of negotiating a publishing agreement, depending on whether you are the creator of the work or the publisher, you will have different goals and therefore different needs to be addressed in the contract. Likewise, whether you are able to achieve some or all of your objectives will depend upon your relative bargaining strength.

Read More

If you are in business, then you definitely have trade secrets, also referred to as proprietary or confidential information. What, if anything, are you doing to protect these valuable assets? To answer that question, it is important to understand what kind of information can be considered a trade secret.

Read More

When I ask a business person for reasons why he or she wants to operate as a corporation, I often hear, "Because I want to limit my personal liability." Clearly, a worthy objective. But what steps are you taking to preserve your individual limited liability? Is it enough simply to file incorporation papers and the various state and federal tax returns to protect your status? Or, are there other steps you should take to safeguard your limited liability?

Read More

The news this fall has been filled with reports of large, well-established companies facing difficult economic circumstances. In a number of highly publicized cases, the federal government (using our tax dollars) has ridden to the rescue. Such relief is unlikely to be granted to the rest of us. That being the case, it is important for you to evaluate how your business will face the economic slow down and what, if any precautionary steps you can take.

Read More

Because software plays an increasingly larger role in the operations of most businesses, the issues involved with licensing the software not only is of interest to the developers but the commercial end users.

Read More

If you run a business today, you cannot escape the good and bad effects that come from the widespread use of digital technology. This expanding use of digital technology, such as software, the Internet, e-mail and the World Wide Web, in the operation of your business has affected your contractual relationships with your customers, suppliers, employees and independent contractors. This article looks at several different contracts with these business contacts and how the agreements can be written to address different issues which you may encounter due to your use of digital technology.

Read More

Articles featured on our site typically deal with items of a "business" nature. In the past, we've written about leases, foreclosures, intellectual property, alternative methods of resolving commercial disputes and the like. Today, however, we want to focus on a topic that is both "personal" and "business" in nature and can impact any one of us-the issue of elder abuse and ways to combat it.

Read More

A Statistical Summary Prepared by the Department of Justice

If anyone needs statistical evidence that ADR saves money and reduces litigation, here it is. Last year the government saved over $12 million in litigation and discovery expenses, over 14,600 days of attorney time, and avoided over 1,200 months of litigation by the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. These savings were achieved primarily through the use of mediation at a cost of under $2 million. Six dollars saved for every one dollar spent is pretty good cost/benefit ratio, if you ask me.

Read More

I recently wrote about a case before the Supreme Court testing whether parties can seek pre-enforcement judicial review of EPA orders (ACOs) without being subject to fines of up to $70,000 per day for failure to comply with the order.

Read More