The United States has long had policies prohibiting government employees and government contractors from engaging in trafficking of persons, and the recent Executive Order, titled “Strengthening Protections Against Trafficking in Persons in Federal Contracts”, and Title XVII of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 have served to heighten the requirements on federal
In 1953, Congress passed the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (“OCSLA”), 43 U.S.C. 1333, et seq. to provide a set of “comprehensive choice-of-law rules and federal regulation to a wide range of activity occurring beyond the territorial waters of the states on the outer continental shelf of the United States.” Important in OCS personal
A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit that the New York Times referred to as “The Most Ambitious Environmental Lawsuit Ever” on February 13, 2015, with a finding that the plaintiffs did not state a viable claim for relief.
The Board of Commissioners of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (“SLFPA-E” or “Authority”) filed a lawsuit
The Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal held that an insurer must provide a complete defense to its insured in long-latency disease cases and that the duty to defend is not subject to proration. See Arceneaux v. Amstar Corp., 2014-0271 (La. App. 4 Cir. 2/25/15), 2015 WL 798980.
In Arceneaux, American Sugar sued
Spoliation of evidence is the evidentiary doctrine that refers to destruction or significant alteration of evidence, or the failure to preserve evidence, for another’s use as evidence in pending or future litigation. While there can be a statutory duty, a contract, a special relationship between the parties, or an affirmative agreement or undertaking to preserve
In the past, Minor Source Air Permits issued by LDEQ typically did not have an expiration date. That has changed. Per Louisiana Revised Statute 30:2023(A), all environmental permits issued by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (“LDEQ”) “shall have, as a matter of law, a term of not more than ten years.” Louisiana’s air quality
Under the “design-build” construction method, the property owner enters into one contract with a single entity that provides the owner with both design and construction services. The advantages of “design-build” include faster construction and delivery, slower cost and schedule growth, and the elimination of potential disputes between the designer and contractor. Due to these advantages,
For many Louisianans, the Mardi Gras and President’s Day office and school closures equate with travel time. For some, it will mean a time to flock west to hit the slopes – including in Colorado, a state that has legalized marijuana for recreational use.
Employers in many states have grappled with the legal and practical
As previously reported, the Louisiana Supreme Court heard oral argument in Oleszkowicz v. Exxon Mobil Oil Corporation, et al. and Chauvin v. Exxon Mobil Corporation, et al., regarding the dispute as to whether claims for punitive damages are barred by res judicata. The court recently issued opinions in these cases.
To recap, a
The attorney-client privilege ranks among the oldest and most established evidentiary privileges known to our law. This privilege allows clients to communicate freely with legal counsel without worry of disclosure through discovery or at trial. Moreover, the joint defense privilege has been recognized as an extension of the attorney- client privilege which gives attorneys and clients alike additional room to share privileged information to third parties without creating a waiver. However, since its recognition, use of the joint defense privilege has created questions in the legal community regarding the discoverability of such information for use against a party to the joint defense in litigation.
In general, the joint defense privilege “extends the attorney-client privilege to any third party made privy to privileged communications if that party ‘has a common legal interest with respect to the subject matter of the communication.’’’ Aiken v. Texas Farm Bureau Mutual Ins. Co., 151 F.R.D. 621, 624 (E.D. Tex. 1993) (citing In re Auclair, 961 F.2d 65, 69 (5th Cir. 1992)). Moreover, the joint defense privilege “encompasses shared communications between various co-defendants, actual or potential, and their attorneys, prompted by threatened or actual, civil or criminal proceedings, ‘to the extent that they concern common issues and are intended to facilitate representation in possible subsequent proceedings’ … ‘or whenever the communication was made in order to facilitate the rendition of legal services to each of the clients involved in the conference.’” Id. at 624.Continue Reading The “Joint Defense” Privilege