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Public Policy Contract Terms

Lathrop GPM

Citing California Franchise Relations Act, California Federal Court Rejects Franchisor’s Attempt to Dismiss Case

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A federal court in California recently denied a franchisor’s motion to dismiss litigation, holding that a franchise agreement provision requiring the parties to mediate in Texas prior to instituting litigation or arbitration...more

ArentFox Schiff

Nonprofit’s Diversity Scholarship Program Challenged in Federal Court

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On March 5, Do No Harm filed a lawsuit against the American Chemical Society (ACS), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, challenging a scholarship program for undergraduate students from historically underrepresented groups in...more

A&O Shearman

Disputes 101 – What can’t you agree to do in your contract?

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Beware of a penalty shoot-out - The rule against penalties is rooted in public policy, aiming to prevent contractual provisions that punish the breaching party rather than protecting the interests of the innocent party. The...more

Miller Canfield

Michigan Court of Appeals: No Parental Indemnification for Child Injuries

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Can parents legally agree to financially protect third parties from claims arising from their children’s injuries? In MK v. Auburnfly, LLC, (No. 364577, 2024 WL 5148278, Dec. 17, 2024), a published opinion, the Michigan Court...more

Benesch

First Circuit Declines to Enforce California’s Out-of-State Noncompete Ban

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On September 26, 2024, a Boston-based federal appeals court refused to extend California’s sweeping noncompete ban to agreements that were signed outside the state and governed by another state’s law....more

Holland & Knight LLP

Commercial Parties, Transactional Lawyers and Litigators Beware: California Law Has Changed

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California law has changed. The change now makes it easier for California litigants to sue their opponents for fraudulently breaching a contract. Lawyers who negotiate and draft agreements subject to California law should...more

Holland & Knight LLP

For the Love of the Game: The Importance of Market Access Agreements

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In the aftermath of a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that repealed the federal ban on state-sponsored sports wagering, the sports wagering market has proliferated across the United States at an expedited pace. Since the...more

Holland & Knight LLP

California's New Nationwide Focus on Noncompetition Agreements

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For decades, California has taken arguably the most pro-employee-mobility position on noncompetition and non-solicitation agreements in the country – generally, post-employment noncompetition and non-solicitation agreements...more

White and Williams LLP

Public Policy Prevails: Homebuilders and Homebuyers Cannot Agree to Disclaim Implied Warranty of Habitability in Arizona

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In Zambrano v. M & RC II LLC, et al., 2022 Ariz. LEXIS 309, the Supreme Court of Arizona held that a homebuilder and homebuyer could not waive or disclaim the implied warranty of workmanship and habitability. While the court...more

Freeman Law

Can a Professional Services Firm Limit its Liability by Contract? A Look at Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma Law

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Freeman Law is privileged and proud to serve as outside counsel to various engineering, architectural, and other professional services firms. This segment of Freeman Law focus spans from protecting trade secrets in public...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Anti-Dissolution Provisions and Public Policy

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In Congel v Malfitano, New York’s highest court wrote that business partners are free to include in partnership contracts practically “any agreement they wish,” including about “the means by which a partnership will dissolve,...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Wyoming Supreme Court Eliminates the Blue Pencil Rule for Noncompete Agreements

On February 25, 2022, the Wyoming Supreme Court issued a decision prohibiting courts from revising, or “blue penciling,” noncompete agreements to be reasonable and enforceable under the law. The decision overrules the Wyoming...more

Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP

Massachusetts’ Highest Court Invalidates Limitation of Liability Clause in Commercial Lease, Citing Public Policy

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently ruled that a limitation-of-liability provision provides no protection for defendants who willfully or knowingly engage in unfair or deceptive conduct in violation of G....more

Bennett Jones LLP

Class Action Waiver Unenforceable Due to Unconscionability and Public Policy

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Contractual terms that prevent a party from participating in a class action may be unenforceable for unconscionability and public policy when they preclude access to justice, the British Columbia Court of Appeal recently held...more

Carlton Fields

Third Circuit Upholds Pennsylvania Federal Court’s Finding That an Arbitration Agreement Is Unenforceable Where It Limits...

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In Williams v. Medley Opportunity Fund II, LP, plaintiffs Christine Williams and Michael Stermel obtained payday loans from American Web Loan, Inc. (AWL), an online entity owned by the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians. The...more

Hogan Lovells

Client Alert: Virginia Court Invalidates Government Contractor’s Non-Competition and Non-Solicitation Agreement with Independent...

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In January 2020, Judge John Tran of the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia held unenforceable non-competition and non-solicitation provisions in a government contractor’s consulting agreements entered into with...more

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP

Return of Yellowstone: The New York State Legislature Revives the Yellowstone Injunction

For more than 50 years, a commercial tenant threatened with eviction could count on obtaining a Yellowstone injunction tolling the tenant’s time to cure alleged lease defaults while challenging the legitimacy of those...more

Gray Reed

Oil Field Services Gets Lump of Coal From Santa

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Our sympathies go out to those in the oilfield services industry in Texas—it looks like you got a lump of coal. In Mesa Southern CWS Acquisition v. Deep Energy Exploration Partners the Houston Court of Appeals upended the...more

Gray Reed

Wave Goodbye To Unenforcable Mineral Lien Waivers: The Houston Court Of Appeals Weighs In With Mesa V. Deep Energy

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The Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston recently issued an opinion that will have profound impacts on mineral liens and contractual provisions purporting to waive mineral liens. The question of whether or not a pre-work...more

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP

EEOC Retracts Long-standing Policy Against Binding Arbitration in Bias Cases

On Dec. 16, 2019, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rescinded its 1997 policy statement on “Mandatory Binding Arbitration of Employment Discrimination Disputes as a Condition of Employment (the 1997 Policy...more

Carlton Fields

Eleventh Circuit Clarifies Standard for New York Convention’s Public Policy Defense to Foreign Arbitration Awards

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The dispute involved an arbitration related to alleged medical malpractice by doctors selected by Carnival Cruise Lines to treat a wrist injury of a Serbian employee of Carnival. The employee’s employment agreement with...more

Carlton Fields

The Conflict Between Choice-of-Law Provisions in Insurance Policies and a State’s Fundamental Public Policy

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Many contracts include a choice-of-law provision in which the parties agree to use a particular jurisdiction’s set of laws to govern the contract. These provisions promote predictability. No matter where a dispute may arise...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Colorado Courts Further Restrict Use of Restrictive Covenants

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Refusing to enforce a non-solicitation provision that violated public policy, the Colorado Court of Appeals held that parties to a non-solicitation agreement cannot contractually obligate the court to “blue pencil” the...more

Harris Beach Murtha PLLC

Recent Decision Narrows Commercial Tenants’ Recourse to Yellowstone Injunctions

Last week, in 159 MP Corp. v. Redbridge Bedford, the Court of Appeals upheld a recent decision of the Second Department that limits the rights of commercial tenants to obtain Yellowstone injunctions....more

Harris Beach Murtha PLLC

Legalization of Hemp Will Give Businesses More Recourse and Certainty in Court

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The 2018 Farm Bill, once signed into law, is expected to have a liberating effect on hemp and hemp-related businesses. Some of the impacts of this legislation are clear, such as opening the industry to new entrants and making...more

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