Category Archives: General
Non Compete Agreements – Are They Going to Be a Thing of the Past
Are Non-Competition Agreements Going to Become a Thing of the Past? On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to prohibit employers from imposing noncompete clauses on workers. Here’s a sample of part of the proposed Rule: § 910.2 Unfair methods of competition. (a) Unfair methods of competition…. Read More »
The Role of a Judge
On 2/4/2022, the case of Cador v. YES Organic Market Hyattsville Inc. was filed in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. This is the link https://mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/cosa/2022/0898s20.pdf The author of the opinion is retired Judge Charles E. Moylan who is still going strong at age 91. He’s been retired for 21 years. I first crossed… Read More »
First Responders – It’s Not Just Police, Fire and Medical But Others Too
On 12/6/2021, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals filed an unreported decision on an issue not important to this post. Reading through the facts, I was struck by the gruesome detail of what a first responder went through in his 10 years on the job. It’s not just police, fire and medical personnel but… Read More »
Maryland Law Says Your Cherished Pet is Worth $10,000 – That’s It!
Maryland Law Says Your Cherished Pet is Worth $10,000 – That’s It! Maryland law includes this provision wich does not apply to livestock. “A person who tortiously causes an injury to or death of a pet while acting individually or through an animal under the person’s ownership, direction, or control is liable to the… Read More »
The Holy Spirit in the Jury Room
USA v. Corrine Brown Corrine Brown, a Florida Democrat who served more than two years in prison after being found guilty of running a sham charity, was granted a new trial by a federal appeals court. https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201715470.enb.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1PktVCOx-99dU5mOJWVZmEdf73zk6UnbumflAu8uknUBN_fwmTEQpMia0 On May 6, 2021, an en banc panel of 11 judges of the 11th Circuit 7 to… Read More »
The Art of the Trial Lawyer and The Lure for the Untrained
I was an electronic engineer working for Westinghouse and an expert on the weapons control system known as AWG-10 that was in the nose of the F4-J Phantom aircraft. That before I decided to go to law school. In my engineering world, virtually everything was yes or no, 0 or 1, on or off…. Read More »
Safekeeping of Wills – No Review by Register of Wills
Whenever I prepare a Will for a client, I go over with them the options for where the original Will should be kept. Most of the time I recommend that it be delivered to the Register of Wills for safekeeping in their fire protected vault. Recently, I spoke with a client who had prepared… Read More »
Disclaimers – Be Very Careful
Disclaimers are a source of many mistakes in the estate and trust field. Most people think that if you want to decline taking a bequest from the Will of a deceased person, all you need do is to sign a disclaimer. However, in a number of situations that would not only not meet your… Read More »
Maryland Adopts Daubert – It’s Taken Many Years
The Maryland Court of Appeals (Maryland’s highest court) on August 28, 2020, delivered a major decision that was many years in the making. The opening pages of the opinion are clear and succinct and are below: Nearly a century ago, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia announced a new… Read More »
Breach of Fiduciary Duty – The Court of Appeals Finally Answers a Question After 23 Years
BREACH OF FIDUCIARY DUTY This has been a troublesome concept in Maryland law until today when the Court of Appeals filed its opinion in Plank v. Cherneski https://mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/coa/2020/3a19m.pdf The Court’s explanation of the trouble over the years is set out in the first paragraph of the opinion: Does Maryland recognize an independent cause of… Read More »