Indefinite Exposure: Arbitration Clauses May Foil Your Statute of Limitations Defense
on October 10, 2016
The common practice of inserting mandatory binding arbitration clauses into commercial contracts may have the unintended consequence of precluding the assertion of a statute of limitations defense in the arbitration itself....
Who Owns the Oil and Gas? The Ohio Supreme Court Finally Decides and it May Not be Who You Think...
By Christopher F. Swing on September 20, 2016
The profound legal implications concerning who owns Ohio's vast mineral interests (i.e., oil and natural gas) was decided by the Ohio Supreme Court in two seminal cases (Corban v. Chesapeake Exploration, LLC and Walker v. Shondrick-Nau), interpreting and applying the Ohio Dormant Mineral Act (the "DMA"). The DMA operates to "abandon" sub-surface mineral rights, in favor of the surface owner, in instances where the surface and sub-surface rights previously were severed. Under the 1989 version of the statute, as originally enacted, owners of oil, gas, and mineral interests were required to take some action to enforce or preserve those rights within a twenty-year period or the interests were "deemed abandoned." Under the 1989 DMA, therefore, the interests were deemed abandoned based upon non-use alone. The 2006 amendment, on the other hand, requires notice to potential mineral rights/sub-surface owners, and a mechanism for recording notices and affidavits, so that a potential mineral interests' owner first is made aware of any intent to declare those interests abandoned....
Posted In: Real Estate
Ten Essential Ways to Protect Yourself During a Construction Project
on August 25, 2016
Construction projects, and by extension, construction disputes can be high stakes endeavors. At every step of the way, you have an opportunity to protect yourself, advance your case, or gain leverage over the other side. This is the case not only in litigation, but if you are in a dispute situation outside of court, or even if you are trying to negotiate a resolution to something in a situation that is not otherwise contentious....
Preservation Obligations for Third-Parties to Litigation
on May 26, 2016
Most businesses operate with a document retention plan in place to provide for the systematic review, retention, and destruction of documents that are created or received in the ordinary course of business. Document retention plans are valuable because they enable businesses to comply with their regulatory retention requirements and preserve necessary documents, while ensuring that they avoid retaining documents that have outlived their useful purpose....
The U.S. Department of Labor's Overtime Rule Changes: New Regulations Expected to Change the Exemptions for "White Collar" Employees
on May 12, 2016
The U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") is likely to publish its new overtime rule changes in the very near future. Currently, employees who are designated as salaried employees in "managerial" positions are exempt from overtime if they meet certain minimum "tests" related to their primary job duties and they are paid on a salary basis at a certain threshold. That threshold is currently at $455 a week (or $23,660 per year), and it is expected to increase to $970 a week (or $50,440 per year) in 2016. Among other things, the new regulations propose to set the salary level at the 40th percentile of weekly earnings for full-time salaried workers. In addition, the regulations propose to increase the total annual compensation requirement that typically exempts highly compensated employees to the 90th percentile of weekly earnings for full-time workers (or $122,148 per year)....