A study recently released by the Department of Justice paints an interesting picture of civil cases that were tried during 2005 in the nation’s state courts. The study focused on cases in courts of general jurisdiction, and it divided them into three major categories: contract, tort and real property. Among the findings:

•· Only about 3% of the cases that were filed ended up advancing through trial, with the remainder presumably dismissed or settled.

•· In contract cases, plaintiffs won 66% of cases. Tort plaintiffs won 52%. Plaintiffs won 56% of all trials in the study.

•· Juries found for the plaintiff 54% of the time. Judges were more likely to find for the plaintiff in the cases they tried, 68% of the time.

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William Cahow worked at American Special Risk Management Corporation (American).  He opened an account in the name of “Bill Cahow d/b/a American Special Risk Management” at Peoples Bank, and over the course of eight years  he improperly endorsed checks that belonged to American and deposited them into his own account.  His practice of taking his employer’s funds began to fall apart when one of American’s clients became suspicious about the endorsement on a check the client had issued. 

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A new study, commissioned by Compuware Corporation and conducted by the Ponemon Institute, on the Uncertainty of Data Breach Protection, was released earlier this week. The study reveals that insiders caused 75 percent of all data breaches in the United States and outsiders (external hackers) caused 1 percent of all of the data breaches in the U.S. In addition, the study shows that over 40 percent of all data breaches occurred in a mainframe environment. How did the insiders cause the breach? The study suggests negligence as the primary reason but also reveals outsourcing and malicious employees as problematic.

The Playstation 2 entertainment system and a multimedia liability policy were the focal points in a federal appeal decided recently in which a divided court determined what the policy meant when it covered “negligent publication” and also held that coverage was not created by a carve-back in an exclusion.

The case involved Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. (Sony) and its marketing of the Playstation 2 as being an entertainment system capable of playing audio and video CDs and DVDs as well as video games.  A class action complaint against Sony alleged that the device had an inherent design defect that rendered it incapable of playing DVDs and some game discs.  The complaint was in California and alleged a litany of torts, including false advertising and negligent misrepresentation for saying the device played DVDs.

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As previously discussed, Target was sued by the National Federation of the Blind for allegedly failing to make the Target website accessible to the blind. The lawsuit was certified as a class action and was recently settled. The settlement requires Target to establish a fund in the amount of $6,000,000 for claimants as well as update its website to be accessible to the blind. Target previously claimed that there was not a law in place that could require it to make its website accessible to the blind.

Euclid Managers is pleased to expand individual points-of-view on our blog with the following article contributed by a guest, David Lewison, vice president/broker, Colemont Insurance Brokers.  If you would like to consider being a guest writer on our blog, contact Marcia.

It is time once again to dispel any myths that your personal activities are completely safe from monitoring by your employer.  While many people are focusing on the privacy of their identity, social security number and credit card numbers, your privacy rights are very limited when it comes to your employer’s interests.  As you will see, many people wrongly assume that their communications between friends cannot be monitored by their employers. 

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The New York Times recently reported on a new study of civil lawsuits.  The study included about 2,000 cases that went to trial between 2002 and 2005 and the findings are scheduled for publication in the September issue of the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.  The study’s focus included information about whether or not it was financially better for plaintiffs and defendants to settle or proceed to trial. Here are a few of the study findings:

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