Featured Publications

Hospitality Industry: Changes to Gift Card Laws May Impact Hotel Gift Card Programs Alert - November 4, 2009

As hotels seek to expand their customer bases during these difficult economic times, one potential source of income and customers has been the rather prolific growth in gift card sales. Everyone is getting into the gift card game – restaurants, retailers, hotel companies, gas stations and more. Sales in 2008 alone totaled approximately $90 billion. For hotel companies, when someone purchases or gives a hotel gift card, it creates an opportunity to attract a new or returning customer to spend money at a hotel. However, implementing these programs requires careful consideration of both state and federal laws – which are complicated, sometimes inconsistent but necessary to understand in order to avoid fines and penalties for improperly designed programs.

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International Trade: Alert - November 3, 2009

The Obama administration has adopted a dual-track strategy toward Iran by opening a dialogue while also laying the groundwork for tougher sanctions. In addition to discussing this and other developments in U.S.-Iran relations, this alert examines what tougher sanctions – as well as pending House and Senate bills and increasingly aggressive actions taken by federal agencies against specific foreign entities that are believed to have violated U.S. embargo or export laws – could mean for foreign companies and U.S. subsidiaries that do business with Iran, particularly its petroleum industry.

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Articles & White Papers

Georgia Supreme Court Rejects Constitutional Challenge To Expert Testimony Law
 

Washington Legal Foundation

June 27, 2008
 
Robert S. Highsmith- Atlanta

In 2005, the Georgia General Assembly enacted tort reform legislation that affected the state’s existing laws on venue, medical malpractice claims, offers of judgment, and damage awards in certain civil actions. As part of Senate Bill 3, the General Assembly enacted O.C.G.A. section 24-9-67.1, which governs the admission of expert testimony in civil cases.1 In Mason v. Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. et al., 283 Ga. 271, 658 S.E.2d 603 (2008), the Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the constitutionality of the statute over challenges on several fronts. The decision in Mason provides for a uniform approach to the analysis of the admissibility of expert testimony in line with the Federal Rules of Evidence and also paves the way for Georgia’s trial courts to require expert testimony to meet higher standards for admissibility than perhaps any other state in the nation.

READ: Georgia Supreme Court Rejects Constitutional Challenge To Expert Testimony Law

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