Florida Bar Journal articles from January 2004

Florida Bar Journal archives from January 2004

Pilot Life pushed ERISA's preemption pendulum to the top of its arc, but didn't suspend the law of gravity.
January 1, 2004... Congress' stated purpose for enacting the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. [section] 1001 et seq. (ERISA), was to "protect... participants in employee benefit plans and their beneficiaries,.., by establishing standards...

Preparing yourself and your client for an appearance before a health care licensing board on disciplinary matters.
January 1, 2004... If defending a health care practitioner before his or her respective licensing board ("the board" or "boards") in Florida is not a routine occurrence for you, the task may appear quite daunting. Where do you begin? Like most every task in law,...

Entitlement to attorneys' fees under FDUTPA.(Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act)
January 1, 2004... Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, F.S. [section]501.201 et seq., is a potentially powerful tool to redress unfair and deceptive trade practices as well as unfair methods of competition. However, uncertainty over the thrust of...

Judicial review of administrative immigration decisions: can the doctrine of "ejusdem generis" save it from extinction?
January 1, 2004... Until recently, immigration lawyers took for granted federal court jurisdiction to review denials of applications for work visas and other immigration benefits. Historically, judicial review has served as an important check on the government's...

A new prescription for an old headache: calculating judgments in medical malpractice actions under F.S. [section]766.118 (2003).(Florida)
January 1, 2004... Understanding how final judgments are calculated is crucial to the ability to evaluate a case at any stage of the litigation, for plaintiffs and defendants alike. The task of calculating the amounts owed by defendants following trials involving...

Florida's supervised visitation programs: the next phase.
January 1, 2004... Enormous changes have taken place since 1997, the last time The Florida Bar Journal included detailed information about supervised visitation programs in Florida. (1) At that time, 15 programs supervised a few thousand visits by nonresidential...

Tax and ERISA considerations associated with nonqualified severance benefit plans sponsored by professional C corporations.
January 1, 2004... Employers have used nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements for decades. They have been to used to accomplish various business goals and objectives and have been given many different names depending on the purpose of the arrangement or...

Classification and valuation of damages under Title VII.
January 1, 2004... The starting point for any valuation of liability in an employment case is a review of the particular statutes that define and limit the available relief. The case law interpreting these statutes is useful, but does not substitute for the...

Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, The Rake Who Wrote the Constitution.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... by Richard Brookhiser Richard Brookhiser has written a brisk, insightful biography of one of the lesser-known founding fathers. Attorney, principal drafter of the U.S. Constitution, and ladies' man--not necessarily in that...

Negotiating and Drafting Contract Boilerplate.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Negotiating and Drafting Contract Boilerplate (Tina L. Stark, editor-inchief and coauthor) fills a big gap in contract drafting materials. Here at last, in one place, is a masterful analysis of so-called "standard" or "boilerplate" provisions,...