We recently posted an article discussing Senate Bill 417, which revised Indiana’s statute on noncompete agreements between physicians and their employers, Indiana Code 25-22.5-5.5. A physician in northern Indiana may be the first to attempt to use the statute. The case is Lankford v. Lutheran Medical Group, filed in Allen…
A few months ago, we wrote an article about a bill in the Indiana General Assembly, Senate Bill 7, that would essentially ban noncompete agreements[1] between medical doctors and their employers. The General Assembly enacted the bill and Governor Holcomb signed it, but only after considerable revision. The ban was…
The Chicago Picasso in Daley Plaza, copyright 2023 Harshman Ponist Smith & Rayl Lawyers and others often say that “may” is permissive and “shall” is mandatory. By that, they mean that when a statute says a person “may” do something, that person has the discretion to do it or not,…
Update: Senate Bill 7 dealing with physician noncompete agreements was signed into law by the governor but in a form that differs significantly from the originally introduced version described in this article. Click here for a discussion of the final version of Senate Bill 7 that goes into effect on…
From a legal perspective, auctions are interesting transactions. Offer and acceptance in most sales Let’s start by discussing an ordinary contract for the sale of goods, one not created at auction. Law students learn in their first year that the formation of a contract requires, among other things, offer…
In a recent post, we discussed Rainbow Realty Group Inc., v. Carter, in which the Indiana Supreme Court considered whether a particular “rent-to-buy contract” was a land contract or a rental agreement. The court held that the transaction was a rental agreement, notwithstanding language in the contract that the transaction…
If you’re as old as I am, you might remember the television commercial in which twin sisters argued about the nature of Certs. One said, “Certs is a candy mint,” and her sister countered, “Certs is a breath mint.” A booming male voice over said, “Stop. You’re both right. Certs…
Until recently, almost all trade secret law was furnished by state law, not federal law. Absent federal diversity jurisdiction, lawsuits for misappropriation of trade secrets had to be brought in state court. Even though the vast majority of states (including Indiana) have adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“UTSA”),…
This begins an occasional series of posts on basics of business contracts, principles that apply broadly to most types of business and commercial contracts, regardless of the subject — merger agreements, stock purchase agreements, asset purchase agreements, construction contracts, professional service contracts, generic independent contractor agreements, advertising agency agreements, software and…
I am a fan of the radio show, A Way with Words. Over the weekend, I ran across a clip on their website discussing an experiment run by a company in London to demonstrate the risks of using public WiFi. The company set up a hotspot that offered free service…