The Supreme Court of Ohio affirmed a decision by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio authorizing FI&C client The Dayton Power and Light Company to implement certain charges to recover costs that DP&L incurred to implement a new billing system.
DP&L was represented in that matter by Charlie Faruki and Jeff Sharkey, who had filed a motion to dismiss the appeal, arguing that the issues raised in the appeal were decided by a prior Ohio Supreme Court ruling. The Court agreed that the issues raised in the appeal were disposed of by its prior ruling, and the Court therefore affirmed the PUCO's decision.

In class action litigation that the defendant had attempted to remove from Common Pleas Court to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Charlie Faruki and Don Burton made successful arguments under the Class Action Fairness Act to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, resulting in a ruling rejecting the defendant's petition for permission to appeal the District Court Order remanding the action to state court.
Under the Class Action Fairness Act, after a putative class action is remanded, the courts of appeals may review orders granting or denying a motion to remand a class action, for asserted errors in the application of the Class Action Fairness Act, but review by the court of appeals is discretionary. The Sixth Circuit denied the defendant's petition for permission to appeal, leaving intact the order of remand to state court.

Charlie Faruki spoke this month at a CLE program sponsored by the DBA titled: "Update With The Federal Judges."
The four federal Judges who sit in Dayton (Judge Walter H. Rice, Judge Thomas M. Rose, Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz, and Magistrate Judge Sharon L. Ovington), and Charlie, were the five-person panel for the program. The topics addressed by the panel included the electronic discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which became effective December 1, 2006, electronic filing in federal court; the mediation program, and settlement, in the federal courts locally; use of the Magistrate Judges locally; and changes and developments in local practice and procedure. During the half-day program, the panel took questions from the audience.

Ron Raether educated participants of a Webcast on the recent changes to the Federal Rules concerning electronic evidence.
The December 7, 2006 Webcast was broadcasted nationally and was sponsored by the West LegaledCenter. The seminar, titled "E-Discovery and Computer Forensics: Effectively Preserving Evidence," focused on teaching legal professionals the current rules applicable to the collection, production and use of electronic evidence in federal courts. The written materials for the December presentation can be found at http://www.ficlaw.com/publications/raether/AV37510 National 36873.pdf.

FI&C associates John Fischer and Andy Reitz published Preventing Privacy Policy Pitfalls: Avoiding FTC Inquiries Into Privacy Policy Compliance Procedures in the December 2006 edition of Mealey's Privacy Report.
In the article, John and Andy analyze actions instituted by the Federal Trade Commission against companies that have violated their own Internet privacy policies by disclosing personal information collected from customers of their Internet sites. They also provide guidelines for developing and implementing an Internet privacy policy. John and Andy devote a portion of their practice to privacy-related litigation. Mealey's Privacy Report is a service of LexisNexis and provides articles and information relating to privacy law.

Chad Burton organized a seminar on December 11, 2006, that was sponsored by the Young Lawyers Committee for the Dayton Bar Association.
The seminar, which was entitled "360° Dispositive Motion Practice," featured a panel consisting of The Honorable Sharon Ovington, The Honorable Jeffrey Froelich, Victoria Nilles, and Chad. The panel discussed dispositive motion practice from the vantage points of judges, judicial law clerks and lawyers. Chad is the Chair of the Young Lawyers Committee, and several FI&C associates are active members.