The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware modified its COVID-19 standing order today by continuing all civil and criminal jury selections and jury trials scheduled to begin before August 31, 2020. Jury proceedings affected by the Order will be reset by further order of the assigned judge... Continue Reading

Virtually all companies generate unclaimed property. This type of property includes unclaimed payroll or accounts payable checks, unapplied customer credits, and unclaimed dividends or shares. Under laws that exist in every state, property that is unclaimed by the owner after a defined period of time must be paid to the state of the last known address of the owner or, if that address is unknown,... Continue Reading

The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware issued Re-Opening Guidelines today, describing a four-phase reopening and providing policies to be followed at each stage... Continue Reading

The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware modified its COVID-19 standing order today. Although the Court remains open, all jury trials scheduled to begin before June 30, 2020, are continued under the revised order. Jury proceedings affected by the order will be reset by further order of the assigned judge. The Court has provided, however, that individual judicial officers may continue... Continue Reading

On May 21, 2020, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an opinion denying a holder’s ripeness challenge to an administrative subpoena for documents issued by the Delaware Department of Finance pursuant to the amended provisions of the State’s abandoned and unclaimed property law.  In State of Delaware Department of Finance v. Univar, Inc., the Delaware Department of Finance filed a summary... Continue Reading

The first quarter of 2020 has brought interesting Delaware law developments for private, venture-backed companies. As is often the case, arising issues for companies in the venture capital and private equity space have had a different emphasis from the public company area. While public companies may be considering issues such as “virtual” stockholder meetings, delayed... Continue Reading

Unclaimed property is an arcane concept, a modern outgrowth of ancient legal principles. These principles, as recognized in a series of U.S. Supreme Court opinions, provide the State the right to take custody of abandoned property – uncashed checks, unclaimed bank accounts, stock certificates and much more – in the possession of a person or company (i.e., “holders”), which has not been... Continue Reading

One of the many significant developments in the field of trust lawover the past decade has been the increasing popularity of socalled “silent trusts”. The term “silent trust” generally describes an arrangement in which a trustee is prohibited under the terms of a governing instrument from providing information to the trust’s beneficiaries, or where the trustee is relieved from its common... Continue Reading

Morris Nichols attorneys Todd Flubacher and J. Zachary Haupt authored three guides on Delaware law for Practical Law. Their Delaware Estate Tax Q&A guide addresses whether a jurisdiction has any estate tax or other similar taxes imposed at death and, for jurisdictions currently imposing a state estate tax... Continue Reading

The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware modified its COVID-19 standing order today. Although the Court remains open, all jury trials scheduled to begin before May 31, 2020, are continued under the revised order. Jury proceedings affected by the order will be reset by further order of the assigned judge... Continue Reading