The online legal researcher. The one whose non-lawyer friends know better. The one who wants updates daily. The one who wants to double-check your work. There are a lot of kinds of irritating clients out there, and while any one of these people might be tolerable, there may come a point where you just can’t stand it anymore. You’re going to have to quit representation. How to do it? Well, there’s the ethical way, which is heavily circumscribed....
When it comes to email scams, lawyers are finding themselves in the plaintiff’s seat but not as the representative. A widespread scam that targets lawyers and law firms is making them the victims in need of legal assistance. So far, lawyers have lost as much as $70 million to these scammers since 2009. The scams rely on sophisticated counterfeit checks and money orders. They draw lawyers in because they mimic the method many law firms rely on to bring in clients....
For the defendant in a multi-million dollar fraud case, it was not a good sign when a juror walked into deliberations wearing a T-shirt that said, “American Greed.” After the jury returned a guilty verdict, the defense attorney filed a motion to interview the juror to find out if he had pre-judged the case and influenced other jurors. The trial judge denied the motion, and an appeals court affirmed. In United States of America v....
The smart phone war is being waged in the courts, and the Nokia-Apple battle is heating up. The two phone manufacturers have been engaged in a patent dispute since 2009. Adding to the never-ending litigation, Nokia has added seven more allegedly infringed patents to its list this week. The new complaints follow a ruling by a U.S. trade panel judge dismissing five others. Cell phone manufacturing is a Nokia-Apple dominated market....
“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.” Isaiah 11:6. Are the end times upon us? Surely some revelation is at hand. Because only cosmic intervention can explain the announcement yesterday from eternal rivals Google and Microsoft: the two tech giants have come to “an agreement on patent issues” and will dismiss all pending patent litigation – about 20 lawsuits in total....
It’s a disgraceful ending after years in the service, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to disturb a lower court’s criminal conviction of a retired U.S. Army Colonel who was earlier found by a jury to have knowingly defrauded the US government. Sixteen counts of wire fraud will be difficult to overcome, no doubt. Thomas Gregory Harris is a retired U.S. Army colonel and was the Sr. Vice President of Luster National, Inc....
The latest ‘smart device’ to make headlines isn’t an expensive watch or fancy phone, it’s the city of San Francisco. The City by the Bay has entered into a year-long pilot program with the French tech company Sigfox to create a city-wide wireless network dedicated only to the Internet of Things, that ever growing network of web-connected smart devices. The project puts San Francisco at the forefront of IoT-friendly cities, but has raised predictable concerns about the safety and privacy of user’s data....
The Stingray, you’ll recall from our many stories about it, is one of our favorite bits of nefarious surveillance technology. Many of the details about the device are kept secret, but we do know that it tricks nearby cell phones into thinking it’s a cell tower, and when the phones connect to it, the Stingray intercepts all the data the phone sends. Ars Technica reported earlier this week on another wrinkle in the ongoing saga of the Stingray: A law enforcement agency in California has used it over 300 times in the last year, thanks to questionable warrant applications....
FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Technology has advanced to the point that videos can be doctored in terms of words spoken or physical actions taken to the point that those videos can look quite authentic. Why is this problematical? Imagine that a doctored video goes viral that shows a major world leader announcing the he immediately intends to have his country deploy nuclear weapons to strike another country....
You’ve been billing eighty hours a week for eight years and partnership is still eluding you. You’re constantly gearing up for trial – only to have all your cases settle. You haven’t had a weekend off with the family in 3 years. And let’s just say it’s not all rainbows and unicorns … When you make the transition to in-house counsel you’ll take a bit of a pay cut, which probably won’t bother you at first because the trade-off is a social life....
Contingency fees versus hourly fees– which is the appropriate standard in a class action lawsuit? Last Friday, the First Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a class action attorneys’ fees award in a lawsuit against Volkswagen and Audi, reports Thomson Reuters News & Insight. The First Circuit held that the district court applied the improper standard when awarding attorneys’ fees based on the size of the overall settlement. The court awarded $30 million....
It’s relatively easy to network within your organization when you work at a law firm. After all, everyone is a lawyer and they have a very good understanding of what you do. However, when you work as in house counsel at a non-law related business, networking, building connections and making your achievements stand out to a room full of non-lawyers can present its challenges. This is especially true when most people have a negative impression of what lawyers do....
Already bored with tomorrow? Want to get ahead of the next few years? Then think about bringing some cutting edge technology into your practice. It’s not too hard to become George Jetson, Esq., if you’re willing to be an early adopter. Promising technology offers simple conveniences and supposedly industry changing disruptions. Here are a few tech trends that we think will alter the way firms operate in the near future....
According to the Fifth Circuit, citizens do not have a fundamental right to own or possess machine guns under the Bill of Rights. It’s a blow to Rambo and Commando fans nationwide. The case of Hollis v. ATF might very well be the next case to draw a line in the sand after Heller with respect to Americans and their guns. Mr. Hollis and His M-16 Mr. Jay Hollis petitioned the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives through his separate trust to convert his AR-15 to an M-16 automatic firearm....
In Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline, LLC v. ECHO Easement Corridor, LLC, No. 09-1607, the First Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s judgment in favor of the defendants in plaintiff’s suit for a declaratory judgment, among other claims, that it possessed sufficient rights over an easement corridor to allow it to use the easement for the purposes of constructing, operating, and maintaining a natural gas compressor station on a property north of the easement....
FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Smartphones now provide the ability for users impulsively to take photographs and videos of life as it happens. And lovers in the midst of passion at times record their amorous activities with the intent of keeping revealing photos and videos private. What happens, though, when love dies, but the photos and videos remain? Do they stay private?...
Remand of plaintiff’s breach of contract suit to state court based on forum selection clause FindWhere Holdings, Inc. v. Sys. Env’t Optimization, 09-2155, concerned a plaintiff’s suit seeking damages for breach of contract against defendant, its subsidiary, and two other individuals, arising from a contract wherein defendant agreed to act as plaintiff’s exclusive reseller of global positioning systems (GPS) in several countries in the Middle East. Related Link: Read the Fourth Circuit’s Full Decision in FindWhere Holdings, Inc....
In an action challenging amendments to Puerto Rico’s Compulsory Motor Vehicle Liability Insurance Act, district court judgment is affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded where: 1) the court erred in dismissing plaintiff’s takings clause claim, as their takings claim for declaratory and injunctive relief is ripe despite the failure to utilize Procedure No. 96 to pursue their administrative remedy; 2) although plaintiffs have a sufficient property interest in the duplicate premiums for purposes of due process, further proceedings are necessary to determine whether the transfers to the Secretary of Treasury constitutes a sufficient deprivation of that property interest to require notice under the Due Process Clause; 3) the court properly dismissed plaintiff’s equal protection claim as neither law is directed to a protected class, and the Commonwealth’s action is rational and serves the legitimate end of balancing the budget; 4) the court properly granted qualified immunity to defendants; and 5) the court erred in denying class certification as plaintiffs satisfied all the requirements necessary to certify a class....
What’s going on with the Federal Trade Commission’s Google antitrust investigation? Commission officials piqued the industry’s curiosity last week when they announced that they had hired litigator Beth A. Wilkinson to assist in the investigation. The Paul Weiss partner is a former Justice Department prosecutor, and some have compared her hiring to that of David Boies when the government sued Microsoft. Others just see it as proof that the FTC is prepared to litigate should Google not bend to its terms....
They’re common refrains heard ‘round Tigerland thanks to a star cornerback and a hit YouTube video. “Honey Badger takes what he wants.” “Honey Badger don’t care.” But according to the Louisiana State University (LSU) Compliance Office, Honey Badger does care. The Honey Badger in question is LSU cornerback Tyrann Mathieu, whose wily defensive plays have earned him comparisons to “the most fearless little animal in the world,” reports USA Today....
