Posts

The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a battery claim against a doctor who allegedly failed to properly inform his patient of the attendant risks of a surgical procedure. The case of Bradley v. Sugarbaker has a number of legal issues within it, but we’ll focus on the plaintiff’s theory of battery against the operating doctor. The 2002 Crash and Scan Mrs. Bradley, a law librarian, was involved in a car accident in 2002....

We’ve all had difficult clients, be they the kind who refuse to pay up or who, after an hour on Wikipedia, decide they know the law better than you. But what if we could get rid of them altogether? You can avoid bad clients, by refusing to take them on in the first place. If you see one of these five terrible client types, stay away! No matter how much you bill, they won’t be worth it....

The first video was uploaded to YouTube on Saturday, April 23, 2005. In January 2007, Netflix started streaming video. It’s been a slow journey, but now, more than ever, online video is becoming the next big thing. New media and old media alike, everyone wants to push web content. And with more content comes a new advertising medium. Should you be an early adopter? Who is Your Audience? One nagging concern that we can’t shake were the discussions of video content by law bloggers at the Above the Law conference a few months ago....

In a move that has surprised many in the Pennsylvania legal community, a group of court-appointed death penalty attorneys led by Marc Bookman has filed suit against the Commonwealth for the lackluster rates it pays in homicide cases. Surprisingly, the suit isn’t actually about attorneys’ fees and unwanted court appointments. No, it’s about clients and their constitutional rights. Marc Bookman is actually a former public defender who currently runs his own death penalty non-profit, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer....

The seat was Judge William Thomas’s, until it wasn’t. He was approved by both Florida senators, vetted, and appeared set for the nomination to replace now-Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Adalberto Jordan. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) had a change of heart and blue-slip blocked the nomination, allegedly due to Judge Thomas’s “judicial temperament” and doubt about his ability to hand out fair sentences. Many believe the move was political, and due to Judge Thomas’s sexual orientation....

Most lawyers say that lawsuits involving social media and mobile devices are increasing, according to a new survey. Based on 200 telephone interviews with lawyers from the largest law firms and companies in the United States, the Robert Half survey also said that 27 percent of the respondents reported more cases with personal media devices that employees use at work. “Electronic evidence retrieved during discovery, including emails, tweets, text messages and photos, as well as GPS and web browsing history, is often enough to make or break a case,” said Charles Volkert, senior district president of Robert Half Legal....

If you’re predicting a personal Armageddon, you better think of a backup plan soon. Rumor has it the net’s biggest companies are planning a full-blown SOPA blackout. If carried out, search engines and social media websites will “black out” just days before the bill is scheduled for a vote. The sites will turn black, and users will be greeted with an anti-censorship warning and a plea to contact their representatives....

Technovators sometimes rush to the market with new ideas, hoping for brand recognition before competitors can catch up. It can work, but there are trade-offs. Without protection for intellectual property, for example, a startup can fall down fast. Once in a while, the courts and lawyers have to tell innovators to slow down. There’s an old rule: the horse is supposed to go before the cart. “On-Sale” Bar In Helsinn Healthcare v....

Twenty-five years ago, there was no social media. We were all saying “no to drugs.” Recognition of same-sex marriage was an issue outside of the national consciousness. And Flashdance was charming its way into our hearts. We know “the times they are a-changin’” is a bit of a cliché, but in this case, it rings true. The question for you is: are your workplace policies changing along with them? Reevaluate Your Benefits Packages and Policies For most employers, this will be the biggest set of changes to address for the upcoming year....

Law practice today isn’t the same as it was a generation or two ago. Attorneys in the modern law office are more likely than ever to rely on technology, innovative marketing, or alternative practice structures. At the same time, some things remain constant, especially the need for competent attorneys, stellar support staff, and effective management. With that in mind, here are six tips for running a modern law office, taken from the best posts in the FindLaw archives....

On January 22, 2014, Maxim Marketing sued ConAgra and Trader Joes’ for breach of contract regarding one of our personal favorite salty/sweet snacks – peanut butter-filled pretzels – in Los Angeles Superior Court (case number BC533822), reports the Los Angeles Business Journal. How could something so delicious stir up so much controversy? Easy – it all comes down to money. In the complaint, Maxim states that ConAgra and Trader Joe’s engaged in an “unlawful conspiracy to eliminate competition in, and ultimately to monopolize, the peanut butter filled pocket pretzel market … and unlawfully stole Maxim’s business,” reports The Orange County Register....

It’s not much of a secret around here that I despise Windows 8.1. I’m not the only one – its market share is in single-digit territory – but I haven’t exactly been shy about my feelings: It was a terrible mistake by Microsoft to push a touch-first operating system on everyone, especially corporate, legal, and other business users whose keyboard-and-mouse setups did not play well with the OS. On Friday, I bought my first Windows 8....

Hobby Lobby was about a lot of things: religious rights of corporations, substantial burdens, compelling interests in contraception, readily available alternative means to provide contraception, and dictionaries. The end result was this: closely held corporations with religious owners can’t be forced to pay for health coverage that provides contraception, especially since there is an existing exemption program for religious nonprofits that these employers could easily be wedged into. But what if that exemption program itself, which requires the organization to fill out a form and find a third-party administrator to provide contraceptive coverage on the government’s dime, is a burden on religion?...

The big winner this election cycle wasn’t just Donald Trump. It was recreational, legalized marijuana. (Okay, sort of legalized. The federal government, of course, continues to classify marijuana as an illegal drug. More on that in a minute.) Voters in California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and possibly Maine all voted to legalize recreational marijuana use. That means that now one out of every five Americans lives in a state where recreational weed is legal or is about to become legal....

Here in Silicon Valley, it’s not uncommon to see a tech millionaire zip by in their new electric Tesla sportscar, or to see those millionaire’s secretaries sending gas money to their carpool through PayPal. Kids dream of privatized space travel; commuters long for super high speed rail. We’ve often said small firms and solos need to think about their work as both a profession and a business. Part of business success is looking at business leaders....

If you want to get away from discussions of the Supreme Court’s same sex marriage cases this month, you’ll need to institute a total media blackout. And you’ll have to stop talking to other businesses. This week, hundreds of American companies signed on to an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). From Goldman Sachs to Google, Nike to Twitter, Adobe to Zynga, numerous titans of American industry want the Court to overrule the law....

Byron Allen, a comedian-turned-producer, hasn’t worried too much about racial censors in his career. He once called President Barack Obama a white president in black face. In a later meeting with Obama, he used the “N-word” to complain about a business issue. Now Allen is suing a major cable company for racial discrimination. So far, free speech is on his side. Free Speech – Not Allen sued on behalf of his company, Entertainment Studios Network, and other media businesses owned by African-Americans....

In Reed v. City of Arlington, No. 08-11098, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case in which debtors omitted a pending $1 million-plus judgment from their sworn statements and bankruptcy filings, the discharge of the debtor’s debts is reversed where, to protect the integrity of judicial processes, judicial estoppel barred the trustee from collecting the judgment. In US v. Williams, No. 09-30528, the court affirmed Defendant’s conviction of illegal possession of a “Masterpiece MAC-9mm”-style assault rifle in violation of 18 U....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Google Glass brings the Internet right to your face. Indeed, it brings computer functionality to an eyeglass device. So now, you can frolic online literally while on the go. Is that a good thing? Well, we already live our lives via all sorts of technology, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Do we need more?...

When CEOs decide to skirt the law via photoshop, it can often be spectacular and spectacularly backfire. One example of this is courtesy of the CEO of Natural Sapphire Company, who forged court orders to force Google to remove malicious websites posting false and misleading reviews about the company from their search results. And though three lefts may make a right, two wrongs certainly do not. In this case, the CEO just learned that he will have nine months behind bars to think about that (and probably his flagrantly irresponsible use of email too)....