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Equal Access to Justice Act Attorney’s Fees Issue In Kellems v. Astrue, No. 09-10676, the court vacated plaintiff’s appeal from the denial of social security benefits, the district court’s order awarding attorney’s fees to plaintiff, where a federal court may not order an award of attorney’s fees for work performed before a federal agency pursuant to 42 U.S.C. section 406(a) to be offset by an award of attorney’s fees for work performed before a federal court pursuant to the Equal Access to Justice Act....

Big, roomy computer monitors are essential for comfortable lawyering. You spend a lot of your time at your desk, and a big monitor allows you to have multiple documents open side-by-side. But monitors, like every other part of your desk, are governed by the iron-clad Law of Ergonomics. If your monitor is too close, or too high, or too low, you can end up with a sore neck, a sore back, or both....

Mississippi’s governor and its executive director of the state’s Department of Human Services are asking the Fifth Circuit to stay a federal court’s preliminary injunction against the state’s Religious Liberty Accommodations Act, known as HB 1523. That law seeks to protect opponents of gay marriage in both public and private services, who take actions “based upon or in a manner consistent with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.”...

Some 800,000 young illegal immigrants no longer face deportation under the Obama administration’s new policy, announced Friday. The change could mean a wave of new clients for immigration lawyers. The new rules technically allow “deferred action” regarding deportation for illegal immigrants who fit certain criteria, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano explained. “This grant … is not immunity, it is not amnesty,” she said, according to Reuters. It’s also “not a path to citizenship,” President Barack Obama emphasized in announcing the new policy at the White House....

We haven’t seen it. You shouldn’t. We’re certainly not going to link to it. You could Google “2 Girls, 1 Cup,” but there is a strong possibility that your soul will die after a few seconds of grainy YouTube footage. We’d recommend avoiding it. So what is it? It was a scat fetish video that sexualized two women doing odd things with fecal matter (that was in a single cup). Bad times....

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in a case about a controversial North Carolina abortion law yesterday. The Woman’s Right to Know Act requires a doctor providing an abortion to give the patient an ultrasound at least four hours before an abortion and requires the doctor to show the woman the fetus on the ultrasound display and describe the fetus. The woman doesn’t have to watch or listen, but the doctor is required to go through with the charade even if she doesn’t....

America is still murmuring about Emil Michael, the Uber executive who developed a case of foot-in-mouth disease at a dinner party last week. BuzzFeed reported that Michael wanted to create a team within Uber to dig up dirt on journalists critical of the ridesharing service and publicly embarrass them. That went about as well as you’d expect, with angry customers claiming they’d deleted the app and Senator Al Franken asking more questions about what Uber does with all of that private data....

U.S. News and World Report is out with its annual law school rankings list. Should you consider these rankings when hiring new associates or staff members? The U.S. News rankings are important for many potential law students – and many more law school admissions officers. However, for managers at small and midsized law firms, law school rankings have been known to affect hiring decisions as well. There are different schools of thought when it comes to using law school rankings in the hiring process at your firm....

In a previous piece, we gave a few pointers for how to escape law as a career. That was meant for those who gave it their best but decided that the honeymoon of law was over. If you still have some love left for the law, but you’re otherwise feeling burnt out, you should consider looking for other practice areas. Fortunately, you’re not the only one (nor will you be the last) who has considered a practice change....

Tesla is pushing the envelope with its autopilot technology, but it’s also pushing back customers who want the crash data on their cars. The company collects driver-data from its cars to develop the technology. However, Tesla makes customers pay nearly $1,000 for software to access the information. It is only a summary, according to reports. Drivers say the company is telling them to go to court if they want more....

District court’s conviction and sentence of defendant for possession of cocaine base with intent to distribute and carrying a firearm is affirmed where: 1) district court did not err in admitting the testimony of the Massachusetts State Troopers regarding the fingerprint evidence and numerous courts have found expert testimony on fingerprint identification based on the ACE-V method to be sufficiently reliable under Daubert; and 2) the totality of the evidence was sufficient to support the verdict....

Visa and MasterCard have reached a settlement with plaintiffs in what is reportedly the largest antitrust case to date. The suit dates back to 2005 when merchants began filing price-fixing lawsuits against the credit card giants and the banks who issue the cards. It grew into a class-action claim that Visa and MasterCard were working together on how much to charge merchants for each credit card transaction. The final settlement represents a significant change in credit card swipe regulations and a sizable chunk of cash flowing from Visa and MasterCard to individual merchants....

A federal appeals court ruled that a worker can claim emotional distress damages for an employer’s retaliation on a wage claim. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals joined other federal circuits in considering remedies available to workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The appellate court said the FLSA authorizes emotional damages as “legal and equitable relief” on account of employer retaliation. In reversing and remanding, the appeals panel said the trial court must consider additional evidence of emotional distress and award damages accordingly....

Is this deja vu, or deja deja deja vu? Back in April, Senate Republicans rejected the Paycheck Fairness Act of 2014. At the time, The Washington Post noted that it was the third attempt in recent years to pass the wage equality legislation. But hey, maybe the fourth time would be a charm? No. Not at all. This time, according to The Hill, Wednesday’s vote was 52-40, short of the 60-vote procedural hurdle needed to advance....

If you run your own small practice, you understand the importance of marketing. Law offices, like any business, need to find a niche. Granted, his firm’s name is still “Mason & Associates, P.C.” After all, scribbling “My Bald Lawyer, Attorneys at Law” on top of a court filing would likely seem off-putting to a judge. But the firm’s site does illustrate a point: maybe humor can work in your favor....

Federal prosecutors have secured the extradition of Richard O’Dwyer, a British college student accused of criminal copyright infringement. The 23-year-old ran TVShack, a linking site that directed users to copyrighted TV shows and movies found elsewhere on the web. The decision to go after the British citizen has been called both strange and rare. TV Shack was operated and hosted abroad, and the only apparent connection to the U.S. was the material it linked to....

Under California’s new legal marijuana laws, in order for a marijuana business that rents space to be licensed, the business’s landlord must provide a written acknowledgment that they know their property is being used by a commercial marijuana business. Basically, pot shops need to get their landlord’s permission to operate. But, making landlords acknowledge in writing that they know their property is being used by a marijuana business might be trickier than it sounds, especially because it could potentially result in backlash under federal law (which is actually now a concern)....

The Supreme Court’s decision last term in Dorsey v. United States has been a bit of a letdown for crack defendants. Despite the Court’s finding that the Fair Sentencing Act’s new, lower mandatory minimums apply to the post-Act sentencing of pre-Act offenders, most of the published opinions analyzing post-Dorsey sentencing challenges have upheld the defendants’ original sentences. Monday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals finally decided to give a defendant a break....

Internet users were in an uproar last week when countless news services issued reports detailing the growing practice of employers asking job applicants for their Facebook passwords. Facebook itself even spoke out, suggesting that it would consider taking action. The incident also prompted some House Democrats to add an amendment to a piece of Federal Communications Commission legislation up for vote. To the dismay of some, that Facebook password bill was blocked by House Republicans in a 236 to 184 vote....

Less than a week after hearing oral arguments in the Texas sonogram bill appeal, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state can enforce the law while plaintiffs proceed with their challenge in court. Writing for the three-judge panel, Chief Judge Edith Jones nixed District Judge Sam Sparks’ temporary order blocking enforcement of Texas H.B. 15. The bill requires a doctor to perform a sonogram on a woman requesting an abortion at least 24 hours before the procedure, describe the unborn child, and list agencies that offer alternatives to abortion....