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Action Alleging Indifference to Prisoner’s Medical Need In Parzyck v. Prison Health Servs., Inc., No. 09-12483, an action by a prisoner alleging that prison medical personnel were deliberately indifferent to his serious medical needs in violation of the Eighth Amendment, the court reversed the dismissal of the complaint for failure to exhaust administrative remedies where plaintiff demonstrated meticulous respect for the department of corrections’ administrative grievance procedures and gave prison officials ample opportunity to respond internally before defendant was brought into court, and thus plaintiff complied with the letter and purpose of 42 U....

Williamson County State’s Attorney Charles Garnati has been the court’s top prosecutor since 1984. That reign, however, may soon come to an end. The popularly-elected prosecutor could soon be disciplined by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, after the commission last month issued a complaint regarding Garnati’s conduct in a 2011 murder trial. During closing statements in the trial of black defendant Marcus Marshall, Garnati, who is white, repeatedly referred to race and mentioned “our white world” in his closing arguments to an all-white jury....

As a lawyer, it’s important to really remember one thing: you’re a lawyer and your conduct while lawyering and while not lawyering matters because it reflects upon the profession as a whole. To that end, lawyers really can’t threaten violence or much else besides legal action (pending exceptions), and doing so can often be more than just an ethics violation. It could very well be criminal. One lawyer learned this lesson the hard way when his emotions clearly seem to have got the best of him while he was a party in his child custody case....

One of the most anticipated cases of the term was argued earlier this week before the Supreme Court – ABC Inc., et al., v. Aereo, Inc. Aereo charges subscribers a small monthly fee to watch television programming (live or recorded) on their mobile devices. The service works by retransmitting content to subscribers over the Internet using individual dime-sized antennas. A group of television broadcasters including ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS, filed a complaint in federal court claiming that Aereo’s business violates their performance rights under copyright law....

Unless you have been spending the bulk of your time on the International Space Station lately, and even then, you have heard a great deal about the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC. That ruling, overturning decades of legal precedent and the bulk of the McCain Feingold Act will, most agree, send cannon balls of corporate money whizzing at high speed toward the election process, with potentially devastating results....

Vilela v. Holder, 10-1037, concerned a Brazilian citizen’s petition for review of a BIA’s final order of removal. In denying the petition, the court held that substantial evidence supported the IJ’s and BIA’s conclusions that petitioner failed to establish a nexus between the harm he had suffered and any protected ground, and failed to establish that what he suffered rose to the level of persecution. Correia v. Feeney, 09-2004, concerned a challenge to a denial of plaintiff’s motion for a new trial following a jury verdict in favor of the defendant, in the plaintiff’s suit against a police sergeant for violating his civil rights by means of false arrest and the use of excessive force....

Caliber Automotive Liquidators, Inc. v. Premier Chrysler, No. 08-16179, concerned a trademark infringement action involving service marks related to advertising promotions for car dealerships. The court of appeals reversed summary judgment for defendant, on the grounds that 1) plaintiff proffered competent summary judgment evidence of actual confusion of the car dealerships, the relevant purchasing population; and 2) the mark at issue had attained federal incontestible status, and thus the district court erred in holding that the mark was not entitled to strong protection....

Defendant’s conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm is affirmed where: 1) no constructive amendment of the indictment occurred because neither the evidence at trial nor the jury instructions implied that defendant could be convicted of anything other than being a felon in possession of a firearm that had been in and affecting interstate commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 922(g)(1); and 2) where a defendant’s stipulation to a prior felony offense uses the very language of the statute that defines that element of the offense, he has stipulated that the element is satisfied as a matter of fact and law....

On Wednesday, October 3, 2018, at 2:18 p.m. EST, the national Emergency Alert System established by the W.A.R.N. Act of 2006, will test the “Presidential Alert System” by sending a test warning to most cellular phones in the country. The test was originally scheduled for Thursday, September 20, however, the test has been delayed amid massive public backlash. One of the big reasons for the backlash involves the fact that, unlike other types of emergency alerts, there is no option to opt-out of these Presidential Alerts (at least for now)....

When you have a client throwing good money after bad, the only blood they’ll be able to squeeze out of that turnip is yours. That’s how that saying goes, right? If you discover that your client’s case lacks real value, or the defendant won’t be able to pay any judgment, it can often feel wallet deflating to tell a client that’s paying you, in advance, by the hour, that their case, while meritorious, is worthless (to them, not you)....

While Google has created a concept driverless car, Cadillac has decided that 2017 will be the year that we surrender to our robot overlords. That’s when it will release to the general public a car with “limited automated driving capabilities.” Details are very slim, but it probably won’t be as terrifying as Skynet or as awesome as KITT. With increased automation, though, comes the question: When there’s an accident in a driverless car, who will be responsible?...

Believe it or not, your font choice, or lack thereof, can tell a reader something about your writing. For example, Times New Roman has become regarded as the font of least resistance and can tell readers that the writer is simply apathetic. However, unless a court requires a particular font, and you’re not using Comic Sans or any overly embellished fonts, your legal documents, including court pleadings, can benefit from putting some thought into your font choice....

The American Bar Association House of Delegates has adopted new model rules for client trust accounts. The new rules reflect changes in banking laws, technology and legal practice. The ABA Model Rules for Client Trust Accounts Records will be sent to state courts for potential adoption for compliance with Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15. Under 1.15, lawyers must maintain complete records of client trust accounts and must render a full accounting of distribution and receipt of trust property....

The latest lawsuit against tech giant Apple claims that its newest signature product, the Apple Watch, has had a significant defect in every single model since debuting in 2015. The defect claimed in the lawsuit is almost comical and involves the device’s screen just popping off. The allegations claim that the problem is a known defect to Apple, but the company refuses to acknowledge it, nor provide warranty support for it (which is usually what the company does when known defects are acknowledged)....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was enacted decades ago to enable the citizenry the opportunity to monitor governmental affairs. As FOIA precedent has held, the public is entitled to find out and know “what the government is up to.” Indeed, upon request, the government is required to provide information about its activities unless prohibited by a narrow statutory exemption or otherwise prevented by law....

Citizens of Wake County will be able to go ahead in their challenge to North Carolina’s gerrymandered Board of Education election districts, following a ruling by the Fourth Circuit yesterday. After a regular, time-based redistricting saw the County school board elections swept by a Democratic majority, the state’s Republican legislature redrew the voting map, resulting in sizable population differences between districts, each of which elect a single board member. Thirteen Wake County citizens sued, arguing that the gerrymandering violated the principle of “one person, one vote....

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Comcast (which won’t matter soon if the Justice Department approves Comcast’s merger with Time Warner Cable), they go and do this. According to a lawsuit recently filed in San Francisco, Comcast secretly enabled a “feature” in Comcast-owned wireless routers that broadcasts a public wireless signal from those routers. Comcast is hijacking your wireless network! Well, sort of. But it’s still sneaky, if true....

E-discovery has been a blessing and a curse for most attorneys. While e-discovery has been something that most law firms have outsourced, there is more e-discovery in house going on than ever before. This allows corporations to conduct corporate e-discovery on a smaller budget, according to FindLaw’s Technologist Blog. But does that mean that an in house attorney is alone in ways to tackle e-discovery? It Helps You Stand Out: While most attorneys, even in house counsel don’t want to admit this, they may be overwhelmed with the new technology that comes with e-discovery....

When his brief was limited to only five pages, Bob Kohn made it a cartoon to save space. Kohn submitted the brief as part of a suit filed by the Justice Department against Apple and five publishers of E-Books. The complaint alleged price-fixing and three of the publishers settled the case, reports Bloomberg Businessweek. Kohn isn’t a party to the case but he asked the judge if he could submit an amicus brief....

Estate of Hevia v. Portrio Corp., No. 09-1096, involved a plaintiffs’ suit alleging that defendants infringed a copyright on architectural plans created by the deceased. Because the district court did not err in granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants on the copyright claim, the judgment is affirmed. However, defendants’ argument that the district court should have exercised its inherent powers to assess attorneys’ fees and costs against the plaintiffs is rejected....