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When it comes to running a law firm, especially small or solo practices, getting money through the door is the only way to keep the door open. As such, it can literally pay to accept credit cards and alternative payment options to checks and cold hard cash. Before you set up a new payment method for clients, you should review your state’s specific ethical considerations relating to the fees charged by credit card, and alternative payment, processors, like PayPal or Venmo....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. It already seems like the Presidential campaign has been going on forever. There have been countless debates, speeches and statements by and among the candidates. Some topics such as immigration and whether to build a wall have been rehashed over and over - beating dead horses further to death. But what is the one topic the candidates consistently ignore?...

LinkedIn endorsements aren’t the hardest kinds of endorsements to get. Your mother, your neighbor, even total strangers can endorse you for all sorts of skills, from complex civil litigation to organizing company softball teams. While colleagues can provide detailed recommendations, also featured prominently on your LinkedIn profile, endorsements are a simple thumbs up – a sign that someone stands behind your skills. But, do they matter? Another Form of Vetting Many potential employers, recruiters and clients often research candidates on LinkedIn and other sites....

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments on the legality of HB 56, the Alabama immigration law, on Thursday, March 1, according to WBRC. (The Eleventh Circuit famously avoids publishing its calendar on its website, so we’re forced to rely on third parties for these kinds of details.) The law – which mandates public school immigration status checks, criminalizes transporting undocumented immigrants, requires E-Verify checks of all potential employees’ status, and instructs police to check the immigration status of stopped person suspected of being an undocumented immigrant – has faced mounting obstacles between federal injunctions and public outcry....

A federal judge in New York has agreed to allow Italian fashion house Gucci to pursue a $26 million trademark lawsuit against Guess. The suit, first filed 3 years ago, accuses the American clothing company of trying to “Gucci-ize” its products. The Gucci-Guess lawsuit covers Gucci’s green and red stripe design; its script logo; its stylized “Square G” logo; and the “Quattro G” – a group of four interlocking “G"s. The company will only be able to pursue a traditional infringement theory – the judge dismissed all claims alleging trademark dilution....

As Occupy Wall Street protests rage on nationwide, it seems that America is having a Network moment. We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take this anymore. While it is unclear what “this” is, and how we’re going to avoid taking it, it no doubt involves sit-ins and clever signage. After all, what is a movement without branding? So with the anti-greed sentiment that is sweeping the media, it’s surprising that there has been almost no coverage of a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision this week that allows the rich to keep getting richer....

With more DIY legal products being offered to laypersons, have you considered starting a do-it-yourself law firm? The Internet has allowed potential legal clients to become more self-sufficient than ever. People are performing their own legal work like writing wills and incorporating companies. Others are coming into attorneys’ offices with perhaps more knowledge of their legal issue than the attorneys themselves. Still, a layperson will often want the security of having a professional set of eyes review his own work....

The legal profession has been under pressure to reduce costs and increase efficiency for years – and those pressures aren’t just being felt by major white-shoe firms. Clients are increasingly scrutinizing small and mid-sized firms about their efficiency, project management and cost, according to a report by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In a buyer’s market, many small and midsized firms are rising to the challenge – and reaping the benefits of increased client satisfaction and retention....

Of the many pains that accompany being a lawyer, perhaps one of the biggest hassles is keeping track of dates. Court Days Pro for iOS seeks to remedy this problem. But is it worth leaving your regular non-lawyer calendar app? The program turns your iPhone, iPad, or other iOS device into a court date calculating machine. By inputting rules for various “trigger” events, Court Days Pro will be able to instantly create all the deadlines that accompany it....

Reversing a $151 million judgment, a federal appeals court said Johnson & Johnson deserved a new trial over metal-on-metal hip replacements. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed on various grounds, but emphasized tainted evidence and “unequivocally deceptive” trial tactics. The appeals court said the plaintiffs’ attorney misled jurors by saying his expert witnesses were unpaid and the defense experts were “bought testimony.” The problem in Christopher v. DePuy Orthopaedics, the appeals court said, was the plaintiffs’ lawyer paid the experts after the trial....

It was the Western shootout that never happened. Cliven Bundy and his sons stood their ground against federal agents in an armed standoff outside his Nevada ranch. The Bundys refused – over their dead bodies – to pay federal grazing fees. They were charged with multiple felonies, but they didn’t stick. Like the shootout, it’s like they never happened. Losing Ground A federal judge in Las Vegas threw out the charges, and the Bundy family walked free....

In US v. Williams, No. 08-10185, the court of appeals vacated defendant’s life sentence as a career offender under U.S.S.G. section 4B1.1 following his conviction for possession of crack cocaine, holding that, in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Johnson, the fact of a conviction for felony battery on a law enforcement officer in Florida, standing alone, no longer satisfied the “crime of violence” enhancement criteria as defined under the “physical force” subdivision of section 4B1....

It’s usually pretty darn obvious that the significant other did it in most murder mystery television dramas. Sometimes, real life resembles TV drama, like when data from a Fitbit ends up being the critical piece of evidence in proving the spouse did in fact do it. The narrative isn’t exactly a selling point for Fitbit, but it’s not not. Apparently, a murder victim’s Fitbit shows time of death being an hour earlier than reported by the victim’s spouse to authorities....

Last week, Major League Baseball had its first protest upheld in more than two decades. The San Francisco Giants protested a called game, which the Chicago Cubs won 2-0 after five innings of play, thanks to a rain-out due to the Cubs’ grounds crew’s inability to pull the tarp over the field in time. (The Giants still lost, 2-1, when the rest of the game was made up.) To television viewers, and the hometown Cubs fans who booed the grounds crew, it appeared that they were short-handed....

You know of pro bono. You did some of that in law school: you know, providing free legal services to people who can’t afford them. But now that you’re working, you wonder, “Hey, whatever happened to pro bono work?” Sure, you can always go down to Legal Aid, but where else can you find pro bono work? As it turns out, there are a lot of pro bono opportunities that you may not have known about....

In an action alleging interference with plaintiff’s application for workers’ compensation benefits, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff waived her Title VII claim by appealing her claim before the Merit Systems Protection Board to the Federal Circuit; and 2) plaintiff could not be subjected to a hostile work environment where all of the alleged conduct occurred after she left the workplace. Read Pueschel v. Peters, No. 08-1351...

District court’s denial of defendant’ 28 U.S.C.A. section 2255 motion is affirmed as, decisions involving mistrials - whether to seek a mistrial or accept a mistrial offered by the trial court - are tactical decisions left to the sound judgment of counsel, and the decision remains counsel’s to make even if the client expresses disagreement with the decision, and counsel’s decision is not unreasonable simply because the client disagrees. Read US v....

Canadian Lawyer magazine suggested last month that lawyers should have emotional intelligence – and especially corporate counsel. There’s quite a debate going on about whether lawyers should even use their emotions (unrelated to a separate debate about whether lawyers have emotions). Well, it’s either a bunch of granola-and-Birkenstocks nonsense or it’s something that we should have been paying attention to all along. Like all buzzwords, you’re correct to be wary of “emotional intelligence....

For solo practitioners, the holiday slowdown can often be a challenge. If you just don’t have anything going on around the end of the year, just trying to get yourself into the office could be an exercise in futility. After all, you don’t have to go to the office to show up for holiday networking events. However, you don’t necessarily have to show up to your office to get some important stuff done either....

The Indigo Room is a bar. Bars serve alcohol. This bar also serves as a meeting place for the “Occupy Fort Myers” movement. Obviously, political activists come in all, shapes, sizes, colors, genders, and ages, but not all ages are allowed inside of bars. Dylan Jones is 19 year old supporter of the Occupy movement. He went into the Indigo Room to attend a petition drive (and sign a petition) requesting an ethics investigation of the Fort Myers mayor....