Posts

In Culosi v. Bullock, No. 09-1042, the Fourth Circuit faced a challenge by a police officer, whose motion for summary judgment on the ground of qualified immunity, for the fatal shooting of an optometrist being investigated for gambling offenses, was denied by the district court. As stated in the decision: “It is clear that the district court found that whether the death of Dr. Culosi was the result of intentional force willfully applied by Officer Bullock, or an accident, was a factual issue for the jury at trial....

A developer in Jackson, Mississippi will get no relief from a lower court’s ruling that the mayor should not be held liable for alleged Constitutional violations against him. The case is interesting because the owner of the company alleged corruption at the state’s capitol and later tried to secure a contract with the city to develop a bank in the city. Sometimes it’s best not to insult the people you’d like to maintain future business with....

If you work in an office and spend any time in front of a computer, there’s a good chance you suffer from the symptoms of Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS). We’ve all experienced it: the dry eyes, the slight burning, the back issues, and the headaches. And we know that we all need computers to do our work. So what can we do to combat this problem? Here to Stay The world is addicted to the screen....

For investment advisers, the late ‘fiduciary rule’ of the U.S. Department of Labor could have made sense. But for salespeople and brokers, it imposed a duty they had never known. It would have required them to act in the best interests of their clients when selling or buying investment products. That’s not how the industry works, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said in announcing the death of the rule in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America v....

Being an openly gay judge in Virginia wasn’t in the cards for Richmond prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland. The House of Delegates rejected his nomination earlier this week despite years as a public servant and his status as a former Navy pilot. The reason? According to Del. Robert G. Marshall, who is running for U.S. Senate, Thorne-Begland’s “life is a contradiction to the requirement of submission to the constitution.” The prosecutor considers himself to be married even though same-sex marriage is not legal in Virginia....

When litigating, one of the tried and true tactics of both plaintiffs and defendants is the infamous data dump. When initial disclosures and discovery responses come due, some parties relish the opportunity to drop bankers box after bankers box off at their adversary’s lawyer’s doorstep. Data dumps drive up costs, and are frequently filled with red herring which can lead an attorney off on a tangent, wasting time and resources. However, when preparing for trial, it’s important to pare down all that data into something that a jury will be able to grasp, you know the proverbial “smoking gun....

Respect the hustle. To this day, I still consume energy drinks, though I’ve long since made the switch to diet. (Diet was far easier to chug during a pre-finals cram session.) Monster’s college marketing paid off, for me and likely thousands of other students. And few would take issue with a company marketing a safe (when consumed in moderation) and legal product to college kids. What about marketing that same product to children?...

The department store giant Macy’s is being accused of patent infringement over employing search technology that allows customers on their websites to “search-on-the-fly.” The suit was brought by New York-based Smart Search Concepts LLC, the owner of two search-engine patents who has also sued several other department stores (including Kohl’s and Nieman Marcus) for infringing on their patents, reports Cincinnati’s WCPO. Is Smart Search Concepts a patent troll and if so, how will Macy’s avoid paying the troll toll?...

For John Steele, who now has been disbarred for his part in a copyright-trolling scheme, it could have been worse. He could be dead, like his law partner. Actually, it does get worse for Steele. He is awaiting sentencing on fraud and money laundering charges. When it rains, it porns. It all started with an ill-advised plan at the Prenda Law firm to upload copyrighted porn to file-sharing sites and then sue the people who downloaded it....

Okay, got a template for the motion. Seems simple enough. Facts go there, law goes there, tack on a supporting declaration … what about that date field? Date of Hearing. What do I put for Date of Hearing in the motion when I haven’t filed the motion with the clerk yet. Doesn’t she assign the date after filing? I don’t know what the judge’s schedule is like … What’s the hardest part of being a new lawyer and sole practitioner?...

Perhaps you’ve heard about DLA Piper’s “churn that bill, baby” debacle. Last week, the New York Times’ Dealbook reported that internal correspondence from DLA Piper – disclosed in a fee dispute between the firm and Adam H. Victor – included casual quips about the firm’s overbilling practices. DLA Piper attorneys joked in the emails, “I hear we are already 200k over our estimate – that’s Team DLA Piper!” and noted that the firm had “random people working full time on random research projects in standard ‘churn that bill, baby!...

While smart tech may be everywhere these days, people, and especially lawyers, should be smart and look before they leap, so to speak, when using smart gadgets from mini to massive. Just recently Tech Crunch reported on a set of tiny smart speakers designed for outdoor sports enthusiasts that were found to be seriously lacking in terms of smart security. But it’s not just smart toys that can have devastating security holes, whole smart buildings can be left wide open to cyber-attacks if security isn’t made a top priority prior to implantation....

It’s doubtful that anyone got into this business to be liked. Still, client complaints are not something you ever anticipate. Complaints by clients can be disheartening and even career-threatening – especially when the state bar gets involved. In this piece, we briefly go over how and why attorneys find themselves in hot water when representing a client. It goes without saying: tread carefully or else your career as an attorney could end faster than you thought....

A suspended lawyer lied about her educational and criminal background in order to serve on a jury, and it could result in a new trial. Catherine Conrad of Bronx, N.Y., had to be hauled into court by marshals after she failed to show up at a hearing about the new trial request, the New York Daily News reports. Conrad was arrested in connection with defying a subpoena. When Conrad finally testified at the hearing – under an immunity deal that means she won’t be prosecuted – she admitted to lying during the jury-selection process in a 2011 tax-fraud case....

Let’s face it, your law firm’s technology isn’t always on the cutting edge. Optimizing your productivity on slow computers can be tough. But one of the best ways to get the most out of your dated hardware is with internet browser extensions. Whether you’re an Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox user, you know that browsers are serious RAM hogs. And while installing extensions may eat up more memory, in the case of these five extensions, the trade off is worth it....

Action Against DHL Regarding Failure to Collect COD Payments In Tran Enters., LLC v. DHL Express (USA), Inc., No. 10-20115, an action claiming that defendant DHL failed to remit collect-on-delivery (COD) payments totaling $21,991.72 to plaintiff, the court affirmed summary judgment for defendant where plaintiff failed to present any summary judgment evidence that true conversion had occurred, instead merely offering the fact that it did not receive the checks. Related Resources...

Unpleasantness — even extreme unpleasantness — does not qualify as persecution in an immigration appeal, according to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. This week, the Boston-based appellate court ruled that a Ukrainian woman who was harassed, beaten, and arrested in Ukraine for her Pentecostal beliefs had endured some tough times, but had not proven persecution. Olena Rebenko came to the U.S. in 2001 on a J-1 non-immigrant visa, which she later exchanged for an F-1 student visa....

In plaintiff’s employment discrimination, retaliatory harrasment, and hostile work environment action against his former employer, district court’s entry of summary judgment for the defendant is affirmed where: 1) district court did not err in holding that the continuing violation doctrine is not available to plaintiff to overcome his time-barred claims; 2) district court did not err in its concluding that there was no evidence of pretext in plaintiff’s disciplining, suspension, or termination; and 3) district court acted within its discretion in denying plaintiff’s motion to amend and motion for reconsideration as his hostile work environment claim was time-barred....

You’re more of a Perry Mason style lawyer than a Johnnie Cochrane, more Clarence Thomas than Antonin Scalia. You save the speechifying for the court room, leave the impassioned arguments in your briefs. But, when it comes to dealing with reporters, you might be doing yourself and your clients a disservice by staying mum – or worse, by speaking poorly. Don’t miss an opportunity to represent your clients (and yourself) in the court of public opinion as well as you do in a court of law....

This weekend, many provisions of the America Invents Act, passed on September 16, 2011, will finally be implemented. One of the biggest changes, however, has already been in place since the law’s passing: the Track One Prioritized Examination (“fast track”). The short version of Track One is that you pay a bit more up front and end up with your patent faster, and according to some accounts, cheaper. Let’s take a quick look at some things in-house folks should be aware of:...