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Mark Menard was permanently injured while crossing through a railroad freight yard. He sued the freight yard operator, CSX Transportation (CSX) for his injuries, but the district court ruled that his complaint was barred because failed to assert sufficient facts to overcome his status as a “trespasser” under Massachusetts law. The First Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, and remanded Menard’s case for limited discovery. Menard entered the rail yard while walking home on July 30, 2008; he says that at least three CSX employees saw him enter, he made eye contact with some, and a conductor “waved his right arm as though to direct Mr....

Convictions of defendants for defrauding the Farm Service Agency (FSA) of emergency loans and incentives to qualified farmers following the damage inflicted on the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico by a hurricane is affirmed where: 1) evidence is sufficient to support defendants’ convictions; 2) district court did not abuse its discretion by instructing the jury on sentencing enhancements; 3) district court did not abuse its discretion in its pre-trial disqualification of a defendant’s attorney; 4) district court’s imposition of a 27-month sentence defendant is not unreasonable; and 5) district court did not err in awarding a four-point leadership role enhancement on the other defendant....

On June 29, the ABA announced that its efforts to spare those in the practice of law from what it says would be unnecessary federal regulation were successful. After much work, the new Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 will have language supported by the ABA which includes an “exclusion for the practice of law.” The bill, which has just emerged from the Conference Committee, provides that the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “may not exercise any supervisory or enforcement authority with respect to an activity engaged in by an attorney as part of the practice of law under the laws of a State in which the attorney is licensed to practice law....

Legal consumers might search for a lawyer online. They might check out your attorney website or browse through your blog. But when it comes time to get in touch, almost all legal consumers do so via phone. If you want to keep clients coming in, make sure you’re paying your phone bill. Seventy-two percent of consumers contact potential attorneys through the phone, according to a new infographic on legal marketing trends by FindLaw’s Lawyer Marketing....

While fellow FindLaw-er Gabriella Khorasanee may play favorites with the Second Circuit, for me, nothing beats the Fourth. Why? (Not quite) obscene park ranger gropings. Lots of important Second Amendment issues, including concealed carry of guns. The South trying to rise again and failing – twice. And, of course, the greatest law school in the history of all law schools, which recently came in second to some other Virginia law school in Above the Law’s Insider rankings (take that, Stanford!...

Winning a lawsuit is often just the beginning of the battle to get paid. Evasive losing parties can try to claim insolvency or even go into hiding, making it difficult for lawyers launch an asset investigation. Difficult, but not impossible. Here are five suggestions: Keep communicating with your client, and leave no stone unturned. Begin by having your client brief you and your investigator on the opposing party’s likely assets, and where they might be found....

The billable hour. It’s both a loved and vilified institutional mainstay of the legal profession. It has been, up until very recently, the undisputed measure for associate performance at the nation’s best law firms for the better part of half a century. But does anyone really know the background of this traditional practice? Here is a quick summary of the background of this polarizing billing practice. A long time ago, law practices were capped at what they could charge clients....

San Diego, CA – April 14, 2009 –With the release of Abacus Rainmaker, attorneys have the ability to capture and understand critical data about their clients and prospects, the firm’s marketing efforts and its client service. Adding Abacus Rainmaker to AbacusLaw v18 provides the following benefits: Abacus President Judd Kessler explained his company’s development of this specialty version: “Attorneys’ AbacusLaw case and contact data is a goldmine for their firms. Abacus Rainmaker helps you capture and process that information in easy ways, giving you valuable insight into what’s working and what isn’t....

Bitcoin saw massive growth due to its popularity among criminals. However, the technology that makes it possible could be what drives criminals away from the cryptocurrency, thanks to artificial intelligence. Blockchain is the public, decentralized, distributed transaction ledger that is used to monitor Bitcoin transactions. And while the blocks on the ledger chain don’t contain personally identifying information, it’s still possible to identify who made specific transactions given a little bit of additional information....

Just when you thought it was safe to get a same-sex marriage in Alabama, the Alabama Supreme Court – and not just Chief Justice Roy Moore – issued a 148-page opinion yesterday ordering some of the state’s probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The petition for a writ of mandamus was brought by the State of Alabama, along with another probate court judge, and asked for “a clear judicial pronouncement that Alabama law prohibits the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples....

Unless you’re advertising on it, using Facebook is like going to a restaurant for cannibals. You’re not there for dinner, you’re their dinner. Sure, there might be some pleasantries along the way, a nice fire, a warm bath, a massage maybe, but in the end, you’re getting eaten. As Ars Technica explains, when it comes to Facebook, users are the product, not the customer. Although there are some nice features that users get to take advantage of, at the end of the day, it’s a user’s data that is making the company money and being leveraged and sold for advertising, and other purposes....

With Microsoft’s new Outlook.com, attorneys with multiple social-media accounts may find that Gmail has finally met its match. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft has launched a “preview” of its new Outlook.com cloud-based email service, touting built-in connections to social media and more convenient ways to stay productive, the website SlashGear reports. Some key new features, like built-in Skype capabilities, are not yet up and running. But here are five reasons Outlook.com may soon give Gmail a run for its money:...

Gizmodo calls the upcoming Q10 Blackberry’s “most important phone.” We couldn’t agree more. At this week’s big unveiling of the long-awaited Blackberry OS 10 and the two new accompanying phones, the Z10 got far more attention. After all, it’s the flagship competitor to Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Nexus. It’s the big touchscreen device with fancy specs. BlackBerry can claim 70,000 apps. It still lacks many mainstays, notably Instagram. BlackBerry’s Android Player, which allows some Android Apps to play on BlackBerry’s proprietary QNX-based operating system, will alleviate some of the heart, or app-ache, but still, why flock to an ordinary device on a new OS with fewer apps?...

It’s official: robots have taken over the world. According to reports, there are about seven billion internet-enabled devices on the planet – and that doesn’t include the robots that aren’t on the internet. The number is expected to reach 21.5 billion by 2025. What does it all mean, other than you can easily find them on sale for Christmas? In California, it means lawmakers want more security. “Reasonable Security” Something about robots running your home is inherently unsettling....

Advertising and marketing is one of the biggest expenses that small firm and solo attorneys have to face. Sooner or later, almost every small firm has advertised in a local paper or magazine. But these ads can be expensive and their hit rates can be somewhat unreliable. Are there cheaper yet very effective ways to advertise and market yourself without having to spend a fortune? Yes. Try These Easy Tips to Boost Your Business Here are three of our top suggestions for easily marketing your practice:...

In In Re: Grand Jury Subpoenas (T-112), No. 06-2125, the Fourth Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s finding of contempt of twelve corporations suspected of participating in financing terrorist activities, for refusing to turn over documents demanded by grand jury subpoena. In rejecting claims brought by one of the corporations of Fourth Amendment violations and illegal wiretapping, the court held that a grand jury enforcement action is not the appropriate place to litigate the validity of such claims....

A three judge panel at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the family and heirs of Marvin Gaye in the appeal filed by Robyn Thicke and Pharrell Williams. The pop stars appealed the district court’s ruling on summary judgment as well as the court’s handling of several issues at trial. Unfortunately for the litigious pop stars, the Ninth Circuit panel ruled that there was no error at trial that could save them, and that the jury’s verdict precludes the appeal of the summary judgment ruling....

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Hustler this week in a lawsuit over the magazine’s decision to print 20-year-old nude photos of slain former-wrestler Nancy Toffoloni Benoit months after her husband, Chris Benoit, killed her. Last year, a jury hit Hustler with $19.6 million in punitive damages for publishing the pics, according to the First Amendment Center. A federal judge later reduced the award to $250,000 to comply with a Georgia damages cap, and awarded Nancy’s family $125,000 in compensatory damages....

Before he lost his job in 2002, Robert Murphy was making six figures as the president of a manufacturing company. So, when the Massachusetts father found himself unemployed, he assumed he would be able to find new work. In the meantime, he took on hundreds of thousands of dollars in Parent PLUS loans to pay for his three children’s college educations. Years later, Murphy hasn’t been able to find regular employment....

When it comes to protecting your financial information – and your cash – hackers aren’t the only risk. Bank tellers and bank managers have instant access to your Social Security number, your signature, leading to rampant abuse, according to prosecutors and security experts. When the Robbers Are in Charge of the Bank Many consumers couldn’t tell you the last time they used a bank teller, and that’s part of the problem....