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Family law matters can complicate a Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceeding when determining the debtor’s household size. So how should a debtor determine her household size when she shares custody of her children? In the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, she should use a fractional, “economic unit” approach. The debtor and creditor shared joint custody of their two minor sons. Neither paid child support, and they shared their children’s expenses equally. The children resided with the debtor for 204 days each year....

Mike Miller resigned from his position as Project Director for WEC Carolina Energy Solutions, Inc. (WEC). Twenty days later, he made a presentation to a potential WEC customer on behalf of WEC’s competitor, Arc Energy Services, Inc. (Arc). The customer ultimately chose to do business with Arc. WEC contends that before resigning, Miller, acting at Arc’s direction, downloaded WEC’s proprietary information and used it in making the presentation. WEC sued Miller, his assistant Emily Kelley, and Arc for, among other things, violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)....

If your company has a Facebook page, then your company may have been hacked. But even if the company doesn’t do Facebook, there still may be a problem. That’s because as many as 50 million Facebook users were recently compromised, and that includes employees everywhere. So it’s probably time to send out a company-wide memo. Subject line: Stay Off Facebook at Work, Except for Now. Three Bugs It’s almost election time, but we’re not talking about the Russian security breach....

And then there was one. After a fifth publisher settled on Wednesday, Apple is alone in fighting against the U.S. Justice Department’s accusations that the company and publishers conspired to fix e-book prices. If Judge Denise Cole’s comments on Thursday are reflective of the strength of the government’s case, we could see Apple come to a last minute settlement as well. They better hurry. The trial is set for June 3rd....

“So there is a lot of reading,” Justice Kagan told CSPAN. “And you know that’s a big part of the job and if a Kindle or an iPad can make it easier, that’s terrific.” It’s certainly an issue that any attorney or law student that has been forced to lug around a suitcase on wheels can relate to. Meanwhile, Scalia is thrilled at the way that the iPad has changed his working routine, now that he no longer has to “schlep the briefs around … It’s a brave new world....

Most attorneys use hourly billing so you’re probably used to dividing your time into 6-minute segments so you can bill the appropriate tenth of an hour to clients. You can of course pay big money for software that will help keep track of your hours. But Harvest’s app will let you do that at a much lower cost and do a lot more. The app isn’t just a time keeper. It can also keep track of expenses for different clients....

If you recently launched a solo practice or small firm, you’re probably more worried about keeping the lights on than keeping your social media profiles up-to-date. Fair enough. Still, social media can be a useful way to reach out to new clients. Even if you’re not ready to invest in a full-scale lawyer marketing plan, you can create free, easy-to-maintain, FREE!, pages on social networking platform. (Did we mention that they’re free?...

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. While the federal government has wanted access to private electronic information pertaining individuals in its efforts to fight terrorism, the government at the same time has not wished to be transparent to the public about its information gathering techniques. This has been made fairly plain from the fruits of a legal battle that has spanned more than a decade....

Dealing with the possibility of lump-sum pension benefits while going through bankruptcy is a strain on any company. That’s a substantial concern for American Airlines as it tries to find a way to emerge from bankruptcy. The company asked a federal court last month for permission to amend its pension policy and prohibit retirees from taking a lump-sum option, according to Workforce Management. That filing came shortly after the IRS issued a new ruling on worker benefits after bankruptcy....

Forum shopping has taken on a whole new meaning for a team of Florida attorneys. They’ve hung up their shingles at a local mall, lawyering to throngs of holiday bargain-hunters. “People just kind of walk by and ask if we’re real attorneys,” mall lawyer Melva Rozier told The Palm Beach Post – as she met with a prospective client who’d just paid a visit to Victoria’s Secret. Rozier’s office is a kiosk at the Boynton Beach Mall, just steps from the food court....

In a case that should serve as a warning to in-house attorneys, one of Merck’s own attorneys did more than drop the ball – he hid it, and then lied about it. The federal district court, and the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit weren’t having none of that. Only the ball wasn’t a ball, it was a pharma patent for a drug that went on to rack up billions in revenue....

In Miccosukee Tribe of Indians v. US Army Corps of Eng’rs., No. 09-14194, an action challenging the federal government’s plans to replace a mile of the ground-level Tamiami Trail with a bridge to increase the flow of water into Everglades National Park, the court affirmed the dismissal of the action where a spending bill partially repealed the environmental laws that plaintiff was invoking, and thus, the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction....

It was pretty stupid, getting behind the wheel after drinking. It’s bad enough when a layperson does it, but you’re a lawyer – you know the penalties and you have more at stake. Fair enough. We came to help Caesar, not to lecture him. Here are a few things you’ll need to think about now: These should be familiar to you, even if you don’t practice DUI defense. Though punishments vary by state, first-timers typically walk away with probation and a fine, though depending on the level of intoxication, and whether any people or property were damaged, jail time may be required as well....

In the case of Sims v. Labowitz, the Federal Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently overturned the lower court’s dismissal of the Fourth Amendment 42 USC 1983 claim against the now deceased officer, David Abbott. However, several other claims that were also dismissed, including one against the prosecutor, were left undisturbed or unchallenged. Qualified immunity is one of the strongest protections police officers have to defend themselves from alleged constitutional violations they commit....

A First Circuit Court of Appeals case headed for the U.S. Supreme Court, Ray Haluch Gravel v. Central Pension Fund, raises the question of whether a federal district court’s ruling on the merits that leaves unresolved a request for contractual attorneys’ fees is a final decision – and thus appealable under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 – or whether the decision is not appealable until the court has ruled on contractual attorneys’ fees....

Being able to manage matters involving alternative fee arrangements predictably and profitably. That sounds nice doesn’t it? But while many firms want to move to an alternative fee model, there are concerns about the implementation. How will we determine the fees we set? Will fees actually be predicable? Enter: Thomson Reuters Engage, an Engagement Planning and Management (EPM) solution. Engage takes the guesswork out of alternative fee arrangements. With Engage, law firms can meet client demands for transparency and predictable costs....

Imagine that you’re in the middle of a settlement conference or at a court hearing. Suddenly, a brilliant idea strikes. It can make or break your case. What do you do? The courthouse has no wireless Internet, and there’s no place to plug in. In fact, you don’t even have your laptop. But you need the name of that case or statute, or you might not be able to make your point....

Across the world today, Google employees participated in a walkout to protest the management’s handling of sexual harassment and gender inequity at the company. What was expected to be a small walkout of a few hundred turned out to be massive event with thousands of employees taking part. The organizers curated a list of rather specific demands focused on improving the culture via policies aimed at transparency and inclusivity. The demands made by the organizers include ending forced arbitration, particularly for civil rights and sexual harassment claims, as well as ending the gender inequity in pay and opportunity....

Donald Trump was elected president on Tuesday and many are just now starting to look closely at what a Trump administration might be like, for the Supreme Court, for businesses, and for intellectual property law and technological innovation. Here’s what we know, what we don’t, and what might be in store. Trump’s Not Saying Much on Intellectual Property Law Want to know where Trump stands on major intellectual property law issues?...

Where to find … After “find near me,” it’s one of the driving questions of internet searches. And like so many people who get lost using Siri to get around, it can lead to endless, irrelevant results. This blog post will shorten that search down to a handful of places – as if. With a big tongue-in-cheek caveat, here are the best legal words on the internet and where to find them:...