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It’s extremely hard these days to get indictments against corporate officers for corporate wrongdoing, but the feds managed it in the case of Donald Blankenship, the former chief executive of Massey Energy, one of the country’s largest coal mining companies. Blankenship was indicted on federal conspiracy and false statement charges for allegedly covering up mine safety violations that led to an explosion, killing 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia four years ago....

A lawsuit challenging Facebook’s “sponsored stories” can go forward, according to a federal judge in California. Sponsored stories popped up in January as a way to connect “likes” and advertising. Facebook generates the ads when a user’s friend “likes” a product, page or company. The ads contain the friend’s image, name and endorsement. A group of plaintiffs sued under California’s right of publicity statute, arguing that Facebook misappropriated their names and images....

If you can’t get your fill of the law practicing before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, perhaps you would like to leave your office for a field trip to the federal archives. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) keeps most federal records at the NARA facilities in Washington, D.C. and College Park, Maryland. (Also known as, in the Fourth Circuit’s back yard.) If you’re still hungry for juicy tidbits of judicial facts and history this President’s Day weekend, the Federal Judicial Center has compiled a veritable smörgåsbord of free information in its Guide to Research in Federal Judicial History....

One of the easiest ways to set yourself apart from the crowd and to gain expertise in a field is to narrow your focus. But pick too narrow of a focus and you might find yourself struggling to stay busy. Have too general a practice and it may be difficult to stand out from other firms. When you operate a general practice, you’re forced to master and balance a larger area of law, helping clients on everything from divorce to personal injury to probate....

Technology can’t seem to stop stepping on the law’s toes. Today we have a roundup of tech-legal news that just won’t stop featuring some usual suspects: Bitcoin, Silk Road and Apple. Read on for the full report: Bitcoin and USPS? Yep, you read that right. You might be able to withdraw Bitcoins from a United States Post Office one day. The USPS Office of Inspector General held a webinar last week to “explore the possibilities” of providing non-banking financial services, including “providing bitcoin exchange services at post offices,” according to Main Street....

While no internet user enjoys being click-baited, for some online advertisers (aka online publishers), their entire business model is based on generating those hard to get clicks by any means necessary. For Google, which works hard to ensure its users receive relevant content (and advertisements) from their searches, combating click-bait is a high priority. Unfortunately for the search giant, in 2014, it was sued for a practice that allegedly unfairly punished bad publishers and unjustly enriched the Google coffers....

If you’re looking to hire a new employee, be aware that salary is just the start of the costs. There are plenty of associated, non-wage costs to bringing someone new to your firm. From taxes and insurance, to simply finding a new location to put someone, the costs of hiring a new employee can vary wildly. If you’re not anticipating them, these costs can be unexpected. But they’re certainly not indeterminable and should be included in any plans to hire....

In what is potentially a landmark ruling in employment law, the Eleventh Circuit just ruled that a 49-year-old job applicant may use a disparate impact theory to sue R.J. Reynolds Tobacco for age discrimination. The ruling is a headache-inducing case within the circuit because it potentially expands ADEA’s purview to include individuals not clearly spelled out in the Act’s language. At 49, Mr. Villarreal applied to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco for a Territory Manager position in November 2007....

People work remotely through computers, so why not use sex toys remotely? It may surprise you to know that there is an app for that. A Hong Kong-based company makes vibrators that can be controlled remotely through cell phones. But it came as a big surprise to one user that the company was collecting data about her sexual behavior through the app. Of course she sued anonymously – maybe. Oh, App “S....

One thing’s for sure about the future of tech, there will be changes. Drones, self-driving cars, augmented reality, and virtual currencies are yesterday’s news. Tomorrow will not be about the next big thing, but who owns it. Apps and Chips Apple recently acquired Shazam, the song-identifying app. The deal was reportedly worth around $400 million. Shazam boosts clicks for iTunes, but the company could shut it down to thin out the competition....

Netflix/Facebook announced a deal last Thursday: an integration feature that would allow users to share their video streaming history with their friends. While the Facebook sharing feature will soon be available in about 44 countries, the U.S. won’t be one of them. Why? Standing in Netflix’s way is a pesky 1998 law called the Video Privacy Protection Act that prohibits disclosure of video rental information without explicit consent. It comes as little surprise that the video streaming company is now lobbying to change the law....

In-house counsel nationwide may want to start adding “tweet vetter” to their resumes. It’s not just a task. In the Twitter President era, it’s a responsibility that in-house counsel have to take seriously. To tweet or not to tweet; that is the first question in the legal analysis. The second question is, how to tweet? How to Tweet Chan Lee, general counsel for Sanofi in North America, knows how. His legal team approved a tweet for the company, which manufactures Ambien....

According to the Supreme Court, brand name drug manufacturers can be sued for failure to warn, even though the federal government — through the Food and Drug Administration — gives approval to put drugs on the market. FDA approval is not a defense. The Supreme Court reached the opposite concluding regarding generic drugs: Generic drug manufacturers cannot be sued on a failure to warn theory. Those conflicting rulings have forced plaintiffs with claims against generic drug manufacturers to think outside the box to keep their cases alive....

Marijuana may be legal in several states around the country, but mailing pot certainly isn’t. And gifting some of the smelly green stuff to judges is certainly out of the question. Despite the greyish legality, it’s still a drug, and gifting anything, let alone drugs, to a judge on your case is a sure fire way to have your case go up in smoke. We all know Justice Kavanaugh likes beer, but you don’t see litigants lining up to hand him cold ones now, do you?...

You might think your firm’s customer service is just peachy-keen, but you might be wrong. A recent FindLaw audit of 100 firms found that 73 of them didn’t have any way to answer the phone after business hours. “Fine,” you say, “but there’s voicemail.” That’s true – except that half of all the firms took more than 24 hours to respond, or simply never responded at all. If you think you don’t have a problem, that might be your first problem....

Fortunately, some things are legally impossible to enforce. That’s why we have legal principles such as “acts of God,” or “impossibility of performance.” And then there are those “rights” that cannot be enforced because, well, they are “ridiculous.” It’s a good thing, too, especially if you want to keep your copies of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Avengers: Age of UItron” and “Beauty and the Beast.” A visual effects firm has sued to destroy them all....

Whitten v. Fred’s, Inc., No. 09-1265, involved a challenge to the district court’s grant of summary judgment against the plaintiff in her sexual harassment suit against her former employer. In addressing procedural issues not considered by the district court, the court held that the plaintiff properly exhausted state administrative remedies and timely filed her lawsuit. Furthermore, the court held that judicial estoppel does not preclude plaintiff from pursuing her claims against her former employer because she disclosed her potential claims in her bankruptcy petition....

Sentence for armed robbery and other crimes is affirmed where: 1) the district court properly applied the mandate rule and refused to consider defendant’s objection to sentencing enhancement for obstruction of justice based on his perjury as defendant failed to challenge the enhancement in his first appeal and it became the law of the case; 2) the court properly applied the mandate rule to defendant’s objection to the stolen weapons enhancement; 3) defendant’s claim that his use of a dangerous weapon during the robbery was an improper basis for an upward departure and his claim that court’s decision to depart upwardly based on defendant’s disruption of government functions are both barred by the law of the case doctrine; 4) the court did not err in imposing a two-level increase for extreme psychological injury; 5) the court did not abuse its discretion in imposing an upward departure to his sentencing level based on his criminal history; and 6) defendant’s sentence was reasonable....

The Eleventh Circuit reversed a lower court judgment that granted a motion to exclude expert testimony in a gun malfunction case. The expert’s testimony would have explained how a gun malfunctioned and shot its owner through his chest. This case is a bit of a treat as lawyers do not often see a lower district court’s opinion so completely disregarded by the appeals court. Mr. Kenneth Seamon was hunting late in 2011 and was sitting in his tree stand somewhere in Alabama....

3D printers promise to allow anyone to create complex objects at home. For a few hundred dollars, you can pick up a consumer-grade 3D printer and start printing out toys, architectural models, or firearms. Yep, it’s pretty easy for anyone with a 3D printer to print out a gun in their living room – guns that are powerful, unregulated, and even undetectable. Aware of the risks posed by widespread hobbyist arms manufacturing, the State Department has ordered gun and tech enthusiasts to stop disturbing plans for 3D-printed guns online....