Posts

In plaintiff-H&R Block’s action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief with respect to enforcement of Maryland’s Credit Services Businesses Act (CSBA), involving whether the Act applies to one of plaintiff’s products, a “refund anticipation loan,” grant of partial summary judgment to each party in ruling that certain of the CSBA’s provisions are preempted is vacated and remanded as the district court erred in not analyzing, as the first step in the preemption analysis, whether the CSBA in fact applies to plaintiff....

Few people or companies jump at the chance to interact with the IRS. But the latest initiative by the tax-levying agency actually sounds like it has some promise. On December 8, the IRS announced the launch of Early Interaction Initiative, a program designed to notify employers who may be falling behind on payments of their employment taxes. Falling Behind on Employment Taxes One of the more egregious tax offenses committed by employers is a failure to pay their own portion of employment taxes....

So maybe you’ve already broken your New Year’s resolution; it’s alright. We live one day – not one year – at a time. Progress usually occurs in small steps anyway. So let’s start 2018 with the number one priority for improving a law business: better client service. After all, what good is a new office, new technology, or new practice area without clients? Exactly. Here are some client service goals to consider:...

Earlier this week we talked about law firm website basics such as domain name, design and content. Now we get to the fun stuff – SEO, or search engine optimization. Why SEO Is Important Key to SEO strategy is making changes to your website to increase its visibility to search engines, resulting in your site getting ranked higher in search results. This is especially important because many people begin their hunt for legal representation online by searching for local attorneys....

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will soon revisit the constitutionality of the pledge of allegiance. A family from Boston is arguing that the words ‘‘under God’’ in the pledge discriminate against atheists. But do they really have a case? The pledge of allegiance is usually challenged as violating the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses. But the couple in this case are taking an unorthodox approach and bringing their claims under an Equal Protection theory, reports The Associated Press....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. The Wire Act was enacted in 1961. That statute makes it a criminal offense to transmit information that seeks to promote interstate or foreign wagering. Fast-forward to September, 2011: the Obama-era Justice Department rendered an opinion that only sports betting came with the ambit of the Wire Act. Prior to that, the Justice Department applied the statute to non-sports gambling....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Pornography web sites have finally been given the green light to establish the .xxx suffix for their domain names, according to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Names (ICAAN) . Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Well, not surprisingly, the reception has been mixed. While, on the one hand, one might think that the pornography industry would be in favor of the ....

Gougers can likely look to Martin Shkreli for ruining the game of price gouging customers by going nuts and hiking the price of a desperately needed pill some 5,555 percent. The Internet won’t soon forget Shkreli’s uncontrollable need to display his contempt for formal hearings, which put him in the running for the “most hated person on the Internet” contest. Well, several states have reacted to that whole scandal and have proposed laws to counter future Shkrelis....

Three months ago, we dedicated a few hundred words to mocking the Eleventh Circuit’s senseless spending. We asked why, in a time of furloughs, layoffs, and sequestration, the judges were headed to the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort, where “Southern charm meets modern luxury.” Looks like we weren’t alone in questioning the curious use of fiscal resources. Senator Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma, recently penned a letter to the director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC), asking them for a breakdown of the expenses, both from the conferences and court construction since the recession....

Old law and new technology are heading to the Supreme Court sometime soon, and family law and estate planning attorneys might be interested. The Court has agreed to hear Astrue v. Capato, which asks whether posthumously conceived children should receive survivor benefits under the Social Security Act. More specifically, the Court will determine whether such children are eligible for survivor benefits even when they cannot collect under the state’s intestacy law....

Alabama can’t ban consumer protection class actions, the Eleventh Circuit ruled yesterday. The state’s consumer protection law prohibits deceptive practices, but doesn’t allow wronged consumers to bring class actions. That put it in conflict with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which, at least in federal court, allow class action suits. Applying highly fractured Supreme Court precedent, the Eleventh Ruled that the federal rules trump the state law. The ruling allows plaintiffs to continue to pursue their class action, in federal court, against wood manufacturers who allegedly failed to properly treat their wood....

Greetings in house attorneys…in the mood for some good news? Then you had better head elsewhere. Corporate Counsel just released it’s 2010 Law Department Metrics Benchmarking Survey, conducted by ALM Legal Intelligence. According to the survey, in house departments are up against shrinking staff, budgets and resources, while being expected to fulfill the demands of workload increases. “Law departments have faced increased workloads during past downturns, but this recession is clearly different,” said Anthony Paonita, editor in chief of Corporate Counsel....

‘All I Really Need to Know I Learned Teaching a Law Class.’ That’s the title of a new book about the benefits of teaching a law class. It’s a piece of fiction (because the book doesn’t exit), but I could write it because I have actually been there and done that. For now, may I offer a few pointers? Like Robert Fulghum said in his famous “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” there are fundamental lessons for success in life....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. At times, it can seem like technology is bringing us down … We frequently hear about: cyberbullying of teens; online intellectual property infringement; various forms of identity theft, hacking, privacy and security violations, and cyber crime; cyber warfare; illegal sales of munitions and slaves and the organization of terrorist activities on the Dark Web; political email scandals; potential foreign Internet influence over US political elections; and the list goes on and on....

It’s a bit of a stretch to say that 2015 was the year of the data breach, but data security – and insecurity – has been on our minds and our blogs a lot lately. The continued growth of e-commerce, the switch to increasingly digital offices, and the dawn of the Internet of Things have all contributed to the spread of personal, private information. Throw in a few weak security systems and a bit of general incompetence and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a data breach....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. What has been suspected now has been confirmed - the cost of data breaches is substantial. Indeed, a report titled “2009 Annual Study: Global Cost of Data Breach” shines a very bright light on the actual cost of activities stemming from more than 100 breach incidents across multiple industry sectors, numerous organizations, and a handful of different countries....

Executive misdeeds certainly are not limited to Hewlett-Packard, although the company’s track record of late does make some wonder. On August 6, embattled CEO Mark Hurd was released from his employment with HP via a Separation and Release Agreement. This document may be of use (or inspiration) to in-house legal counsel unfortunately faced with the same or similar situation. Like most contracts of this type, the Agreement begins by clarifying the separation date and some of the terms....

You don’t have to be a football fanatic to know what it means to punt. If you know what the Rooney Rule is in football, however, you might know more about hiring in football than in the law. In a nutshell, the rule is the practice of considering minorities for coaching positions in the National Football League. Now put that rule to work at BigLaw and you’re in the game. That’s the idea anyway at thirty law firms that say they will consider at least two women or attorneys of color when hiring or promoting....

The Federal Arbitration Act comes into play once again, this time in a case from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Last month, you’ll recall, the Arkansas Supreme Court struck an arbitration agreement that wasn’t mutual – the phone company, Alltel, could enforce the arbitration clause against customers, but not the other way around. The Eleventh Circuit in Inetianbor v. CashCall, Inc. affirmed the district court’s refusal to compel arbitration due to a forum selection clause and a forum that was unavailable....

Claim of structural error in jury instruction in a drug conspiracy related conviction US v. Jadlowe, 08-2449, concerned a challenge to the district court’s conviction of defendant for drug conspiracy related offenses. In affirming, the court held that, although the district court erred in instructing the jurors that they could discuss the case among themselves during the trial, before formal deliberations commences, the record shows beyond a reasonable doubt that the flawed instruction did not compromise the jury’s deliberative process....