Posts

In Jimenez v. Rodriguez-Pagan, No. 09-1135, the First Circuit dealt with the issue of whether the Colorado Abstention doctrine applied to two identical actions in federal district court and in a Puerto Rico Commonwealth court, involving plaintiff’s action seeking her late husband’s share of certain stocks and to exercise his option on a penthouse apartment, as had allegedly been previously agreed to with defendants. Applying the Colorado River factors to the case, the court concluded that, although some of the factors are neutral, considering all the factors, this is one of the rare cases that merit abstention because of the possibility for inconsistent dispositions of a res, the heightened potential for piecemeal litigation, and other issues....

These days, the world is getting smaller and ‘privacy’ is becoming a word that has a rather ephemeral meaning. Everywhere you go professionally and personally, it seems to be standard protocol to find someone’s social media profile online and connect. If only it were that simple. If you’re a lawyer, these connections raise some sticky ethics issues. Here are some quick tips to remember when using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social media to connect with clients or opposing counsel?...

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Once upon a time, and actually not that long ago, online social networking truly was the province of high school and college students. Those days are over, and whether the youth likes it or not, older generations now are rampant on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networking sites like LinkedIn; who manage online social networking while they carry on other daily tasks....

The Supreme Court on Tuesday acted to stay an order that would have required North Carolina to redraw its state legislative districts by March 15th and hold special elections in the fall. That order, issued by a three-judge federal district court in November, came after the panel found that the state’s legislative districts were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. But that’s not the only North Carolina redistricting issue before the Court right now....

There’s no question to it, using technological gadgets during a trial, or even just a hearing or scheduling conference, has made the lawyer’s life increasingly easier. Using laptops, smartphones, tablets, digital projectors, and other devices can make a big difference, not just in saving time, but also in keeping organized and making presentations to the court. Electronics, which were once banned, are now becoming commonplace. But what do you do if a device fails?...

Eric Sinrod is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris LLP (http://www.duanemorris.com) where he focuses on litigation matters of various types, including information technology and intellectual property disputes. His Web site is http://www.sinrodlaw.com and he can be reached at ejsinrod@duanemorris.com. To receive a weekly email link to Mr. Sinrod’s columns, please send an email to him with Subscribe in the Subject line. This column is prepared and published for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice....

Shortly after its planned merger with Comcast fell through, Time Warner Cable may soon be purchased by Charter Communications for $55 billion dollars. After a messy break up, that’s quite the rebound for the cable and broadband company. The merger between the two companies is spurred largely by Charter’s desire to expand its broadband holdings, according to The New York Times. As consumers move away from traditional cable to online streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix, Internet provision has become one of the most important parts of many cable packages....

You already know where this is going from the title: “harmless error,” but last week’s Boche-Perez decision, out of the Fifth Circuit, provides a stern warning to the overburdened law enforcement agencies near the Mexican Border: a little delay in processing might be fine, even a smidge beyond the six-hour “safe harbor” for prompt presentment of a criminal defendant to a magistrate judge. But Rule 5 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure requires that “[a] person making an arrest within the United States must take the defendant without unnecessary delay before a magistrate judge,” and while there is that wiggle room, if authorities wait too long, they risk losing a confession and possibly a conviction....

Successful law firm internet marketing means developing clients through online contacts. Why? Because when looking for an attorney, consumers do their homework online first. Search engine results give you validation as a professional. If potential clients see you from their own Google search, they often see your professionalism as established. Online contacts come from good law firm website design, and good law firm internet marketing. FindLaw’s research indicates online contacts lead to client development....

We can sum up our thought-provoking white paper, “Why Most Law Firm Websites are Designed to Fail,” in two words: conversion optimization. You can build a website for your firm. You can plaster it with great content, pretty pictures, and a bountiful blog section that would put our legal professionals blogs to shame. (Impossible!) You can build the most content-rich, informative site on the Internet, but it will fail if you don’t optimize for conversion....

Duane Morris LLP is being sued for at least $100 million by U.S. Precious Metals Inc. The firm and partner Keli Isaacson Whitlock allegedly committed legal malpractice and breached fiduciary duties. Whitlock was named one of the top “40 Under 40” outstanding business leaders by the Baltimore Business Journal. However, according to an SEC filing and complaint filed in the Supreme Court of New York, the law firm and partner used “block billing....

Many attorneys frequent Internet message boards (like FindLaw Answers) to answer legal questions from anonymous strangers. It can actually be useful to drum up business, provided you post using your real name and contact information. Even though it’s the Internet, which is the untamed frontier of communications, there are still rules lawyers need to follow. Here are just some of the things you need to keep in mind when answering questions online....

Many of us are perfectly happy to practice in a limited geographic area. But, given the increasingly interconnected nature of today’s world (the Internet, cheap airfare, free trade), it’s not uncommon for attorneys to be faced with cross-border issues. We’re not talking state lines here. This is international. Cross-border disputes can soon be followed by cross-border discovery. And despite the “flattening” of the world, there are major differences between American-style discovery and international systems, particularly when it comes to data protection and privacy....

Just when we declared the Fourth Amendment to be (near) dead, the Ninth steps in and resurrects it. And until Friday, they were correct. It wasn’t all good news for the pedophile defendant in this case, whose computer contained child pornography – including images of himself and an unidentified minor. The court held that his prior sex crime convictions, frequent international travel, his crossing from a country known for sex tourism, and his large collection of electronic equipment all gave rise to reasonable suspicion of criminal behavior and justified the search, which included seizing his laptop and transporting it 170 miles away to a forensic laboratory....

In habeas proceedings involving claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, summary judgment against petitioner is reversed and remanded where: 1) the state procedural ground under which the district court found his claim to have been procedurally defaulted was not consistently applied at the time of his state proceedings; and 2) the performance of defendant’s trial counsel was constitutionally deficient because counsel did not consult with defendant about an appeal following his conviction....

In a 153-page order issued today, a federal district judge in Louisiana ruled that the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill was the result of BP’s recklessness. Heightening BP’s culpability from negligence to recklessness could subject it to even greater fines. Judge Carl Barbier’s memorandum contains copious findings of fact and conclusions of law, the end product of two bench trials lasting eight months and consisting of In re Triton Asset Leasing GmbH, a suit consisting of thousands of civil claims, as well as impleader and interpleader actions by the various business entities involved with Deepwater Horizon, and United States v....

In an appeal from the denial of plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in an employment discrimination action, denial of the motion is vacated where: 1) plaintiffs presented compelling direct evidence of discrimination sufficient to meet the Fed. R. Civ. P. 23 commonality requirement; and 2) there was insufficient evidence that each of the employer’s departments was so autonomous as to justify classifying them as separate environments. Read Brown v. Nucor Corp....

The big news of out of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals this week centered on state immigration laws. After deciding in March to defer consideration of the Alabama and Georgia immigration laws, the Atlanta-based court cranked out two opinions this week on the constitutionality of state efforts to rein in illegal immigration. Earlier this week, we discussed the Eleventh Circuit’s decision to strike an Alabama law requiring public elementary and secondary schools to classify students as either lawfully or unlawfully present within the United States....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. In these blogs over the years, we have covered many of the fantastic advantages of high technology. Unfortunately, though, tech also can be used for unsavory purposes, to put it mildly. Indeed, with tech, mankind has developed new and different ways to kill other people. As an example, fairly recently a Malaysia Airlines jetliner carrying civilians was shot out of the sky, apparently by an advanced missile....

If you’ve been thinking about how your office would look with a new couch, you don’t even have to get off the couch to see it. Augmented reality is coming to a law office near you. It might even be in your pocket already, and can show you exactly what you imagined. The new operating system for iPhone and iPad enables reality apps like never before. And if that’s not cool enough, the iOS 11 is free....