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Paperless office? What paperless office? That promise is just as real as flying cars. Lawyers, especially, labor under the burden of ever-more paper, and even though some courts are (finally!) accepting electronically submitted materials, others still refuse. For your home office, or even for your personal life, a printer is sadly still a requirement. With all the models out there, how can you know what’s best? Well, that’s where we come in: Here’s our guide to the best printer under $100....

Many years ago, I drove a 1969 Volkswagen almost 1,000 miles up and down the California coast to attend a deposition. It was a beautiful trip, especially along the cliffy stretch between San Simeon and Carmel. Not everybody gets to see it because sometimes rock slides cover the highway. As I look back now, I realize how that drive taught me something about life. Slow and steady wins the race. It’s as true on a road trip as it is in law life....

Petition for review of a denial of Kenyan petitioner’s motion to reopen seeking to apply individually for withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) is denied where: 1) there was no abuse of discretion in the denial as the motion stated no new facts material to the claims, was not supported by any previously unavailable evidence, and a divorce from petitioner’s husband did not constitute changed circumstances in this case; and 2) her brief improperly attempted to challenge findings of the BIA and the IJ regarding original claims for withholding of removal and protection under the CAT....

Chinese citizen’s petition for review of the BIA’s denial of a petition for asylum and related relief is denied as, although the IJ discussed some but not all of the documentary evidence petitioner introduced to support her claim of past religious persecution, the remaining evidence would not compel a factfinder to conclude that she had suffered past religious persecution or feared future persecution or that she was credible about her reasons for leaving China....

The Alvarez v. City of Brownsville case is one that criminal law and civil rights attorneys and advocates will want to review. In short, the matter concerns whether a Brady violation occurs if a defendant accepts a plea bargain. Both a panel, and a majority of the full, en banc Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Brady doesn’t apply to plea bargains. George Alvarez was attacked by a correctional officer....

Lawyers often give off the impression of being flawless. But lawyers are people too, and people make silly mistakes – even reckless ones. One really big mistake can even jeopardize your license or cause you to be sued. 1. Negligence in Handling a Matter As soon as you passed the bar exam, your jurisdiction’s bar examiners made the determination that you were competent to practice law there. Most people owe the would-be plaintiff a duty of “ordinary care....

If you want to form a general purpose political action committee in Texas that promotes a particular point of view, you first need to: (1) Appoint a treasurer and register with the Texas Election Commission, (2) collect contributions from 10 contributors, (3) wait 60 days before exceeding $500 in contributions and expenditures, and (4) never accept contributions from corporations unless your PAC engages only in independent expenditures. On appeal, the Fifth Circuit upheld the treasurer requirement and (surprisingly) the ban on corporate contributions....

Practicing law means writing. Lots of writing. Motions, demand letters, emails to clients, memos, you name it – the practice of law is in many ways practice in writing. Which means, to be a better lawyer, you need to be a better writer. Don’t worry though, with some practice and a few tips, pretty much anyone can start writing gooder. To help you out, here are our top legal writing tips for lawyers, from the FindLaw archives....

Artificial intelligence is finally moving into the legal world. Within the past two months, two major firms have partnered with artificial intelligence companies, hoping to hand over a sliver of their legal work to robot lawyers. But despite the emergence of AI-assisted BigLaw firms, lawyers have been slow to adopt artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, and reasonable skepticism remains. After all, your computer program might win on Jeopardy, but can it pass the bar?...

If psychologists go into the field because they have psychological problems, then do lawyers go into the law because they have legal problems? The first half of the question may be true – Freud was a self-diagnosed neurotic – but the second half of the question hardly makes sense. Lawyers as professionals are clearly distinct from the problems they typically handle for their clients. However, there is a crossover in psychology and the law that can create problems for attorneys: assessing diminished capacity....

Sometimes, credibility of testimony isn’t the only bar to a claim of asylum. The history of persecution of a group can be an important factor in determining whether a petition against removal can stand. The First Circuit Court of Appeals looked at one such asylum case earlier this week and ruled in favor of deportation for a Guatemalan citizen who invoked the Convention Against Torture. Nobody in his immediate family, however, had suffered any harm at the hands of the government or the guerilla army....

In habeas proceedings following a murder prosecution, denial of a habeas petition is affirmed where retrying petitioner following a mistrial due to the discovery of the victim’s body did not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause because petitioner failed to rebut a factual determination that the victim’s body did not constitute “critical” prosecution evidence. Read Baum v. Rushton, No. 07-7589 Appellate Information Argued: January 28, 2009 Decided: July 16, 2009 Judges...

The Supreme Judicial Court’s Rules Committee would like you to weigh in on proposed amendments to Rule 23(e) of the Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure. The proposed amendments would require that at least fifty percent (50%) of class action residual funds be given to the Massachusetts IOLTA Committee to “support activities and programs that promote access to the civil justice system” for low income Massachusetts residents, according to the notice....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Levels of unsolicited commercial email, aka spam, have dropped by a staggering 47% in the past several months, according to statistics assembled by Symantec. This certainly is welcome news, as spam still accounts for 81% of all email traffic on the Internet. Once upon a time at the dawn of the Internet age, spam frankly was a bigger problem than it is now, as filtering technology was not terribly advanced....

The future of Faraday Future, the electric car company, looks a lot like yesterday – dim. Before it could roll out a production vehicle, the company has been sued again. In January, a visual effects company sued Faraday for not paying its bills. Now, another contractor is suing for unpaid bills. Together, the plaintiffs allege the car company is behind by almost $2.5 million. Add that to more than $10 million in lawsuit claims filed in December, and the future does not look bright for the electric startup....

Few would expect so much drama to be played out over a sewer system contract, but the case of Flovac v. Airvac, is a clear exceptions. The First Circuit heard and affirmed a lower district court’s summary judgment in favor of Airvac on the plaintiff’s Sherman Antitrust claims. The procedural background of this case is weird, so we’ll try to go slowly. Flovac and Airvac are competitors in the rarified market of sewer systems, the former placing more emphasis on vacuum sewer systems....

Health care providers collectively are holding their breath following last month’s $1.55 million settlement agreement between Minnesota’s North Memorial Health Care and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Soon all the oxygen was sucked out of the room following an even bigger settlement with New York’s Feinstein Institute. What is a health care provider to do? Even though hindsight is 20/20, compliance departments and in-house counsel would do well to peruse their agreement contracts with company contractors....

Is the budget for your intellectual property legal team too high? Are you overspending on legal while your competitors get by with leaner teams? Or is it too low, destining you to go over budget? How can you tell, anyway? By looking to a few key performance indicators to see if your IP legal spending lines up with industry practice. Following standard key performance indicators can help you determine what sort of budget is appropriate for your needs, and help you justify the legal department’s cost to senior management....

Unless you’re part of a large multi-national law firm, you’ll have only your small firm or even only yourself to rely on when dealing with clients from foreign countries. This leads to a conundrum. You want clients from across the globe, but are you equipped to handle them? Perhaps you are, but it never hurts to be politely reminded of some of the basic best practices a lawyer should follow in when dealing with a foreign client....

The popular consensus is that the soda industry is in a funk. American consumers are flocking to other “healthier” and “all natural” beverages, especially in lieu of diet soda. Fox Business tosses out a number of statistics to show the decline: 71 percent of Americans have had a soft drink in a two-week span. In 2000, that figure was 81 percent. In 1998, Americans consumed an average of 54 gallons of carbonated soft drinks per year....