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The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that a court has a duty to correct a pro se criminal defendant regarding his obvious misunderstanding of the law. The case, U.S.A. v. Hung Thien Ly, involved a Georgia doctor charged with 129 counts of unlawfully dispensing certain controlled substances outside the usual course of medical practice without a legitimate purpose. Ly asked the court to appoint counsel, arguing that he would otherwise be forced to represent himself because he could not afford an attorney; his request was denied because he allegedly placed all his assets in his wife’s name to obtain counsel at public expense....

Whether it was Marshall Field, or Harry Selfridge, both men are credited with coining the phrase “the customer is always right.” Everyone these days has heard the phrase, but how many of us actually put it into practice? For busy lawyers, it is easy to get sidetracked, and forget that ultimately, we are in a service industry – we need to keep our customers happy. Here are some ways to brush up on your customer service skills and ensure that your clients keep coming back to you....

In 2015, Google settled a class action privacy case against them for a meager $8.5 million. The case stemmed from the alleged sale of Google users’ internet search terms to third parties without consent of the users. That settlement is just now being approved, again. This time by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The money has been tied up in appeals as none of the actual class members were ever going to see a dime....

Here’s some schadenfreude for tax day: Former IRS ethics lawyer Takisha Brown has been disbarred by the D.C. Court of Appeals (not the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals) for ethics violations and misappropriating client funds. Brown withdrew money from a settlement payment meant to go towards a client’s medical bills following an automobile accident. Of course, it wasn’t just the crime, it was the cover up that landed Brown in hot water....

With the number of new, and experienced, lawyers that strike out solely, the optimism it takes to get a practice going often overshadows the real pragmatic question that every lawyer should be asking themselves: Is your firm a dead-end job? After all, when you start a solo practice, the fact that you are your own boss, and THE boss, means there is no upward mobility. But, usually when first starting out, that’s the least of your concerns....

The First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an $11 million donation to the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center last Tuesday. The decision didn’t come easily, though, as the judges expressed their concern with the idea that they were called on to determine the ultimate disposition of settlement funds in the underlying case. The determination of the charitable recipient of a settlement award, after all, is not part of the job description of a federal appellate judge....

It’s been less than a month since the Fourth Circuit heard oral arguments in Bostic, the gay marriage appeal, and the panel’s decision can’t come fast enough. Of course, even once that arrives, there will inevitably be an en banc petition, and then, perhaps an appeal to the Supreme Court, if one of the other circuit courts’ cases doesn’t arrive first. The importance of the decision can’t be understated – the Fourth Circuit panel, and perhaps an en banc panel, will determine the fate of marriage throughout Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and North and South Carolina....

Last year, Microsoft released two tablets: the Surface RT and the Surface Pro. The latter was a competent machine, with top-of-the-line specs and an installation of full-featured Windows 8, capable of running desktop tablets. It was also quite pricey, and had poor battery life. The former was cheaper, based on low-power ARM processors, and ran it’s own operating system: Windows RT. Both flopped, but the RT tablet flopped so badly that Microsoft had to take a $900 million loss on unsold inventory, and slash prices to empty their warehouses....

When it comes to smart phones, lawyers have been big fans of the BlackBerry. But over the past few years, the BlackBerry has lost its sexiness and has fallen behind the Apple and Google. The iPhone iOS and the Google Android now clearly rule the air. But Research In Motion is looking to stage a comeback, and in order to facilitate that, they have released the BlackBerry Torch and a new operating system called BlackBerry 6....

Why, oh why, do we still carry business cards? Think about it. You meet people at a conference. They give you their business cards. You either immediately add their information to your phone’s contacts or you… lose the damned thing. Months later, you clean out your car, only to find six coffee-stained business cards from people that you can barely remember. The thing is, no one uses a Rolodex anymore. No one keeps paper address books anymore....

Union elections are officially in a state of flux. Just two weeks after becoming effective, a federal judge has tossed out the National Labor Relations Board’s “quickie election rule.” The rule, which business groups vehemently oppose, cuts the election timeline in half. No formal vote, no quorum. Judge Boasberg went on to invalidate the quickie election rule and clarified that the NLRB will continue to operate under prior rules. Bust as most commentators have noted, the NLRB, which now has 5 sitting members, can simply reconvene and revote....

Exhibit A of why patent reform is needed: White Castle. The family-run, slider-slinging burger joint has apparently been targeted by not one, not two, but three different patent trolls in recent years. And no, the patents have nothing to do with steamed buns or circular-shaped chicken rings. (How do they do it?) White Castle received demand letters regarding their digital menu boards, the use of QR barcodes on their packaging, and about putting a hyperlink in an email, reports Legal Newsline....

The Ninth Circuit greenlit a defamation lawsuit brought against the British tabloid Daily Mail Online by the former soft-core porn model Danni Ashe. It’s a bit of a victory for those “public figures” who generally fight an uphill battle with regards to defamation suits. False Light for HIV Story The plaintiff is Leah Manzari, who earned fame as the soft-core porn star Danni Ashe. She sold nude images of herself for about a decade from the middle of the 90s to about 2004....

The Fourth Amendment prevents the government from engaging in unreasonable searches and seizures without a warrant, but what about surveillance by private actors? The reasonableness of privacy expectation depends both on whether the person whose privacy is invaded had a subjective expectation of privacy and whether society is prepared to recognize that expectation. A straightforward rule, perhaps, but one that’s subject to being contorted out of existence. For example, if someone places a sign in a public restroom that says you’re being recorded, can it be said that you had a subjective expectation of privacy?...

In a diversity action alleging manufacturing defect, district court’s grant of summary judgment for defendant is reversed where: 1) the court erred in holding plaintiff’s claims was time-barred, as plaintiff effectively tolled the statute of limitations in regards to his later-filed actions against defendant by timely bringing before the court an identical cause of action against parties solidarily liable with defendant; and 2) the instant action was filed within the limitations period....

The First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of the wife in a husband-and-wife team of pyramid-schemers in Massachusetts. The couple swindled approximately 500 people out of $20,000,000. A third member of the scheme pleaded guilty on the first day of trial. James Bunchan founded two companies. His ventures were classic pyramid schemes, recruiting investors and offering them incentives to recruit additional investors. Bunchan has since been convicted. Tan made several of these promises in writing....

Petition for review of an order denying asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture is denied where the Board of Immigration Appeal’s brief treatment of the petitioners’ claims of past persecution was adequate, and the Board was not compelled to find that the petitioners’ claimed fear of future persecution was well-founded given given the lack of past persecution, the continued uneventful presence in Indonesia of close family members, and the country conditions evidence....

A South Dakota woman’s transgender discrimination settlement reveals a growing trend toward recognizing transgender discrimination claims as cognizable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act’s sex discrimination prohibition. The case serves as a strong reminder to companies and their in-house counsel to update their LGBT policies to protect transgender employees from discrimination. Cori McCreery, 29, was fired in 2010 after telling her employer at Don’s Valley Market in Rapid City, S....

In an appeal to the Fifth Circuit, an injured former employee of Tyson Foods sought to reverse the trial judge’s refusal to grant a new trial, as well as a peculiar request seemingly on behalf of the appellant’s attorney involving the jury. In short, the underlying case, Benson v. Tyson Foods, involved a claim of disability discrimination, which was undercut at trial by evidence and testimony the jury relied on to find that the plaintiff-appellant was not actually disabled....

In the dizzying rise of cryptocurrencies, there is a new player in town. It’s called a security token. A security token represents a traditional, private security interest, like a share in a company. But instead of a piece of paper, like a stock certificate, the security token wraps it up electronically. That’s what Josh Stein says, and he should know. His company is working on the next big thing in blockchain technology....