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Lawsuits are a tough sell when a plaintiff has specifically agreed to not sue the defendant. Take NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield, for example. In May 2009, Mayfield was suspended from the NASCAR circuit after failing a random drug test. NASCAR announced the reason for the suspension, and Mayfield filed a lawsuit. This week, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Mayfield had no case because he signed two contracts waiving his right to a NASCAR lawsuit, The Associated Press reports....

Fifth Circuit judges came down hard on traveling salesmen on Tuesday, after ruling that a weekly salary of $300 plus commissions was in accordance with minimum wage laws. The salesman in question, Florentino Meza, works for Intelligent Mexican Marketing, Inc. (IMM), a company that sells food and drink products to convenience stores doing sales work. The Fifth Circuit found that Meza’s work qualified under the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) exemption for “outside salesmen,” which exempted him from receiving federal minimum wage and overtime....

Lawyers work hard and play hard. In fact, lawyers are known to have one of the highest percentage of alcoholism of any profession. So as you let loose at your office holiday party or take your sorrows to the nearest pub, you should remember to leave your car keys elsewhere or have a designated driver on standby. It’s OK to have a drink or two (as I’m sure you know), but don’t risk your career or your life by driving drunk....

A study of Americans showed that 14% of us have more than 10 credit cards. Not everybody is in this minority, but the average American does have upwards of 4 credit cards. As a professional legal business, should your firm accept credit cards? If you decide to do so, some smart choices can help you save a lot of cash. The first step is to determine which method of credit card processing is right for your business:...

The whole point of the attorney-client privilege is that clients should be able to trust lawyers with their secrets. So why should it be hard for attorneys to trust other lawyers? Yet sometimes it seems impossible to have a trusting relationship, whether it is an opposing counsel, a partner, or an associate. But this article is about how to build trust with your legal colleagues. Of course, there are good reasons to distrust attorneys – most people do anyway....

In a class action filed against Jeff Sessions, ICE, and other government officials, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the class of immigrant detainees that were denied a fair shake at bond. The class of immigrant detainees successfully obtained a preliminary injunction requiring immigration court judges to consider a detainees financial ability to pay bond before setting the amount. Additionally, if the detainee is found to be unable to pay, alternatives should be assessed, such as ankle monitoring....

A lack of evidence will bring a halt to any possible criminal charges stemming from the firings of nine U.S. attorneys during the George W. Bush Administration. One of the biggest domestic controversies of the Bush years comes to an end not with the bang of a gavel, but with a whimper. In a letter to the head of the House Judiciary Committee, it was announced that Nora R. Dannehy, an assistant prosecutor from Connecticut who led the investigation, was unable to find the evidence necessary to bring criminal charges over the firings of the nine attorneys....

Law school is out, the sun is shining, and summer is around the corner. For many lawyers that means one thing: summer intern season. And while the “internship economy” can be exploitive, and sometimes illegal, if it’s done right, a summer internship or clerkship can be a great experience for both lawyers and their clerks. Step one: find an intern. Presumably, you did so in December, or maybe March. But if not, there’s still time....

Last week, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors appointed Thomas C. Shanahan as the new Vice President and General Counsel of the 17-campus UNC system. Wondering how to snag a sweet in-house spot in the higher-education realm? You may want to borrow a page from Shanahan’s playbook. Like becoming a museum curator, sometimes you just have to wait for someone to pass away leave the position before you can vie for a coveted GC spot....

Way back in August, the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) folks over at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts announced that a selection of dated federal appeals court files, and one California-based bankruptcy court’s inactive files would be pulled from the system, as they were incompatible with an ongoing upgrade. Many people were upset about the deletion of important court records, including Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee....

Pethtel v. Ballard, 09-6075, involved a defendant’s request for habeas relief from his convictions for sexual assault, filming a minor, burglary, and other various crimes, claiming that the ‘anti-shuttling’ provision of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act (IADA) was violated when he was transferred to West Virginia and then back to Ohio, before his West Virginia case was finished. In affirming the district court’s denial of defendant’s petition, the court held that a violation of the trial before return provision of the IADA is not cognizable on habeas review....

Petition for review of a final order of removal denying plaintiff’s second motion to reopen is denied where the Board of Immigration Appeals’ determination that the plaintiff failed to meet his burden under Lozada of providing sufficient detail of his counsel’s alleged ineffectiveness was not arbitrary or capricious, as the evidence plaintiff submitted for the purpose of establishing the claimed ineffectiveness did not describe the terms according to which the work was to be performed or how former counsel’s performance of the work was ineffective....

One company is thanking their lucky digital stars after the recent ruling from SEC clearly stated that the oversight organization would not be pursuing an enforcement action against it, despite the company running afoul of securities regulations. The DAO, known for its unique crypto currency, Etherium, took the idea of anonymous payments one step further by extending it to anonymous smart contracts. The company’s name stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organization, and the idea behind it involves the holders of the DAO’s currency, or tokens, profiting based on projects performed by individuals....

BigLaw generally leads the way in adapting legal tech, but any law firm can teach aspiring lawyers a thing or two about it. Consider Reed Smith, a global law firm with more than 1,800 attorneys. The firm is offering summer programs for law students to create technology-driven solutions to legal problems. It’s a boon to young workers who otherwise end up in the doldrums of discovery or other mundane tasks, so why shouldn’t your firm innovate, too?...

Forget SOPA. Now that a Chinese company is set to release an unofficial Steve Jobs action figure, a more pressing question may be: Who’s going to stop overseas toy piracy? The answer: Lawyers from the late Steve Jobs’ estate, most likely. A company called In Icons, based in China, unveiled images of a prototype Steve Jobs action figure on its website earlier today, the Los Angeles Times reports. Within hours, the company’s website was overwhelmed with traffic and could not be accessed....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Once upon a time, people didn’t require Internet access to find a date. The old-fashioned dating scene involved socializing with friends, attending community events, and spending Friday nights at parties and bars. That still happens, of course, but with the Internet, there are now unlimited hook-up options available right at your fingertips. Dating sites like eHarmony and Match....

There’s no need to dump those stacks of old paper into the recycling bin anymore. Instead, throw it into the world’s first in-office recycling system and, through the magic of modern science, you’ll have a fresh, new, crisp stack of white pages waiting for you in a matter of minutes. That’s right, your trash goes in and three minutes later it’s reborn like a phoenix. Is Epson’s PaperLab the new must-have in office hardware?...

With the beginning of the New Year comes the anticipation and excitement of a fresh start. That, and the bets on the hot legal issues that will be burning up the mainstream media during the year. Here are our picks for the top three legal issues that will sure to garner a lot of attention for anyone following the First Circuit Court of Appeals: 1. The Replacement of Judge Kermit Lipez The exit of Judge Lipez from the First Circuit will be a bittersweet day for the court, but it will be even worse if a replacement isn’t selected for the venerable judge....

God bless the corporate scandal. Not only does it provide a bit of voyeuristic schadenfreude, it’s a valuable teaching moment. “See kids, don’t do what that white collar criminal did.” And whether it’s a Bank of America executive’s claims that the bank has become a sexist “bro’s club” or the continued fallout from Volkswagen’s emissions fraud, there’s plenty of lessons to be learned these days. Here are some of our top corporate scandal takeaways for GC’s and in-house counsel, from the FindLaw archives....

Dimitrios Biller has won an early round in the fight between Toyota and Biller, one of the automaker’s former top attorneys. However, Biller claims that all was not well at the company and he faced a dilemma after encountering a culture of “hypocrisy and deceit.” He eventually sued the company and sought to introduce documents he had in his possession as evidence of criminal activity. Biller alleges that Toyota destroyed evidence, committed perjury, violated court orders, committed mail and wire fraud, violated court orders and engaged in criminal conspiracy....