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Federal Court litigation is a marathon, not a sprint. As any marathon runner knows, you can’t run the race if you haven’t prepared. Fortunately for attorneys, preparing a case for trial doesn’t require any actual running, though it can sure feel like a workout sometimes. When prepping a case for trial, or just filing, even experienced federal court litigators need to have their recollections refreshed on proper civil procedure. While younger, inexperienced lawyers might choose to start with a web search, experienced practitioners will turn to the federal practice guide that has become an industry standard at any law firm worth its weight in billables: The Rutter Group’s Practice Guide: Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial, National Edition....

A client company has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Now the real struggle begins. Without access to capital, the most promising businesses may go under before they are able to reorganize and exit bankruptcy. Thankfully, so-called “debtor-in-possession” loans are commonplace. Commonplace, but not straightforward. For attorneys guiding clients through bankruptcy, understanding DIP financing is essential, from the basics, like strategies for lining up DIP financing and common features in DIP credit agreements, to emerging trends that are impacting everything from who is offering DIP loans to who can secure them....

By now, you’ve probably heard the “tin foil” theories about Yelp: The site, which has a filter for spam, allegedly filters out positive reviews until you become a paid customer, after which, they’ll boost your positive reviews. It’s all allegations for now, and the Ninth Circuit recently ruled that even if it were all true, it wouldn’t amount to extortion under California law. Your best bet, if you have negative Yelp reviews, is to respond with professionalism and niceties....

In a breach of contract action, district court’s grant of defendant’s motion to dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds is affirmed where: 1) the court did not err in finding plaintiff’s choice of its home forum to be undeserving of heightened deference; 2) the court properly found that Israel is an adequate alternative forum as its courts address the sort of breach of contract claim asserted in this case and defendant is an Israeli citizen amenable to service there; and 3) the court did not abuse its discretion in applying the public and private interest factors and reasonably concluding that they strongly favored Israel as the more convenient and judicially efficient forum....

Are you a family lawyer that handles divorces? If so, the findings that were presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association may be of interest of you. Apparently, divorce could have a correlation with the seasons. It’s old news that divorces spike after the winter holidays. But the new findings indicate that there may be a second seasonal spike. Theories that link the seasons with human behavior have been proposed and studied for years....

In plaintiffs’ action challenging a district’s method of electing school board members claiming that the election process dilutes the voting strength of African-American voters, an order holding that the school board election system violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is vacated and remanded where: 1) the district court erred by considering only the elections that took place between 1984 and 2004; and 2) district court’s application of the second and third Gingles factors was based on factual and legal errors....

The number of countries considering BlackBerry bans is growing, although UAE is off the list for now. The BlackBerry controversy comes as a growing number of countries, including the United States, seek ways to eavesdrop on people using mobile technology. India has a deadline at the end of the month for BlackBerry to comply with its laws on eavesdropping. Saudi Arabia and the UAE had threatened to do the same, but eventually backed off on Monday, The Associated Press reports....

ProLaw has an exciting new development for iPad users. ProLaw is an integrated software suite designed to automate the practice and manage the business of law. Pro has features that simplify, streamline and coordinate the work of attorneys and staff in small and mid-size law firms, corporate legal departments and government law offices. The app is called iDocExplorer, and is already available for download from the iTunes App store. The app allows attorneys to access documents and other matters on the go, in a secure and efficient manner....

Filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission has never been something that attorneys look forward to. It tends to be slow and drawn out, like much of the legal process. However, there is good news on the horizon. San Diego’s SEC Connect is displaying a web-based platform that will simplify the way in house counsel, law firms and companies file forms with the SEC. The program is being unveiled at the 49th Annual corporate Counsel Institute in Chicago....

In September 2013, an employee at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, made a claim alleging unfair labor practices. The employee asserted that the plant’s management was preventing employees from talking about their labor union or soliciting for the union during work hours. As you probably know, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) expressly allows employees to engage in union activities and prevents employers from interfering with that right. In response to the complaint against Mercedes-Benz, an administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board found three violations of the FLSA....

Affordable Care Act litigation is a lot like Ghostface in the Scream movies. At the end of each film, you think that you have closure. Then another Scream comes along, proving you wrong. That’s pretty much what we have today with the Supreme Court’s decision to remand Liberty University’s employer mandate and contraceptive coverage mandate challenges: You may have thought the Court’s healthcare decision in June signaled the end of ACA litigation until 2014....

A Maine Social Worker got an earlier Summary Judgment against her vacated by the First Circuit’s Court of Appeals because of an understandable but erroneous reading of a key case. We ask you: if your work is “excellent” and “very [good],” but you’re fired soon after you blow the whistle – is there a casual connection between your finking and your firing? A reasonable mind could probably agree there is....

A new bill proposes to eliminate PACER fees, making electronic documents downloaded from federal courts free. The Electronic Court Records Reform Act would prohibit courts from charging for downloads, which currently cost as much as 10 cents a page. The measure is before the House Judiciary Committee. If approved, it would change a significant part of the system since it was launched in 1988. For some, it has been a long time coming....

If Google search results are to comply with European law, they must do so globally, France’s data protection authority has ruled. That means that Google must apply the EU’s “right to be forgotten” to its search results throughout the world. After all, what good is being forgotten if another country’s Google search could easily find your most embarrassing photos and memories? The order comes after an informal appeal by Google which sought to limit the right to search results in the European Union....

While there may not seem to be anything more innocent than an app that tells you the weather, according to a recent lawsuit, The Weather Channel app has been doing much more with their users’ location data than those same users might have ever guessed. The lawsuit, filed by Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, alleges unfair business practices due to misleading app users into believing their location is being shared with the app solely for weather related purposes....

“Asalam alaikum, brother,” the suspected terrorist messaged. He had talked about “jihad and shooting all the people all the time,” but the time had come to act. Using an anonymous phone app, he revealed his plan to attack. “I cannot speak of anything,” he said. “Say your dua, sleep, and watch the news tomorrow.” Within hours, law enforcement agents were outside his apparent. He tried furiously to encrypt his computer files, but it was too late....

The denial of Defendant’s motion to reconsider his money laundering conviction is affirmed, where the District Court lacked authority to hear Defendant’s Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(b)(3)(B) motion because it was untimely, as Defendant’s petition for a writ of certiorari did not toll the time for moving to reconsider. Read US v. Elso, No. 06-14954. Appellate Information Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of FloridaFiled June 19, 2009...

Legal research just got a little bit easier thanks to the combination of artificial intelligence and Westlaw. The new product, known as Westlaw Edge promises to provide practitioners with the most advanced legal research software on the market. The updated and new, AI-powered, tools, can still deliver the same high-quality research you’ve come to expect from Westlaw, but now it’s faster and more comprehensive. (Disclosure: Westlaw is FindLaw’s sister company.)...

Dick Costolo, the embattled CEO of Twitter, announced his exit from the company yesterday. Costolo had manned the company for the past five years, but faced increasing criticism as Twitter failed to increase its user base. Twitter co-founder and ex-CEO Jack Dorsey will replace him on an interim basis. Costolo had long been criticized for failing to realize the full potential of the 140-words-or-less messaging platform, but his departure is still a surprise....

What may prove to be, at the very least, a legally fascinating case, will be sent up to SCOTUS for review. The Rowan County prayer case involves a county council that starts each one of its public sessions with a prayer. The lawsuit was brought by three Rowan county citizens who do not think prayer should be part of the public meetings. Initially, a federal court ruled the prayer was unconstitutional, but a three judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed and reversed....