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As reports continue to stream in regarding the California dairy cow infected with mad cow disease, American consumers are second-guessing their meat choices. The news has even caused two major South Korean stores to pull U.S. beef from their shelves. Could bankruptcy announcements follow? While the USDA investigates the circumstances surrounding the tainted cow, the only thing certain is that the beef industry will likely suffer from the press. But how much damage could the negative coverage do to beef producers and could it be enough to force bankruptcies?...

Hiring support staff is always a risky endeavor, something which requires you to place faith in absolute strangers and hope they can deliver. When hiring an admin, the risks can be even greater, as a firm administrator is often the most senior non-lawyer employee. That’s why firms should tread carefully and search rigorously. Do things the wrong way and you’ll be left with a headache. So don’t learn from your mistakes, avoid them in the first place....

Last week, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against several drug stores in a lawsuit brought by the West Virginia Attorney General, Darrell McGraw. As such, the drug retailers lost their bid to have their case heard by a federal court and instead, must have their action heard before the state court, under West Virginia law. The defendants in the case include CVS Pharmacy, Kmart, Kroger, Wal-Mart, Walgreens and Target, who alleged that the claim as a “disguised class action,” reports WOWK News....

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a sentence and remanded the case for further proceedings where the district court reduced a sentence from ninety-six months to one day. The case involved defendant James Clawson, charged with being a moderator of a child pornography website. He cooperated with the government and pleaded guilty to charges of distributing child pornography and at the time of his plea, it became known that he suffered from ADHD and depression, requiring certain medication daily....

If you’re a small or midsize firm, how do you get national attention for a case you’re handling? We were inspired to ask this question after a lawyer from a small Texas town garnered national attention with his lawsuit against General Motors on behalf of 658 clients. The lawsuit, spearheaded by Super Lawyer Robert Hilliard of Hilliard Muñoz Gonzales in Corpus Christi, Texas, is related to the faulty ignition switch problem that surfaced earlier....

Like other accomplished jurists who have passed on, Judge John T. Noonan, Jr. left a legacy of decisions that will live on in American jurisprudence. Some may recall his opinion in a landmark decision to uphold physician-assisted suicide, ultimately adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court. Others may remember his decision to stay the execution of Robert Alton Harris, who later became the first man to be executed in California in 25 years....

After another legal setback, President Trump said Tuesday he was ‘absolutely’ considering proposals to split the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals because of its ‘ridiculous rulings’ against him. Trump has repeatedly criticized judges since his first and second travel bans were overruled, and spewed more of the same after the latest decision knocking down his order against sanctuary cities. He said his opponents were “judge shopping” because of the circuit’s reputation as a liberal jurisdiction....

Given the success that John Oliver’s HBO show “Last Week Tonight” had influencing the net neutrality conversation, maybe the private probation system will have some luck, too. Thanks in part to Oliver, and to the Department of Justice report on Ferguson, Missouri, the nation knows that local police departments often charge defendants fines and fees well in excess of the original fines. These fees often include making a defendant pay for his own probation, and the proceeds usually go straight to the private probation company....

Is the medical malpractice world about to experience some dramatic change? Yes, if congressional Republicans get their way. Congress is currently considering a bill that would cap damages for pain and suffering and reduce attorneys’ contingent fees. Let’s take a look. The bill, H.R. 4771, is cleverly titled the “Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare Act of 2016,” or the HEALTH Act. (Alright, the title is clunky, but we appreciate the acronym....

Justice Breyer calls it “the Tweeter.” Judge Reggie Walton, charged with overseeing the Roger Clemens retrial, had to ask a juror to explain how the 140-character social-networking service works. And now, Judge Raymond Jackson of the Eastern District of Virginia has proclaimed that Facebook “likes” aren’t free speech. These are just a few of the many examples of the growing disconnect between emerging technology and the aging judiciary. While somewhat expected, the reality is that social networking has become an integral part of our justice system....

A federal appeals court gave new meaning to ‘free speech’ for an Arizona attorney who won nearly $1 million in a First Amendment case. The court vacated the entire judgment, including more than $300,000 in attorney’s fees. Maria Brandon, a Maricopa County attorney, had sued the county for retaliating against her after she spoke to a newspaper reporter about the county’s settlement practices. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said county officials did nothing wrong, and reversed a jury’s verdict....

Things got a little better for parties seeking to recover attorney’s fees in the Fourth Circuit this week. On Tuesday, the Fourth ruled that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(d), which seeks to deter forum shopping and “vexatious” lawsuits, allows courts to award attorney’s fees, but with limits. Some courts have fully rejected the idea that Rule 41(d) entitles parties to recover attorney’s fees, while others have awarded them almost as a matter of right....

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Hearst Magazines, as well as a number of news sites, restrict readership to those who are over 18. There are a number of good reasons for this, not the least of which is avoiding any trouble from accidentally displaying mature content on sites open to minors. Think of it as a “CYA” provision. That provision may have protected the sites, but unfortunately, it was making the users into felons....

Of all the appeals, in all the circuits, in all the country, the Supreme Court chose theirs. Perhaps that’s because the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals was the only appellate court to strike the individual mandate last year. Last August, the Eleventh Circuit rejected the idea that Congress could justify the individual mandate under the Commerce Clause because everyone, eventually, needs healthcare. In a 207-page opinion, the appellate court wrote, “The government’s position amounts to an argument that the mere fact of an individual’s existence substantially affects interstate commerce, and therefore Congress may regulate them at every point of their life....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Are George Orwell’s fears of a governmental “Big Brother” from his novel 1984 coming true now? Well, let’s hope not, but read on. Recent press has reported on a particular government document: a Privacy Compliance Review issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in late 2011. The document reveals that the DHS command center regularly monitors social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, popular sites like Hulu, controversial sites including WikiLeaks, and news and commentary sites like Drudge Report and The Huffington Post....

Deputy City Attorney Christopher Richard Garcia, 57, was charged with possession, distribution, and other child pornography-related charges on Thursday, reports the Los Angeles Times. Though he allegedly transmitted some of the material last April, and though his home was raided in November, he is still receiving a paycheck and is licensed to practice law. Plus, the California bar’s website still states that he has no history of disciplinary actions. That may change soon, but should it have changed sooner?...

Have you outsourced your document review, due diligence, compliance paperwork, or other repetitive tasks that make you want to slam your face through a plate glass window? Depending on who you ask, legal process outsourcing (LPO) is either growing, or stagnating. A survey late last year claimed that LPO growth had slowed, and while LPO revenues exceeded $1 billion in 2012, that was far less than the $2.4 billion that had been expected....

Every startup needs a lawyer, but startups are already shaky value propositions if you think you’re going to burst onto the GC stage, or advance your extant career by working for a company that develops an app to check the temperature of your bath water. (It’s even worse when you consider that a lot of startups pay their “employees” in equity that’s basically kindling until they’re bought by Facebook for a billion dollars....

All it takes is one bad hurricane for it to be a “bad” hurricane season. Nonetheless, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, this upcoming season could be “more active than normal” and perhaps “very active.” Why? The short answer is because meteorologists said so. The long answer involves warmer than normal Atlantic sea surface temperatures and a strong rainy season in West Africa. Altogether, the season could see 13 to 19 tropical storms, six to nine of which could become hurricanes....

Technology has made the lawyer’s life easier, right? E-filing, teleconferences for court hearings, scanning documents, and electronic signatures are all part of practicing and save hours of time for litigators. However, despite all these conveniences, some attorneys pine for the old days where the personal touch, and a personal connection, meant “something” more. On the other hand, clients, then and now, really only care about two things: quality and cost. Increasingly, attorneys are being hired without ever having a face-to-face with a client....