A primary care lawyer has nothing to do with health care, unless you consider ‘peace of mind’ a healthy thing. The primary care lawyer is like a primary care physician in that he is the go-to guy for all concerns. More like a first responder, actually, she answers the client’s first call. After that, it may require a specialist. So now that we’ve got the terminology clear, do you want to be a primary care lawyer-person?...
Edward Siedle is a voice in the whistleblower wilderness, only louder because he toots his own horn. In his biographical sketch, he portrays himself as having the largest SEC whistleblower award in history. Seidle makes a case for teaching whistleblower justice in law schools. If it doesn’t take there, perhaps corporate counsel can learn from the school of Seidle. School of Seidle In his latest contribution to Forbes, Seidle explains why he has never made a contribution to his alma mater....
You could call it a glitch in the system, but this is criminal. The Alameda County Superior Court’s computer system has caused countless numbers of people to serve unnecessary jail time, be improperly arrested, and wrongly registered as sex offenders. The public defender’s office has filed about 2,000 motions challenging legal process due to the faulty software. While judges dealt with the problem in the courtroom, public defender Brendon Woods petitioned an appeals court to order the county to fix the software....
DISH Network may soon be paying out a rather large judgment, again, stemming from unwanted robocalls placed nearly a decade ago. Once one consumer filed a lawsuit in 2014 after receiving the robocalls despite being on the Do Not Call Registry, the matter quickly took off as a consumer class action. Now after several years of litigation and a jury trial, a final judgment has been issued to the tune of $61 million....
In our ever-connected world, we lawyers are not strangers to the concept of always being “on call.” In fact, when I picture a lawyer, the first image that comes to mind is someone checking their email on their phone – constantly. While that may be normal for lawyers, what about the rest of your company’s employees? Earlier this year, Gallup reported that nearly eight in 10 (or 79 percent) of workers who “stay connected to the workplace outside of their normal working hours” view it as a “somewhat or strongly positive development....
In the big anti-affirmative action case playing out in a federal court in Boston, recently the federal Department of Justice announced its support for the plaintiffs in the case against Harvard. If this case has managed to fly under your radar, the facts might sound a little confusing. But to sum it up, an anti-affirmative action organization has sued Harvard on behalf of Asian students claiming Harvard’s race based admissions harm Asian students and violate federal nondiscrimination laws....
The legal field keeps the paper industry alive. From giant text books, to legal opinions, to filings and even bills – lawyers like paper. But as technological developments increase office efficiencies, it’s important for your law department or office to keep up with the times. Whether you work at BigLaw, or are in-house counsel, you’ve probably encountered eBilling. If you haven’t then it’s time you have. If you work at a small firm, or are a solo practitioner, don’t feel left out – eBilling may be for you as well....
A recent decision out of the Eleventh Circuit may have arbitration agreements the nation over getting rewritten. The JPay v. Kobel case concerned whether JPay customers were limited to the federal court to have class claims heard. After the district court decided that the customers were in fact limited to the federal court, despite the existence of an arbitration agreement, the matter was dismissed on summary judgment. Fortunately for the customers though, the appellate court held that the lower court made a significant error requiring reversal....
It was an offer the Feds couldn’t refuse: million-dollar judgments for the families of murdered mob victims. Upholding a lower court’s ruling, the First Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the federal government to compensate the victims of James “Whitey” Bulger and his associate Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi. The First Circuit held that the FBI had shown “negligence of a wildly reckless flavor” in protecting them from criminal protection because they were federal informants....
In a 2-1 decision, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Florida statute prohibiting doctors from asking about patients’ gun ownership. The Eleventh Circuit’s opinion reverses a controversial District Court decision – known in the media as “Docs v. Glocks” – that found the law unconstitutional. The Firearm Owners Privacy Act, passed in 2011, prevents a physician from inquiring into a patient’s firearm ownership unless that ownership is relevant to the patient’s medical care....
Attorneys need many tools to shape a successful online marketing strategy, but SEO is perhaps the least understood. If a world of potential clients is heaven, then Google is St. Peter, and a proper search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is every attorney’s keys to the Kingdom. But the only way to find and use those keys, and outpace your competition, is to really understand how “tails” affect searches. When consumers use search engines, they often use two different types of queries:...
Live streaming is everywhere these days – and we’re not talking about YouTube or watching the Olympics online. New apps like Periscope and Facebook Live have made it simple for pretty much anyone to broadcast themselves to their social media followers. And while a DIY self-made video might not look great embedded on your website’s landing page, live streaming allows for a simple work around. Here are some tips on how to use it in your firm....
What do you get when you sell a mobile phone that is literally made out of glass? First, a lot of broken phones. Second, a lot of litigation. Class action, that is. California resident Donald LeBuhn is suing Apple Inc., over the iPhone 4’s screen. He is seeking class action certification. LeBuhn, a California resident, says it all started when his daughter dropped his phone from about three feet off the ground....
Apple really stuck it to the man with its latest software update. In a move worthy of a counter-culture revolution, Apple released iOS 11.4.1 and took on the Establishment. The operating system blocks tools police have used to crack iPhone security. It may look like a routine update, but make no mistake about it. Apple rocks. The Man Jack Black, the unofficial spokesman for 60s rock revival, said the “The Man” ruined everything....
Wyoming’s highest court has publicly censured a lawyer working out of the state’s capitol for charging a client $30,000 in interest fees on a bill that was originally just $41,000. So if you’re considering charging your clients almost 50 percent in interest, we recommend against it. Top tip? Just don’t. Wyoming’s Board of Professional Responsibility was first turned on to Asay when a client for whom Asay completed employment-related work finked on him for a bill that had steadily crawled higher and higher....
Krebs on Security, a well-known security blog, just released the first part of a long technical series on how an online identity theft ring (SSNDOB) managed to gather its data. The source wasn’t clumsy consumers; it was breached servers at three major data providers. The compromised systems were located at LexisNexis, Kroll Background America, and Dun & Bradstreet. Hackers used undetectable malware to gain access to the companies’ databases and sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Social Security numbers, dates of birth, background checks and credit reports for more than 4 million Americans....
The fight for Jason Wayne Pleau isn’t fading away anytime soon. On Friday, Governor Lincoln Chafee asked the First Circuit Court of Appeals to delay issuing an order that could force Jason Pleau to stand trial in federal court. Pleau might face the death penalty if he is tried in the federal court system. Rhode Island does not currently have the death penalty. As a result, the conflict between Gov. Chafee and the federal prosecutors has been turned into a death penalty debate....
Is a county jail inmate entitled to workers’ compensation benefits for injuries sustained while participating in a work detail program? Timmy Vuncannon, an inmate, was part of a Tippah County work program under the sheriff’s supervision. He earned $10 per day for his services, which was credited “toward any and all charged of F.T.A./cash bonds owed to the county.” Vuncannon was seriously injured in a forklift accident while helping law enforcement officials as part of the work program....
By now, you’re probably familiar with the National Security Administration’s domestic phone surveillance scandal. If you aren’t, we covered it yesterday. Though lawmakers are mostly parrying inquiries by stating that the domestic surveillance program has been ongoing for over seven years and is legal per the Patriot Act, such non-answers won’t suffice in the long-term. One would imagine with the nation now aware of the extent of the NSA’s domestic spying, that the status quo won’t hold....
Hint: it is not the US. Our Nordic friends in Finland will have no internet connectivity excuses in responding to emails and social media musings. And that’s thanks to a national law passed in Finland this week mandating that every Finnish citizen have access to broadband internet. It’s not a big leap for the nation with a population hovering over 5 million, a reported 95% of Finnish folks already have robust internet access....
