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In plaintiffs’ case challenging the constitutionality of regulations promulgated by defendants imposing restrictions on lobster fishing, district court appropriately exercised federal question jurisdiction over the case and its judgment is affirmed and the merits ruling is upheld for substantially the reasons set forth in the district court’s opinion. Read Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance, Inc. v. Rhode Island Dep’t of Envtl. Mgmt., No. 08-2390 Appellate Information Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island...

Whether you blame the donkeys or the elephants, this is not where anyone wants to be. With Congress’s failures comes a federal shutdown. Some employees will be furloughed. Others will work for free, and possibly be paid later. Some facilities will close. Others will stay open. We don’t care that much about that. What we do really care about is the courts. And for those of you practicing, working, or appearing in a federal court, this concerns you....

Some call it a race to the bottom. Some say that you’re a lawyer, and you deserve to be paid $300 to $500 an hour. Alright, but what percentage of the population can afford to pay such a rate? And can you afford to charge less, while still making a living and paying off your student loans? What’s the sweet spot? Susan Cartier Libel, at Solo Practice University, presents the case for market rate, even if you are a new solo or straight out of school....

In the 1980s cartoon classic “Garfield’s Halloween Adventure,” Garfield sings a song about what he should be for Halloween. The same song could apply to new lawyers forming some kind of firm. There are just so many corporate forms to be! Should you be a PC, LLC, LLP, or another type of entity? Thankfully, we’re here to help you make some sense of this alphabet soup so you can decide what’s best for you....

Humor can be a great way to build rapport with an audience. Laughter brings endorphins and other happy feelings, which are then associated with you. We’re big fans of humor and sarcasm around here, but as with all things, there is a time and place where stand-up comedy is inappropriate, such as your opening remarks in a murder defense trial. George Zimmerman’s attorney Don West knows this. There is a reason why his ill-fated “knock knock” joke was preceded by a five-minute disclaimer....

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed this week what your parents always told you: A person is judged by the company she keeps. In this case, the person was Laura Sennett, a photojournalist with a special interest in covering protests. Sennett became the target of search warrant after she photographed a demonstration at the Four Seasons hotel in Washington, D.C., which ended with $200,000 of damage to the hotel....

You may assume that your paralegals are are a great bargain, considering the large amount of grunt work they complete. But are you utilizing your paralegals’ skills in the right way? Lawyers are, of course, allowed to bill for the services that paralegals perform. Note that they can be billed at market rate rather than the actual cost to the attorneys. Assigning certain billable tasks to paralegal frees can increase your time and can also make the client happy....

Thanksgiving is a time to be with family, eat a lot of food, and watch or play some football. What do these things have in common? If you answered “potential for injury,” we know you’ve celebrated this holiday before. A holiday centered on overeating and family time is bound to have mishaps. The Monday after Thanksgiving, you may have a string of new clients at your door. Who might these clients be?...

We all hate telemarketers. And despite the efforts of the FCC and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, many of us end up having conversations exactly like this with strangers trying to talk to us about laundry detergent and time shares. If the prior regulations didn’t cramp the telemarketers’ style, these should. Beginning on October 16, 2013, any commercial phone calls made via auto-dialers or prerecorded messages will have to comply with new FCC regulations, with one of their main defenses eliminated....

The federal Appeals Court of the Fourth Circuit found for several GEICO employees in an FLSA suit. The court ruled that the insurance company fell short of proving that the plaintiffs were an exempted class of worker for purposes of overtime pay. Not “Directly Related” In the case of Calderon v. GEICO Ins. Co., a number of employees charged with a very narrow band of responsibilities brought suit against GEICO, objecting to their classification as exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s overtime provisions....

Robert Infante was charged with five criminal offenses after firefighters found marijuana plants and pipe bombs in his home. Infante moved to suppress the evidence, claiming that it was discovered pursuant to a search that violated his Fourth Amendment rights. The district court denied his motion The First Circuit affirmed that decision because a 911 call, a missing finger, and a mention of an in-house explosion are pretty good reasons for authorities to enter a home under the emergency doctrine....

A Michigan psychiatrist who also happens to sit on that state’s attorney discipline board has filed Request for Investigation against a fellow attorney. The source of the dispute? Comments the attorney made on his auto-law blog. The RI filing amounts to a “lightweight defamation claim” according to the Consumer Law and Policy blog. Troubling issues are implicated by the case. Is the RI proper after the statute of limitations has run?...

Valentine’s Day can be très complicated in a small firm. Do you give your staff tokens of your appreciation? Do you recognize the holiday at all? As an adult, I can’t stand Valentine’s Day because it’s filled with insincere displays of affection. But back in elementary school? Those were the V-Day glory days. Valentine’s Day was way more fun when everyone received a saccharine sweet sentiment in a bedazzled shoebox. Give me a tiny Transformers card with a bad pun over a floral arrangement any day....

Christine Martino-Fleming wasn’t going to take it anymore. So she filed a whistleblower suit against her former employer. That prompted the Massachusetts attorney general to take a long look at South Bay Mental Health Center. AG Maura Healey concluded the business was fraudulently billing the state for “unlicensed, unqualified and unsupervised” services. It goes to show that sometimes you should bite the hand that feeds you. And when a company serves 50,000 people, that’s a lot of bites....

Many policies that are meant to help working mothers end up being double-edged swords: they improve mothers’ work-life balance at the expense of career advancement. Telecommuting, for example, is a great way for moms to spend more time with their kids, but it can also put them at a disadvantage when a promotion is up for grabs. Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, employees are entitled to 12 weeks of leave within any given 12-month period....

Of all the apps out there, don’t you love the ones that make you money? We’re not talking about coupons or discounts here. We’re talking cash-in-your-pocket profits and returns. There are plenty, but here are some apps especially for lawyers on the go. 1. Clarity For lawyers, the Clarity app was meant to be. It lets you give advice to people by telephone at a price you set. You’ll have to think about your disclosures when giving legal advice, but how awesome is that?...

For employers, non-compete clauses are great. They help incentivize employees not to leave, and in most cases, are presented in a take-it-or-leave-it fashion which most employees don’t feel comfortable pushing back on. However, not all non-compete clauses are going to be legal, and depending on the applicable jurisdiction, some will just be completely unenforceable. For example, as explained by Ars Technica, a new law passed in Massachusetts places restrictions on which workers can be subject to a non-compete, exempting certain low paid hourly employees, as well as students and interns....

In Grider v. Auburn, No. 09-13261, an action by plaintiffs who owned a bar/restaurant in Auburn, Alabama, against City of Auburn and City employees under state tort law and 42 U.S.C. section 1983 for violations of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, claiming that the City and its agents filed false bribery charges and selectively enforced regulatory laws in order to harm plaintiffs’ business, the court affirmed in part the denial of summary judgment based on qualified immunity, holding that, absent the offering of funds, there was no bribery and no arguable probable cause for defendant-officer to arrest plaintiff....

This was already one of the most ridiculous criminal cases to ever come out of Virginia, and now, it has spawned an equally ridiculous civil lawsuit. Regular readers might recall the case from earlier this year, where Virginia police obtained a warrant to bring a teen to a hospital and photographed his erect penis, using an injection to induce the erection if necessary. The ridiculous warrant was part of an equally ridiculous prosecution of a 17-year-old kid who sent a picture of his penis to his 15-year-old girlfriend....

Grover Nordquist is a hardcore Republican/Libertarian/Conservative. The ACLU, on the other hand, trends strongly towards the left. Their viewpoints are often diametrically opposed, yet they, and we, and nearly all the big players in the tech industry can agree on one thing: the Electronic Communications Privacy Act is a steaming pile of horse feces. Also much like the CFAA, the ECPA is a tool used by law enforcement to trample upon the rights of criminal defendants....