It can be a pain to carry multiple credit and debit cards, especially if you prefer a money clip or slim-profile wallet. And credit card alternatives, such as tapping your phone to a dedicated reader, have failed to take off, probably because tapping phones is odd, merchants don’t have the readers, and most importantly, how do you pay for your latte when your phone’s battery dies, or worse yet, your phone is lost?...
The company that makes Oreos has filed a really big case against its insurer, Zurich, due to a refusal to cover losses related to a cyberattack. The insurer claims that the attack falls under a policy exclusion for an act of war because it has been attributed to Russia. And the case raises some valid, and untested, issues for companies offering and buying cyber-insurance policies. One of the bigger issues to be answered, potentially, by this litigation involves just what sort of hacks or cyber-attacks would actually qualify as an act of war....
Seems like every law firm is getting a facelift. It’s hard to believe, but it’s a statistical reality. About 93 percent of America’s law firms are changing the way they look. Marketing people call it re-branding, but does your firm need it? When you look in the mirror, does it really look that bad? Firm Facelift BigLaw is leading the fashionable way by re-branding firm names. Multiple-name firms are so yesterday; today’s firm is slimmed down to one....
Like beauty in the eye of the beholder, the value of legal writing depends on perspective. In Los Angeles, for example, an attorney may bill $500 an hour to draft a document that a Dallas lawyer would do for $250 an hour. It’s not really about quality; it’s more about who’s paying the bill. The irony is that lawyers, as a whole, don’t write that well. They just bill that way....
If you’re like most other attorneys, then we’re guessing that your day goes something like this: wake up and check email, go to work and check email, stare at a computer all day, come home and check email, spend some time on Facebook/Instagram/Candy Crush Saga (or insert other mindless, addictive activity here). We probably spend more time looking at a screen than interacting with people. Yes, the best way to combat burnout is to cleanse yourself of technology – just for a few days....
If you want to patent non-modified biological material - say, genes as they occur in nature – you’re largely out of luck in the U.S. In 2013, the Supreme Court invalidated two patents for breast cancer-related genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, on the basis that naturally occurring DNA segments can’t be patented. The USPTO’s eligibility guidance has followed suit. Down Under, however, things may be different. Recent guidance from the Australian Patent Office indicates that it could be possible to patent biological subject matter that is ineligible in the United States....
So you got a flashy new device over the holidays only to find out that it is so new that none of your other tech can actually work with it. Unless you’re dealing with a deep seeded software incompatibility (such as Mac or PC only device), there is probably some sort of work around, so keep calm and turn your technology off and then on again. First, before you even Google for an answer, did you try turning all your devices off and back on again?...
Having a trial date around the holidays is often thought of as a blessing to civil plaintiffs and criminal defendants. That’s because basic human nature and holiday cheer can work in concert causing juries to render massive verdicts and questionable acquittals. If this sounds a bit far-fetched, it’s likely due to the fact that there is little to no research to support this notion, but, nevertheless, this notion has been around for quite some time....
Have you ever seen online “daily deals” for legal services? Maybe not. Online deal websites like Groupon and LivingSocial focus more on deals that consumers can quickly pick up and use. Deals for restaurants, stores and simple services like massages seem to be popular residents on these daily deals sites. But, can you visualize your firm offering a Groupon? Apparently, some State Bars can envision law firms and attorneys offering their services on daily deals sites....
It’s not exactly a game to train AI to spot legal issues. Learned Hands is a game, and it does learn from users how to spot legal issues. The fun comes from winning points by giving correct answers in different factual scenarios. But it’s kind of like getting an honorary degree. The pay-off for players is bragging rights – and maybe an inspirational message. Higher Reward There is a higher reward for playing Learned Hands....
Donald Wilson is a drug trafficker. It’s not much of a profession, but he made a living, at least until the feds stepped in. Adding insult to injury, the government filed a civil forfeiture proceeding against $13,963 that was seized from Wilson in October 2006. Unfortunately for all of us, they filed their action late, leading to years of litigation over the funds. Wilson lost the initial forfeiture proceeding. He also failed to object to the late filing....
The bad news for British Petroleum (BP) just keeps on coming. Remember that $20 billion the company set aside for claims arising out of the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill? They only have $1.7 billion unassigned after Business Economic Losses claims were higher than expected, reports Reuters. That trial, by the way, could also be going poorly. The first phase ended earlier in April. The judge, Carl Barbier, has yet to decide two key issues: the apportionment of blame between BP and its drilling partners, Transocean Ltd....
Nicole Grant will pay for her $42,152 mistake, even if she’ll only pay $125 at a time. In 2009, Grant was indicted on one count of stealing government property in excess of $1,000 after she failed to notify the government that she was no longer eligible for Supplementary Security Income (“SSI”) after she subsequently married. She pled guilty and was sentenced to probation, brief home confinement, and restitution. Her presentencing report factored in her income, expenses, debts, and tax refunds for the preceding four years, leading the judge to require her to pay $250 per month in restitution payments....
Florida attorneys Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig cited ethics in withdrawing as George Zimmerman’s legal counsel. But how they handled their withdrawal is coming under fire from some law professors, who say the lawyers may have violated Florida’s ethics rules. Sonner and Uhrig’s press conference announcing they were stepping down from Zimmerman’s defense was “professional suicide,” Stephen Gillers of New York University School of Law told Reuters. That’s because Florida’s Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit a lawyer from revealing “information relating to the representation” of a former client....
It is by no means unbelievable, especially for lawyers, that divorcing spouses will attempt to hide money and assets from each other. However, for an experienced divorce lawyer, finding hidden assets can often tilt the scales of justice in their client’s favor and win them unending respect and referrals. Divorce lawyers will claim to have seen most, if not all, of the usual tricks and will know how to discover hidden assets....
FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Facebook is the largest “nation” in the world, with more than 1.65 billion users across the globe. Not surprisingly then, with such global reach, Facebook is in the headlines fairly often. In terms of Facebook news items, a recent example includes a Thai criminal court putting a man in prison for six years because he posted comments on Facebook that were construed to be insulting to the king of Thailand....
We’ve written about the so-called Yelp “scam” in the past. Many, including a judge, have compared the site to the mafia because of its alleged favorable treatment of those who pay for advertising. Basically, the common (and so far unproven) complaint is that if a business turns down Yelp’s advertising overtures, their positive reviews are filtered out, and negative reviews are given more prominent placement. Of course, individual anecdotes, the kind plastered in the multiple news stories we’ve seen on this topic, could just be bitter businesses with legitimately disgruntled customers....
For a long while there, Google+ was the bad college party: lots of shiny things, maybe some beer, but nobody showed up. You could join, and add people to your circles, but you’d be all alone in an empty room. Google, wishing to compete with Facebook, was saddened by its lack of popularity. Then Google turned Google+ into a prerequisite for many of its other services, the most notable of which was the forced YouTube integration, which backfired greatly....
When it comes to surviving a tech fail or hack, there’s no magic bullet, but humility helps. Depending on what failed, or the extent of the hacking, you could have some serious problems on your hands, especially if it took you a while to even figure out something happened. If you have a strong backup protocol, you won’t have as much to worry about, unless you discover that your backup failed, or was corrupted....
What is “maturity”? In organizational management, it’s the degree to which organizational processes are formalized and optimized, meaning they’re documented, structured, and being performed as efficiently as possible. High levels of maturity ensure that resources are being spent on the right things, and not being wasted on inefficient processes, like a billing department without a workflow that still uses paper for everything. Maturity models work especially well for the corporate legal department, where many discrete tasks can be automated and savings analyzed, writes Inside Counsel....
