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Last week was quite a week for FBI Director James Comey, who appeared on “60 Minutes” and at the Brookings Institute to reiterate that the government just has to have the ability to crack the encryption on mobile devices. You’ll recall that Apple and Google are supporting mobile operating systems with encryption that even they can’t break. Comey’s not a fan. But his statements about the nature of privacy make one wonder why he should be trusted....

The use of captive firms in the insurance industry is both accepted and widespread. New legal trends in Australia and Britain indicate the expansion of the concept of captive firms to other industries like banking and construction, reports The Australian. Will the U.S. follow the trend? Here are some things to consider. In the U.S., captive law firms are predominantly used by the insurance industry, and are small pseudo-independent law firms that essentially function as the in-house legal team of an insurance company, providing legal defense to the company and its policyholders....

The FTC is here to drink milk and kick butt – and it just finished its milk. Operation Full Disclosure is an FTC initiative designed to encourage truth in advertising. According to a press release, the FTC sent warning letters to 60 advertisers regarding factual claims and disclaimers in TV and print ads. Weight loss ads were targeted for not noting that the results embodied in testimonials weren’t typical. Ads claiming a “free trial” of a product didn’t say that the consumer had to pay for shipping....

Gmail is in the process of rolling out a new inbox feature that could prove very useful for attorneys who use their e-mail service. The feature is called Priority Inbox. It automatically separates messages that the program determines should have priority. It is designed to make it easier for you to quickly see the messages that truly matter and push the ones that don’t matter to the bottom. Priority Inbox works by analyzing the e-mails you receive and determining which messages are actually important....

Ars Technica calls this trend “the workforce that never stops working.” With cloud-based everything, and proliferation of smartphones and tablets, workers are always connected to the office, even when on vacation or at home. It allows flexibility in office arrangements, telecommuting, and increased productivity. It’s not all good news, however. Here are three ways in which your company’s forward-thinking, always-on tech practices could have negative legal and business consequences. A trend that began in the last few years, as more companies began providing smartphones and other devices to their employees, the “electronic overtime” lawsuit argues that an employee should be paid overtime for checking her email while off the clock....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. It probably is fair to say that most of us are glued to our computers for a large part of each and every day. Accordingly, how can we improve our computer experience? A good start is to follow eight fairly simple tips, among a variety of other tips that also could be considered....

Attention attorneys: You may want to remember today as “Facebook buys Instagram” day. Or “Instagram Bought by Facebook” day, whichever you prefer grammatically. The social network giant paid about $1 billion in cash and stock for Instagram, a popular photo-sharing application, the Los Angeles Times reports. The purchase means some interesting changes for Facebook’s users, who will be able to post and follow users on other social networks, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, said in (what else) a Facebook post....

Geeks worldwide flocked to Microsoft’s website last week to take part in the company’s public beta of the next version of its ubiquitous operating system: Windows 10. However, word quickly spread that the Windows Technical Preview program’s terms were far more invasive than the commercial variant, giving Microsoft surprisingly pervasive permission to collect and use your private data, including your keystrokes. Is the uproar justified? And should you think twice about participating in the program?...

Intracompany complaints about violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) can form the basis of retaliation lawsuit, according to a recent Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion. Plaintiff Kathy Minor and several other members of her department met with Bostwick Laboratories’ chief operating officer, Bill Miller, in 2008 to call to Miller’s attention the fact that Minor believed her supervisor had willfully violated the FLSA. Minor claimed the supervisor routinely altered employees’ time sheets to reflect that they had not worked overtime when they had....

In a Korean National’s action under the Administrative Procedure Act challenging the validity of 8 C.F.R. section 245.10(j), following the denial of his application for adjustment of status by the District Director of the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services, district court’s dismissal of the action is affirmed as, the district court did not have jurisdiction to entertain petitioner’s challenge to the District Director’s eligibility determination and subsequent denial of adjustment of status....

Imagine you’re a litigator or potential litigant looking at the possibility of a jury trial. Wouldn’t it be a great thing to get a very good educated guess as to the most likely verdict a particular jury would reach? In the words of this generation, “There’s an app for that.” Litigation tech provider company Precise has announced the release of Predict, a jury research tool that makes use of statistics to get that long sought after prediction....

A federal appeals court ruled that a city did not violate the First Amendment by regulating the placement of charitable donation bins. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said the regulations did not target any messages the bins might have conveyed. Instead, the court said in Recycle for Change v. City of Oakland, the law applies equally to businesses and non-profits to reduce illegal dumping, graffiti and blight. “The ordinance regulates the unattended collection of personal items for distribution, reuse, and recycling, without regard to the charitable or business purpose for doing so,” Judge Ronald Gould wrote....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Is nothing sacred? Apparently not, as CNN has reported that the YouTube channel for Sesame Street recently was hacked with pornographic content. Indeed, instead of showing material suitable for children, the channel briefly was reprogrammed with sexually explicit videos. As a result of the porn hack, the Sesame Street channel went offline for a short time....

The state of Missouri and the state’s governor, Michael Parson, can let out a collective sigh of relief. That’s thanks to a recent decision of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that each could claim sovereign immunity in the class action alleging the state denies indigent defendants adequate counsel because the state’s public defenders are overworked, understaffed, and underfunded. And while the state and the governor may be off the hook, the case is far from over, as the state’s public defender office, and several other defendants, were not dismissed....

Corporate drug testing is a billion-dollar business; many major companies require prospective employees to pass a drug test as a condition of employment. In some industries, it’s a safety concern. You don’t want your delivery driver, air traffic controller, or surgeon to be stoned at work. In other industries, where employees clack away on keyboards all day long, drug testing seems pointless. Particularly in light of changing attitudes towards drugs like marijuana....

When one of the nation’s largest beer producers decided to rebrand one of the worst beers in the country, they probably didn’t think it could get any worse. However, MillerCoors may now be fighting an uphill legal battle as, not surprisingly for MillerCoors, the rebranding team clearly isn’t into craft beer and seems to have clearly infringed on one of the biggest craft brewery’s IP. Stone Brewing Company filed suit against MillerCoors as a result of its Keystone beer being rebranded as just Stone....

Forget automation, artificial intelligence, and nano-lawyering. Technology’s effect on the legal industry isn’t something for the future; it’s happening right now. And while tech’s impact on the law might not be as “disruptive” as it has been on, say, the cab industry, it is making its mark every day. Here are the legal technologies that have changed the way lawyers work in 2015. “Bring Your Own Device,” or BYOD, policies allow attorneys to bring their own mobile devices to the workplace....

Are you a disciple of the footnote, always ready to drop a superscript 1 or 5 where a “see id., at 20372, 20379, 51924, 51951, 51958” could go? Think that in text citations destroy the flow of your writing and distract the reader? Well, you’ve got plenty of lawyers on your side, including the guru of legal writing and style, Bryan Garner. But not everyone is a fan of the footnote....

In a capital habeas matter, denial of the habeas petition is affirmed where: 1) there was no reasonable probability that the outcome of the punishment phase would have been different if the jury had been presented with evidence that petitioner had “frontal lobe” damage; 2) violation of petitioner’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel through the use of an undercover informant did not have a substantial and injurious effect on the verdict at the punishment phase; and 3) the record did not support petitioner’s contention that the trial judge acted in a dual role as both investigator and adjudicator....

A police officer in Georgia, who claims he was punished for reporting racial profiling, can pursue his section 1983 and defamation suit against the local sheriff’s department, the Eleventh Circuit ruled last week. Derrick Bailey, a law-enforcement officer with more than 17 years of experience, alleges that he was terminated and harassed for reporting racial profiling and constitutional violations in the Douglasville police department and Douglas County sheriffs office. That retaliation included a “BOLO,” or “be-on-the-lookout” advisory to all law enforcement in the county, describing Bailey as a “loose cannon” and danger to any cop – a warning the Eleventh Circuit notes could have left him dead at the hands of his fellow officers....