Is this a noble attempt at deterring teens from driving drunk or a marketing ploy? We’ll let you decide. Christian Schwaner, a DUI defense attorney in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is offering a $1,000 scholarship to the winner of a contest for teens who admit to driving drunk. Applicants must also research the dangers of doing so and come up with a plan for avoiding such missteps in the future, reports The Denver Post....
Overloaded with complicated legal concepts and boring litigation fact patterns? This opinion, penned by Judge Thompson, reads like a Hardy Boys mystery novel, including the pun-ny heading, “Misplaced Trust.” It looks like Selya isn’t the only talented author in the First Circuit. Lillian Smillie penned a will in 1986 that bequeathed her entire estate, minus a few odds and expenses, to the Smillie Trust, which benefited her blind nephew Thaddeus. Thaddeus’ brother, Dr....
Back in 2011, we learned that several Silicon Valley companies agreed not to poach each other’s employees, resulting in suppressed wages. The class ended up in federal court and looked close to a settlement by April of last year. Judge Lucy Koh, however, rejected the proposed $324 million settlement, which would have resulted in $5,000 per employee in the class. Koh said the settlement wasn’t reasonable, given that each employee would walk away with $3,750 after attorneys’ fees and that an expert for the plaintiffs calculated damages in the billions....
The Eleventh Circuit decided two cases today, one involving a copyright infringement action, and the other concerning an immigration matter. In Utopia Provider Sys., Inc. v. Pro-Med Clinical Sys., L.L.C., No. 09-11160, plaintiff filed a copyright infringement action based on defendant’s alleged misappropriation of plaintiff’s paper templates. The district court granted summary judgment to defendant and dismissed plaintiff’s state law claims without prejudice. The court of appeals affirmed, holding that the selection and arrangement of the terms in the paper template did not convey information and was not sufficiently original to qualify for copyright protection....
Samsung won a significant (one might say explosive) victory in the Supreme Court today, as the Court ruled that Samsung did not need to pay Apple the entirety of its profits, nearly $400 million, from phones found to be infringing on the rival phone maker’s design patents. A jury found in 2012 that several Samsung smartphones had infringed on Apple’s design patents, particularly in their rectangular shape, rounded edges, and similar displays....
While in prison for murdering his girlfriend, Warren Lee Hill ripped the leg off of a sink and beat a fellow inmate to death while other prisoners watched. He was tried and convicted by a jury and sentenced to death. He appealed his sentence through multiple trips to state and federal courts. This new evidence proves, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Hill is mentally retarded. In Hill’s last trip to the Eleventh Circuit in 2011, the court upheld Georgia’s unique mandate that defendants prove retardation by such a lofty standard....
The FBI responded to a Freedom of Information Act request on Thursday and released Steve Jobs’ FBI file for all the world to see. Those who read Walter Isaacson’s recent biography will find much of the content familiar. Still, there are some interesting tidbits, many of which refer to Steve Jobs’ use of drugs. The agency seemed to be a little obsessed with finding out whether, in the early 1990s, he was a current user....
FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Today’s teens certainly constitute the social media generation. And a recent study titled “Teens, Social Media and Privacy” by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project sheds light on this phenomenon. Significant findings include the following: Furthermore, 92% post their real name, 84% post their interests, 82% post their birth date, 62% post their relationship status, and 24% post videos of themselves....
Despite the controversy over “fat-guy” comedy, the comedy of Chris Farley is remembered fondly by his fans, friends, and family. But the star’s publicity rights may be protected by California law, at least according to the company Farley’s family set up to manage his post-mortem licensing and publicity rights. Unfortunately for in-house lawyers and celebrity legal spectators, whether the late actor’s publicity rights are properly protected may never be known as the bicycle maker Trek agreed to settled the lawsuit filed against it by Farley’s family stemming from the naming of the Trek “fat-tire” bicycles, Farley fat bikes....
United Airline’s general counsel, Brett Hart, is taking over the reins of the airline for the time being. United’s board of directors named Hart acting CEO on Monday, replacing Oscar Munoz, who took medical leave after suffering a heart attack last week. Hart will be United’s third CEO in under two months, responsible for guiding the airline through some – ahem – turbulent times. Following Your Hart Hart, a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, has over a decade of in-house experience under his belt....
Highly paid expert witnesses played a pivotal role in the patent infringement lawsuit between Apple and Samsung. But for a small firm or solo attorney, when do you need to hire expert witnesses for your own case? Apple’s legal team reportedly paid their experts more than $50,000 each to take the stand. Of course, the high-stakes lawsuit involved complex patents and technology that most laymen do not understand. In that case, the use of experts made sense....
Apart from the sheer cool factor of being able to project your favorite movies and TV shows as large as your walls will allow at home, digital projectors can be really handy for lawyers and litigators. It could even make you a better lawyer. Really! They’re not just toys for grown boys, a digital projector can be a great business tool, and can take your presentations up a notch, both in and out of the courtroom....
Thursday was not a great day for Alan Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation. The Fourth Circuit eviscerated a lower court opinion, refused to delineate the bounds of the Second Amendment, and approved a “may issue” concealed carry law in Maryland. The lower court had held that the right to bear arms extends outside of one’s home and that a “good-and-substantial reason” requirement for concealed carry permits was an unconstitutional burden on that right....
What lawyer can resist an anal cavity search? A cavity search case, that is. This week, the First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment in a civil rights claim against Worcester police officers, finding that a suspect’s Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the government uses technology to conduct an anal cavity search. Worcester police officers arrested Shane Spencer in 2005 for operating a motor vehicle without a license....
Here’s a lesson that isn’t quite a lesson – more of a reminder: Avoid public Wi-Fi. It doesn’t matter if it’s hotel Wi-Fi, Starbucks Wi-Fi, or your neighbor’s unsecured network – stay away when dealing with secure information. And seriously, if you get a surprise “Update This Now!” pop-up while on a public Wi-Fi network, don’t click on the darn thing. It sounds like common sense, but not everyone has that much sense in common, if you get the Jay-Z reference....
Adding injury to insult, an advocacy group has sued an alleged patent troll to protect its rights to publish a blog called “Stupid Patent of the Month.” The blog calls attention to “questionable patents that stifle innovation, harm the public and can be used to shake down unsuspecting users of commonplace processes or technologies,” says the complaint filed by the Electronic Freedom Foundation in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco....
Every law firm should have a good logo, but coming up with one is not as easy as it looks. It’s like the famous Nike swoosh – simple, memorable, cool. But if it were that easy, everybody would be like Mike. It is way easier to come up with ideas that don’t work. Here’s to logos that you should never put on your letterhead. 1. Eyesore A professional, eye-catching logo is the goal....
Rumor has it the National Enquirer may have fed attorney Okorie Okorocha the John Travolta sex assault lawsuit. Before hitting the big time earlier this month, the story was the National Enquirer’s March 26 cover story. No one picked it up. Yet, five weeks later, the allegations found their way to Okorocha, a Pasadena DUI lawyer. How? Travolta attorney Martin Singer suspects the Enquirer was involved. “I don’t know how you would pick Okorie Okorocha out of a phone book,” he told the Los Angeles Times....
If you’re like most people who have friends and hobbies, terms like “Haswell” and Intel Atom Z3740D mean absolutely nothing to you. That’s fair. Fortunately for you, I have neither friends nor hobbies, so I’ll be your tech spec translator for this Black Friday. And make no mistake about it: your tech choices are important – buy the wrong computer and your paralegals will beat their heads against their monitors in frustration, or you’ll end up “upgrading” yet again, next year....
It’s bad enough when low-level employees open the company up to litigation through thoughtless behavior. It’s even worse when it’s an executive. AT&T got a reminder of just how embarrassing, and potentially expensive that can be. The telecom company is facing a $100 million employee discrimination suit over racist texts and images allegedly sent by Aaron Slator, the company’s (now former) president of content and advertising sales. AT&T isn’t the only company to have suffered from an high level employee’s poor behavior....
