As technology improves at an increasingly rapid pace, many attorneys are upgrading their hardware frequently. That laptop that you purchased in 2007 just doesn’t cut it compared to what’s available now. But when it comes time to upgrade, there is always a question of what to do with your old equipment. You might be surprised to learn how many people sell or throw away their old equipment without thinking about data theft....
FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. People tend to think that anything goes on the Internet. But is that true everywhere? Perhaps not. Indeed, according to a recent New York Times article, a series of controversial Russian Internet bills, approved last week by Parliament, seeks to strengthen the government’s Internet controls. The Russian Parliament’s approval of the bills reportedly follows the Russian government’s imposition of fines relating to unsanctioned protests and the reinstitution of criminal charges for slander....
There are some iPad apps that can be put to use for legal business. Then there are some that are beautifully designed – and designed specifically for lawyers. TranscriptPad is one of the latter. TranscriptPad is designed with one task in mind: deposition review. If you spend any time at all litigating, you know that is no small task. Reading through depositions on paper is a hunt-and-peck task. You search for relevant words and phrases that could help or hurt at trial, and try to organize them on a notepad or in a computer document....
Health Care Fraud Convictions Affirmed In US v. Mateos, No. 08-17178, the court affirmed defendants’ convictions and sentences for conspiracy to defraud the U.S., to cause the submission of false claims, and to pay health care kickbacks, and for conspiracy to commit health care fraud, holding that 1) it was not necessary for defendant to know all the details of how the fraud worked in order for her to be guilty of the conspiracy; 2) although the district court erred in excluding a potentially exculpatory videotape, the error was harmless; and 3) the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the prejudicial impact of the evidence of defendant’s marriage to a co-conspirator did not substantially outweigh its probative value....
According to recent reports, 2018 was a great year for law firms. Net income, profits per partner, rate growth, demand, and productivity all increased. The actual percentages of each metric above may not have reached record highs, but as the ABA Journal notes, this may be the best year for many firms in a decade. In one survey, it was reported that 61 percent of firms saw an increase in demand, year over year, and over 70 percent had increased profits per partner....
Contracts are often nothing but a series of boilerplate provisions copied-and-pasted together into a single signature-laden document, typically drafted and reviewed by a lawyer, who in turn, charges a pretty penny for her expertise. And while some unique situations might require a custom contact to be drafted from scratch, many other routine tasks, such as a sale of goods, can be handled through standardized piecemeal provisions. Ladies and gentlemen, lawyers of all ages, meet your new nemesis: Shake....
Children are arrested all the time, many going to court with appointed lawyers for all those crimes that kids commit. Immigrant children – those separated from their parents in recent “zero tolerance” crackdowns – don’t get appointed counsel. More than 2,000 kids – even toddlers as young as three years old – are going to court alone. Because they’ve done nothing criminal, they have no constitutional right to an attorney. Nobody really knows where they will be next, but everybody knows it’s wrong....
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are the future of the law, or at least of legal research, we’re told. Hi-tech algorithms will soon reduce time spent flipping through irrelevant caselaw, allowing lawyers to pinpoint the best research in just seconds. There are a host of traditional research companies and legal tech startups vying to be on the forefront of this developing technology and AI-powered research has already been embraced, if cautiously, by a few of the country’s biggest firms....
If you read, watch, or listen to political news, the recent retention of attorney and former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, by President Trump, has led to some rather scandalous news. Apparently, Giuliani let the cat out of the bag that Trump paid back Michael Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. And while Giuliani insists that the payment had nothing to do with campaign finance, the facts he revealed may actually belie that point....
The difference between a successful law practice and one that doesn’t work out often depends upon how you talk to and close on prospective clients. When you’re starting off, you may be tempted to say anything to a prospective client – especially, the really big whales – to get their business. But you should be careful not to make too many promises or guarantees or you could find yourself in trouble, and possibly even the target of a lawsuit brought by the once-coveted client....
What do you have to be thankful for this year? With Thanksgiving almost quite literally just around the corner, this is a good question to ask for all. Especially as hardworking attorneys, sometimes we need a little perspective and reminder of what we already have to keep us going. So, this year, before you bring your plate of turkey and dash back to the office to finish up that last brief (really, please don’t – enjoy the time with your family), here are five things that you should be thankful for this year:...
There was once a time where nobody used Google. Yeah, it existed. We used things like Lycos and AOL. But that all ended decades ago, right? Seriously, Google is the Internet. This should not surprise you. If you wanted to look up orange monkeys right now, you’d probably go to Google. Nearly everybody has a Gmail account. Google’s offerings dominate most of their respective markets because they are so damn good and simple....
Remember when people worried about cell phones causing brain cancer if they put the devices to their ears? Well, the City of Berkeley thinks it is bad enough that cell phone retailers ought to warn people about putting them in their pant pockets or bras – literally that’s what their signs must say. And since a federal appeals court said the city ordinance is valid, it must be so. “Berkeley’s compelled disclosure does no more than to alert consumers to the safety disclosures that the FCC requires, and to direct consumers to federally compelled instructions in their user manuals providing specific information about how to avoid excessive exposure,” Judge William Fletcher wrote....
You shouldn’t really point out others’ mistakes if you make bigger ones. Jesus said something like that – something about splinters and beams. In sinners’ words, don’t poke people in the eye. But in law and blogging, we get paid to accentuate mistakes – even little, tiny typos. Here are some of best of the worst. Supreme Typos The legal pedestal gets no higher than the U.S. Supreme Court. Critics, however, can take potshots from the peanut gallery....
The Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision ruffled the feathers of all of us who believe women’s health issues belong between a woman and a doctor, not a woman, a doctor, and middle management. Unforeseen issues of corporate governance and liability have also escaped from the Pandora’s Box that is Hobby Lobby. On NPR’s “All Things Considered” this week, correspondent Wade Goodwyn came up with another unexpected result: the loss of the corporate veil....
When someone wants to legally pack heat, the laws applicable to the concealed carry of a firearm typically will fall into one of three types: “shall issue,” “may issue,” and no permit laws. Maryland is one of ten “may issue” states, meaning when a gun owner wants a concealed carry permit, the state has the discretion to deny a permit. In Maryland, one must demonstrate a “good and substantial reason” for needing a permit in order to legally carry a weapon....
The U.S. Justice Department asked the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to stay an Alabama immigration law today, claiming that enforcement of the law would discriminate against foreign-born citizens and legal immigrants. The law, Alabama House Bill 56 (HB 56), “requires public schools to check students’ immigration status, criminalizes giving an undocumented immigrant a ride, requires employers to use E-Verify to check potential employees’ status, and instructs police to check the immigration status of anyone they stop if they suspect the person of being an undocumented immigrant,” reports the Latin America News Dispatch....
Over the past year, the FindLaw writers have done their best to impart wisdom gleaned from across the internet about the best tips for legal practitioners. From finding free CLEs to discovery tips to simply keeping your desk clutter free, we know there’s an ever-changing landscape of best practices for the practice of law. Since we know that most practitioners are too busy to keep up with all the wisdom all year long, below you can find 10 of the top practice tips from the FindLaw Strategist blog from 2017....
In US v. Epps, No. 09-12285, the court affirmed defendant’s conviction and sentence for armed bank robbery and carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, holding that 1) the contents of a pillowcase carried by defendant could be inferred from its outwardly visible stains and the circumstances under which the police obtained it, and thus defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in it; and 2) alleged prosecutorial misconduct did not affect defendant’s substantial rights....
Rhode Island’s superior court is giving the state a tiny little reprieve before potentially letting it get some really bad news. You see, the state’s senior legal counsel for the Health and Human Services department missed the deadline for appealing, as well as requesting a stay pending appeal, in a case it just lost. However, after he recently resigned, the department still appealed and asked for the stay anyway (after all, there’s over $20 million on the line here)....
