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When disaster strikes, can your firm recover and ensure that you’re still able to serve clients, practice law, and meet your duties? Do you have a plan in place for emergencies, like earthquakes, hurricanes, or the loss of your internet? Yep, with practice management systems, webmail, legal research, and records databases increasingly integrated with “the cloud,” something as simple as a WiFi outage could disrupt your practice just as much as a flood....

A recent civil suit involving a South Carolina school and student who was incessantly bullied, attacked, and injured while at school, highlights one critical problem that attorneys can often face when trying to get that holy-grail surveillance camera footage: poor data storage retention policies. The school claims that by the time they were served with a preservation of evidence letter by the plaintiff, it was already too late. Their system had already deleted and overwritten the relevant time periods several times, essentially rendering the data unrecoverable....

Sometimes the law just doesn’t fit a case the way that it should. And when those cases have compelling facts, it can often be worthwhile to pursue a novel litigation strategy or theory. However, how you pursue that novel strategy or theory matters. A poorly pleaded novel theory could lead to sanctions under FRCP Rule 11, or the many state law equivalents. Generally, pursuant to (b)(2) of FRCP Rule 11, novel legal claims and contentions require more than just a good faith belief....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Well, it’s that holiday time of year again. Have you been naughty or nice? If you have been naughty, perhaps we will give you the low-tech equivalent of a lump of coal – a broken typewriter. That’s right, we are talking about an old machine that actually requires some finger strength when you push down on the keys....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. In the case Design Tech. Grp. LLC d/b/a Bettie Page Clothing, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ruled that employees of a clothing company were improperly terminated based on comments they made on Facebook complaining about their supervisor and expressing their workplace concerns. According to the administrative law judge’s ruling, which was appealed to the NLRB, workers at Bettie Page Clothing engaged in the following exchange on Facebook:...

A company making USB drives discovered that honesty isn’t just the best policy – it’s the only policy that the SEC likes. Following some questionable press releases and financial disclosures, the SEC investigated the company and its PR firm, then filed a civil action against them. A jury found in favor of the SEC at trial. On appeal, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the judgment in this case of a fairly ham-handed scheme to boost stock prices by lying (and not doing it very well)....

Every lawyer knows that the vast majority of cases settle, and often on the courthouse steps. So it was no big surprise that Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft settled a malpractice case against the firm on the eve of trial. However, the $22 million price tag was a bit of surprise. How does a reputable law firm get stung with a big malpractice award? Let’s just say there are 22 million reasons lawyers shouldn’t give financial advice to clients....

In an attempt to make life easier for its clerks and judges, the Fifth Circuit has started to insert hyperlinks for citations in its decisions. Three opinions published since Friday, including an immigration case we covered in our last post, have been updated with shiny blue links for each citation. But do these links actually work? In late 2013, the Fifth Circuit issued some innocuous changes to the way in which briefs to the court could cite case records....

When it comes to our automated future, a common refrain is that while automation will elimination some jobs, it will lead to growth overall. You need someone to lube up the robots’ joints, after all, and someone to teach machines how to learn. Last year, for example, researchers found that an increasingly automated economy would “self-correct,” creating new, more complex jobs and keeping wages and equality relatively stable. Turns out, the data points the opposite direction....

A lady signs up for a checking account with a bank. She closes the account a year later. A few years after that, she’s involved in a car accident, her attorney negotiates a settlement, and then embezzles the funds. Bad times. She sues the attorney’s bank, which she alleges ignored blatant signs that he was a scheming crook. The bank cries “arbitration!” based on her long-since closed checking account agreement from many years prior....

When the iPad first came out in 2010, I thought, “No one needs one of those,” and truthfully, the fact remains that no one needs a tablet, but they’re super convenient. Let’s all admit that the iPad is probably the best tablet out there (Apple haters are encouraged to come at me with whatever you’ve got), but it’s awfully pricy, at $500 for the iPad Air 2, the current incarnation of Apple’s tablet....

For a handful of California retailers, a Ninth Circuit decision basically invalidates the state law prohibiting merchants from charging customers an additional fee, or surcharge, for using a credit card. Unfortunately for retailers across the state, the decision only applies to the parties to the action. Under current California law, a retailer cannot charge customers more for using a credit card. Rather curiously and somewhat hypocritically, under the law, a retailer can legally offer a discount to cash paying customers....

The Family Dollar store’s name may elicit a mom and pop feel, but a recent class action settlement involving 37,000 female managers claiming to be paid less than their male counterparts easily shatters that image. Though the fact that there are 8,000 Family Dollar stores across the country helps too. For the company, which was recently purchased by Dollar Tree, the settlement clearly reflects a desire to move forward. In addition to the $45 million settlement, the company agreed to an audit of their pay practices and policies....

Is there anything more frustrating than buying a state-of-the-art gadget right before the new version is introduced? Not only do you know have the “old” one, but you probably would’ve saved a few bills by postponing your purchase. We don’t handle frustration well, unleashing profanity-laced tirades at our computer screens (is that just me, or all lawyers?). We’ll save your nearby inanimate objects from similar verbal abuse by rounding up the rumors for the wave of upcoming smartphones, all set to be released in the next few weeks:...

Having trouble sleeping at night? Here’s the latest culprit: backlit digital screens. According to a recent study conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School, the blue light from backlit devices (that would be pretty much everything: smartphones, tablets, and most e-readers) can lead to reduced melatonin, which leads to less sleep, less quality sleep, and increased grogginess the following morning. Long-term reduced melatonin levels can be even more serious, as other studies have linked it to an increase in one’s risk for certain types of cancer....

Plaintiff’s suit against a nightclub’s insurer for injuries caused by a bouncer Eaton v. Penn-America Ins. Co., 10-1273, concerned a plaintiff’s suit against an insurer of a nightclub, arising from injuries caused by the nightclub’s bouncer. In affirming the district court’s grant of the insurer’s motion for summary judgment, the court held that the district court was correct in finding the assault and battery exclusion dispositive, which in pertinent part eliminates coverage for “damages resulting from assault or battery or physical altercations” that occur in, on, or near the insured’s premises....

The EEOC has settled a disability discrimination lawsuit against Gregory Packaging, the manufacturer and distributor of Suncup juice products found in schools and medical institutions throughout the country. Gregory Packaging has agreed to pay $125,000 to settle charges that it illegally terminated a machine operator at its Newnan, Georgia, packaging plant after learning that he was HIV-positive. The settlement comes as a reminder that the Americans with Disabilities Act covers a wide range of individuals and conditions, and is not just limited to the most traditional or visible disabilities....

“If only” are two of the saddest words in the English vocabulary. If only you had kept your head when the boss was blaming you. If only you had trusted yourself when the judge was doubting you. If only there were a solution to every way we hurt our careers. But alas, this is a blog, not poetry, so here are only two ways not to sabotage your success: Self-Esteem Adjustment With apologies to Rudyard Kipling, “If” leaves a lot open for speculation....

Security is a big deal in the digital age, but even the most sophisticated laptops and smartphones are susceptible to low-tech snooping. How can you protect your email, texts, and attorney work product from prying eyes, including those of other lawyers? The issue came up in a Texas courtroom last week, when a court staffer allegedly caught a prosecutor and defense lawyer reading a text message on a judge’s phone, ABA Journal reports....

In the past, we’ve stressed the importance of maintaining a certain detached yet professional relationship with your client. Lawyering is a tiring job and being too heavily invested emotionally in your client’s case can have a detrimental effect on both your health and performance. Part of a lawyer’s job requires giving the client a full understanding of the possible outcomes of a case. But doing that can be a very tricky tasks, particularly since the “worst case scenario” might send a client emotionally off the edge....