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Sometimes it’s difficult to serve a defendant. There are those that live alone, which means you can’t leave the summons at their perpetually empty home. The unemployed and couch-hopping are also impossible to track down. What are you supposed to do? Service by publication is an option in a number of jurisdictions, but again, it, too can be a crap shoot. But what if there was another option? What if the law permitted service by Facebook and other social media sites?...

The Louisiana Supreme Court is embroiled in a bit of a brouhaha. Chief Justice Kitty Kimball is retiring in January after 20 years on the state’s Supreme Court and 3 years as the chief justice. Now, the remaining justices are bickering about who should be the next chief. The Louisiana Constitution makes it pretty clear: The judge oldest in point of service on the supreme court shall be chief justice. The debate within the state: What qualifies as service?...

When somebody sues a supreme court over a decision, it’s a knee-jerk reaction to think that somebody is a fool. After all, you don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. Would you believe, you don’t sue a court to be a judge? That’s what Judge Wendell Griffen is doing. He is suing the Arkansas Supreme Court for the right to do his job. But in this battle between judges, somebody is playing the fool....

When Master P said (repeatedly), “Make ’em say uh!,” we doubt he was thinking of opposing counsel and insurance companies. Yet, more than a decade after he coined the catchphrase, the No Limit Records founder, multi-platinum rapper, and savvy businessman is backing the most unlikely of ventures: a personal injury firm in Kentucky. This is, to quote Lloyd Banks, “uglier than the Master P sneaker.” Somebody’s ‘Got The Hook Up ' And yet, there he is....

Giant scanner/printer/copier work centers are pretty fantastic, if you can afford one. A fledgling practice, however, may not have the extra cash to splash on such luxuries. If you’re just getting your practice up and running, a scanner app for your smartphone could get your through your basic scanning needs. The New York Times’ Bob Tedeschi explains, “If you were to photograph a page from a book, for instance, you would have to push the page completely flat in order to get an image you could read....

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak and Stewart, like many firms, used new hires in a case it was working on for Maricopa County in Arizona. Those employees had taken the bar exam but hadn’t yet gotten results so they weren’t technically associates. What to call new hires between the bar exam and posting of results can be tricky. How to bill their services to clients can be even harder. But it’s the job of an attorney to figure out a solution...

It has been a difficult several weeks for former Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, once one of the most powerful men in New York. Closing arguments concluded in Silver’s multi-week corruption trial that saw its beginnings with the Speaker’s arrest in January amidst allegations that he traded favors to benefit two real estate developers and a Columbia University researcher. Latest news is that at least one juror has requested to be excused from the case....

It’s axiomatic these days that companies need to take cybersecurity seriously, lest they end up like the next Yahoo!, who recently revealed that it suffered the largest hack ever, potentially jeopardizing its plans to be acquired by Verizon. But cybersecurity protections can be restrictive and expensive, leading some clients to overlook them for as long as they can. What’s a lawyer to do? Surprisingly, the jury is still out, with some attorneys urging their colleagues to become more proactive in promoting cybersecurity among their clients, while others suggest a more cautious approach....

It’s almost time to ring in the New Year with family, friends – and a few New Year’s resolutions for lawyers and law firms. We’re not talking about going to the gym or cutting back on greasy burgers – we’ll leave those personal resolutions to you. Here are three New Year’s resolutions for lawyers that we hope will resonate for your firm’s bottom line in 2012: 1. Improve your writing skills....

Defendant’s conviction and sentence for using a facility of interstate commerce to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity are affirmed where: 1) 18 U.S.C. section 2422(b) did not exceed Congress’ commerce clause power; 2) even if none of defendant’s communications were routed over state lines, the internet and telephone he used to contact the undercover officer were still instrumentalities of interstate commerce; 3) defendant’s challenges to his sentence were foreclosed by circuit precedent....

Defendant’s conviction for conspiracy to commit access device fraud is affirmed where “authorized access” or “authorization” under 18 U.S.C. section 1030(a)(2) could encompass limits placed on the use of information obtained by permitted access to a computer system and data available on that system, at least when the user knew or reasonably should have known that he or she was not authorized to access a computer and information obtainable from that access in furtherance of or to perpetrate a crime....

You should use notes during a trial. After all, you don’t want to forget an important issue or lose track of your train of thought. But don’t let notes become your crutch. If you’re looking down at your notes every few seconds, you’re doing it wrong. Your notes should help you out, but they can’t do your job for you. If you’re reading full questions off note cards or if you can’t keep track of key facts and concepts without referencing your notes, your courtroom performance is going to suffer....

Yesterday’s oral arguments in Washington v. Trump might have been the most popular arguments ever held in the Ninth Circuit. More than 40,000 people 137,000 people have listened along to the arguments, which were streamed live on the Ninth’s YouTube page. What did they hear? A passionate, occasionally messy, debate about the president’s executive order barring refugees and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim nations and judges that seemed, at times, skeptical of the government’s position....

As the opioid epidemic continues to make front-page news, legal practitioners have opportunities to be part of the remedy. President Donald Trump’s commission on opioids has called for more drug courts to address the “worst drug crisis in U.S. history.” The panel recommends drug courts in all federal jurisdictions, and encourages state and local governments to apply for drug-court grants. If implemented, the plan will triple the number of drug courts in the country....

Windows 8 was released a mere 17 months ago. An update, codenamed “Windows Blue,” and officially sanctioned as Windows 8.1, started rolling out four months ago. And here we are, already desperate for Windows 9. Is this a bad time to remind you that, if you are using Windows XP, that you’ll soon be forced to upgrade? Windows 8, much like Windows Vista, was a miserable failure for more reasons than we can recall....

The maker of the beloved gamer classic Pac-Man is still alive and kicking (legally) – and kicking independent developers in the teeth. Nineteen-eighties icon Atari is taking a stand in the USPTO this week in order to vanguard the rights to its video games that bear the Haunted House moniker. It’s the sort of intellectual property demon that sends shivers down the spines of the artists who make these games....

We’ve been over and over the deal between the Obama Administration and Georgia Republicans that will place three of the latter’s picks on the district court, and one on the Circuit Court of Appeals, in exchange for two Obama appointments to the Circuit Court and one to the district court. Diversity proponents were immediately outraged by the Republicans’ nominations, but one nominee in particular has drawn groups’ ire for his actions as a state legislator: Judge Michael Boggs....

In an unprecedented lawsuit, Facebook faces potentially billions of dollars in fines for its role in the 2016 presidential election scandal. The attorney general for the District of Columbia alleges that Facebook “failed to protect the privacy of its users” from manipulation by Cambridge Analytica. The lawsuit says Facebook engaged in “unfair and deceptive practices” by deceiving users about how their data was used. While most of the controversy surrounding Russian interference has fallen on the president, the complaint pushes the spotlight back towards the social media giant....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Is it possible that information and photos placed on Facebook pages could come back to haunt parties in litigation? Yes. Will that always be the case? No. Should people nevertheless be careful about what they post? Yes. In this developing social media age, there has been a judicial willingness to compel the disclosure of Facebook material to the other side in litigation if the material could be inconsistent with the claims made in the case....

Here at FindLaw, we understand the pressures of being a legal professional - most of us are recovering lawyers - so we want to help by tossing you that preferred life preserver of the legal profession, the short list. Now that hurricane season is almost over, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals seems like a much more appealing circuit for appellate practitioners. Interested? Here are five things you need to know about Eleventh Circuit bar admission....