Posts

Last year, when Google released its Chromecast stick, we were beyond excited: a $35 stick that had so much untapped potential. At launch, it was a glorified Netflix and YouTube streamer, but offered little else, other than a few intriguing beta features, but the promise was there. A year later? Google just announced a few significant upgrades at Google I/O, plus third-party apps have proliferated to the point where it’s not just a video-streaming toy (though it is really good at that)....

Last week, we ended the year with some advice on how to improve your online presence in 2016. Central to that is writing. Client-focused legal writing will help you develop expertise in your field, differentiate your practice from others, and garner a wider audience of potential clients online. Creating valuable online content isn’t as simple as just sitting down and typing away, but it’s also not brain surgery either. Here are three ways to improve your online content without taking on a second job as a legal blogger....

A good in-house attorney is a generalist, able to move from complex compliance issues to corporate strategizing to internal H.R. disputes and back again. But being a jack of all trades shouldn’t make you a master of none. There are plenty of skills in-house counsel need to master in order to succeed. With that in mind, here are our top corporate counsel skill posts, from the FindLaw archives. The ideal in-house attorney needs a broad understanding of the law and a deep understanding of the business....

Every trial lawyer knows that a good expert witness can win a case. It often comes down to a battle of the experts, and their credentials are critical. A strong curriculum vitae, backed by research, is the calling card of a qualified expert. That’s why one thing always kills a lawyer’s expert witness: fake research. Sometimes, it is staring you in the face. Fake Research Dean Maynard Boland was that kind of expert witness....

They said it was bound to happen. It was just a matter of time. Now your client came to a decision, and it was one of a painful kind. Cause now it seems that you wanted to save them from liability, and that’s the one thing they kept preventing you from doing. So rather than realizing they’re wrong, they fire you. After all that, are you going to be liable when your now-former client destroys their case, their business, and their life, in spectacular fashion, while misinterpreting your advice?...

Modern banking affords customers with peace of mind. Picture this: A ne’er-do-well wipes out the funds in a bank customer’s account. No problem. The Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) says that the bank will recredit the account if the withdrawals were unauthorized. Before you start sweating the law on behalf of your banking clients, rest assured that the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals is a stickler for that “unauthorized” caveat....

There are some phrases that just tend to set one’s teeth on edge. They aren’t actually evil, just pretentious, tired or unintentionally offensive. They insinuate themselves into your vocabulary without you even realizing it, and then burst forth to the annoyance of those around you. This one seems to have only come up in the past year or two. People use it when they are engaged in a discussion and wish to show that they understand and agree....

Louisiana cannot revoke sentence-shortening “good-time credits” earned by prisoners based on legal changes that occurred after a prisoner’s initial sentencing, the Fifth Circuit ruled this week. The court granted habeas relief for Richard Price, who was sentenced for armed robbery in Louisiana in 1985, and lost all of his good-time credit after he violated parole conditions. That was an unconstitutional ex post facto application of the law, the Fifth held....

The obvious case is, well, obvious. Shift Sergeant Rodricus Carltez Hurst worked in a Lee County, Mississippi jail. The operations manual at the jail stated that only the Sheriff or his “designee” could talk to the media, though the rule doesn’t seem to have been enforced all that well – the record contained multiple instances where Hurst had spoken to the media during his tenure at the jail. This time, however, he provided information on a local college player, Chad Bumphis, who had been arrested on New Year’s Day after a “big group fight” at a local bar....

Wait, wait, wait? Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did an interview? We know – she’s done (estimating here) 57 of ’em this summer alone. But this one is really good. Also, what happens when a cop is convicted of beating an innocent person for no reason? A mulligan. Finally, what is your worst nightmare when taking the bar? Failing. But a grading error comes close. Welcome to this week’s edition of “Holler,” where we give a shout-out to our favorite posts in the blawgosphere....

More employers are turning to in house medical clinics in the workplace. These clinics provide a variety of services to employees such as diagnosing symptoms, writing prescriptions, and more. Is this trend a good idea? These clinics can be a great morale boost to employees as they can simply have their medical issues checked out at work. More importantly for employers, these in house medical clinics can also save them a lot of money as employees are diagnosed and receive treatment earlier, writes NBC....

You probably grew up hearing the saying, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” (We’ve always preferred the Alice Roosevelt variation, “If you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me,” but the advantages of that theory are a discussion for another time.) Today, we’re considering if the converse of the “don’t say anything at all” adage is true in the context of federal court rules: If people don’t say anything, does it mean that they didn’t have anything nice to say?...

Pertinent Facts The case began when the plaintiff, Brian Yates, was driving on a highway, followed by his mother and brother in another car behind him. Yates passed by defendant-officer Christopher Blair Terry who trailed Yates and eventually pulled him over at a gas station. Terry demanded Yates’ driver license. When Yates told Terry that he had no license, but did have his military ID, Terry forced Yates out of the car and ordered Yates to put his hands on the car....

Immigration has been central to Donald Trump’s agenda since he announced his candidacy almost a year and a half ago. Now, Trump’s electoral success has signaled a massive shift in U.S. immigration policy and enforcement: a likely end to the Obama administration’s immigration reform efforts, a promised increase in detentions and deportation, and potentially greater limits to worker visas. That’s less “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and much more “Build the wall!...

US v. First Kuwaiti Gen. Trading & Contracting Co., 09-1899, concerned a plaintiff’s qui tam suit under the False Claims Act against his former employer, claiming that the company billed falsely for deficient work in connection with construction of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and that it retaliated against him for action taken in furtherance of his FCA claims. In affirming the district court’s grant of defendant’s motion for summary judgment, the court held that plaintiff has produced no evidence either of knowing misrepresentations on defendant’s part or having been mistreated for any actions taken on behalf of his FCA claims....

In our younger days, viruses had one purpose: wreak havoc. The creators of worms, trojans, and other malware got little or nothing out of their creations, other than the enjoyment of causing a little death and destruction. Ransomware was the big breakthrough. Though keyloggers and adware may have brought in a small amount of revenue, nothing has been quite as lucrative as the $5 million per year ransomware racket, where a virus locks down a computer, holding it hostage until a non-traceable payment of $300 is paid to the hackers....

In a medical malpractice action, district court judgment is affirmed where the forum selection clause contained in two preoperative consent forms signed by plaintiff was mandatory and thus the Commonwealth Court of First Instance was the exclusive venue for any claims against the hospital. The nature of the instant action does not preclude enforcement of the forum selection clause, nor is the clause invalid for fraud, overreaching, or violating public policy....

Samsung has made no secret of its disappointment with the infamous Apple v. Samsung verdict but its new strategy is to challenge the jury foreman’s impartiality. The company’s latest filings accuse Velvin Hogan of lying to get on the jury and impermissibly tainting the results. Hogan served as the foreman in the case which concluded in August. It’s not a particularly robust claim against Hogan and he denies lying during the initial interview of jurors....

Last Thursday, the Supreme Court announced amendments to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the procedural rules that govern criminal prosecutions in federal courts. The changes to rules governing arrest warrants, search and seizure, and computing time, have already made news in publications not usually attuned to the procedural aspects of the law. The Atlantic’s “The Supreme Court Expands FBI Hacking Powers” is a representative response. But let’s look beyond the headlines....

The Fifth Circuit’s March 28 decision in Monica Hague v. University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio underscores some of the basics of sexual harassment cases and shows one major pitfall to avoid. Hague followed internal procedures to address the behavior and eventually filed an EEOC complaint. Three days later, she was informed that her contract would not be renewed. She sued, alleging sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, and retaliation....