Trial is stressful. There’s no doubt about that. No matter how planned out every last minute is, there will always be surprises that you didn’t plan, and couldn’t have known about. After a certain point in your preparation, you just have to stop to relax for a little bit as you simply cannot prepare for everything. Also, not being well rested for trial is one of the most common, and correctable, errors in preparation attorneys will make....
Free pens are so 1995. Who writes things on paper anymore? And calendars? We have these things called smartphones – they handle our appointments. No, if you want to really impress clients with freebies, you’ll need to be different. Step your game up. Take your law firm swag game up to 2015 levels, ya dig? And what could be better than matching your firm-branded freebies with your practice area? We’ve got a few crazy ideas, and want yours as well....
Last week, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval refused to dismiss the indictments against Kurt E. Mix, the former BP engineer who deleted his texts in the face of impending litigation, reports The Associated Press. This case is a prime example of the importance of having a corporate policy regarding text messaging: As the ways people use technology for business expands, so does the scope of e-discovery. According to a 2013 study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 91% of American adults own cell phones, and of those, 81% send or receive text messages....
It’s not uncommon for corporations to seek new outside counsel for each investigation or lawsuit, but doing so requires an in-house legal department that is adept at selecting outside counsel that not only meets its needs, but doesn’t cost it an arm and a leg. This isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world, with dozens of law firms each claiming to be right for the job. So how should you select outside counsel?...
Last year, in the wake of two well-known startups (Uber and Square) clashing with local laws and regulations, we asked who was at fault – the disruptor or the disrupted, the startups or the state? Both startups, but especially Uber, had run headfirst into local ordinances, regulations, and cartels bent on preserving the status quo, but also hadn’t done their homework or made an effort to play the political game before entering the market and upsetting the (legal) status quo – easier to get forgiveness than permission, we suppose....
The judge asked an accused prostitute whether she did it because she liked the money or because she liked the action. Other times, he commented on the attractiveness of female lawyers in his courtroom. He gave them nicknames, like “Ms. Dimples,” “bun head” and “Star Parker.” His name, Judge Gary Kreep. For real, you cannot make this stuff up. But what can you do when your judge is a real creep?...
No place is safe with drunk drivers on the road, but statistics show that some places are more dangerous than others. According to a study by CarInsuranceComparison.com, the world’s best place to compare car insurance, nearly 29 million admitted to driving under the influence in the United States in 2013. Every day another 27 people die in drunk-driving crashes nationally. The report ranked states by percentage of fatalities per 1 million people, DUI arrests, and other factors, and the results are surprising....
White powder was found in a letter sent to a Florida state attorney’s office. Three individuals were hospitalized after being exposed to the substance last week. They were taken for treatment after suffering from headaches and vomiting. Officials are unsure what the powder was. Preliminary testing was inconclusive. The substance was sent to a FBI lab for more testing. Parts of the building were evacuated. Some were reopened after an air duct was sealed off....
Remember when Facebook launched the original “poke” feature? Being poked by a “friend” on the social networking site felt weird and slightly dirty. Then, third-party apps took the poke to the next level and let you assault your friends with an assortment of options. You could even “throw a sheep”. Because good friends throw sheep. Good attorneys — by contrast — use Facebook to effect service of process. Or, at least they try to....
There are two ways to increase your profits when running a law firm. The first, and most obvious method, is to bring in more business. The second method is to cut law firm expenses. We’ve written about rainmaking and trying to bring in more business on several occasions. You can read about it here, here, and here. In this post, we focus on how you can grow your bottom line by cutting down on expenses....
As any in-house attorney knows, a company’s employee handbook is much more than a collection of corporate rules, platitudes, and H.R. procedures. Often, courts will treat detailed employee handbooks as establishing binding terms and conditions of employment. When it comes to disputes with workers, the employee handbook can be one of your most important documents – or your Achilles’ heel. Here are seven mistakes employers often make when putting together an employee handbook and how you can avoid them in yours....
A federal appeals court has ruled that LGBT students may proceed against a Florida middle school that denied its application for a student club. In reversing the dismissal of the club’s lawsuit, the Eleventh Circuit said that Florida law gives middle school and high school students the same rights to form extra-curricular clubs. The justices said Florida’s law inconsistently defines “secondary education,” but concluded that a middle school is a secondary school for equal access purposes....
Guatemalan national’s petition for review a BIA’s decision reversing the Immigration Judge’s granting of asylum is denied where the petitioner failed to establish a well-founded fear of persecution on account of a protected ground and the standard of BIA review makes no difference because there is no evidence that a gang was in any way motivated by petitioner’s status as an indigenous female. Read Caal-Tiul v. Holder, No. 08-2464 Appellate Information...
FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. What are we going to do about climate change? Can government get the job done to protect us? Well, some children do not believe so, and they have taken the matter to federal court. Indeed, a federal magistrate has just ruled that their climate change lawsuit may proceed. Thomas Coffin, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the federal district court in Eugene, Oregon, has ruled in the case Juliana v....
FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. We usually think of the Internet as a place where we can obtain information, communicate with others, and engage in various business and personal activities. However, is it also a new battlefield? Yes, according to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Indeed, as reported by Reuters, he maintains that while hackers have already attacked financial institutions, they also have the capability to strike mission-critical domestic power grids and government systems....
Convicted former-Massachusetts House Speaker Sal DiMasi can’t wait out an appeal of his federal corruption conviction in the comfort of his home. This morning, the First Circuit Court of Appeals released a brief opinion denying the disgraced politician’s request to defer his eight-year prison sentence until his appeals were exhausted, finding, “the appeals do not present a ‘substantial question of law or fact’” that would result in a reversal, a new trial, or a lesser sentence, reports The Boston Globe....
Chris Harrington is going to InsideSales to become its chief operating officer. That would be news alone, but it’s more newsworthy because Harrington quit Domo less than three months after the company went public. Whatever his reason, Harrington won’t go far because both companies are virtually neighbors. Still, Harrington’s departure doesn’t look good for Domo. But it also shows there’s serious business going on in Utah. Serious Business Harrington served as Domo’s president for six years....
After a drunken federal employee flew a drone over the White House lawn, the drone’s manufacturer “announced that a new, mandatory firmware update would help users comply with” an FAA regulation that Washington, D.C., is a no-fly zone. Of course, by “help users comply,” the company – DJI – means that the new firmware will unilaterally disable drones’ ability to fly within the no-fly zone. From coffee makers to automobiles, Digital Rights Management (DRM) is everywhere, making sure that you don’t use the stuff you bought in any way other than the ways the company you bought it from wants you to – even if those ways vitiate rights you’d otherwise have back in meatspace....
Will the Mark Hurd letter be made public? The answer to this question is now firmly in the hands of the Delaware Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on the issue late last week. Written on behalf of contractor Jodie Fisher, the letter reportedly alleges sexual harassment perpetrated by the ex-HP CEO. It also claims Hurd misused corporate funds and breached his fiduciary duties towards the company. The Mark Hurd letter was initially released as part of a shareholder lawsuit into corporate waste....
If you thought email phishing scams only targeted consumers and athletes looking for things in all the wrong places, think again. Online scammers look for money wherever they can find unsuspecting victims. That includes mega companies, like Facebook and Google. According to a criminal indictment, a Lithuanian named Evaldas Rimasaukas swindled more than $100 million by using forged email addresses, invoices, and corporate stamps to impersonate a manufacturer and bill purchasers in the United States....
