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FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Should private social networking between teachers and students be banned entirely? Do a few bad apples spoil the entire bunch? Is it legal for legislators to limit communications to protect teenagers from potentially predatory teachers or that school officials should discipline teenagers for social networking activities that have no school nexus? Missouri has enacted a first-of-a-kind law that requires state school districts to adopt policies that restrict communications between teachers and students on social networking sites....

Barry Bobbitt and his law firm, Sullo & Bobbitt P.L.L.C., had a great idea for getting new clients: send mailings to every single person who gets a ticket using information on the court’s docket. Alas, there was a problem: They had trouble accessing the records in time. Prospective clients were often required to respond to their ticket within 21 days, but the public records weren’t available in most cases until as much as 30 days after the incident, reports Texas Lawyer....

As if there wasn’t enough government surveillance of citizens, now some cities are installing microphones on public buses. Using funds from the Department of Homeland Security, cities including San Francisco and Baltimore are updating bus surveillance systems with audio-recording capabilities. That means passengers’ conversations can be surreptitiously taped and saved for later use. Bus companies are in favor of the move, but civil liberties groups beg to differ. They’re worried about how all this surveillance could be used against us....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Unfortunately, there has been a sharp increase in the number of children who believe what they read on the Internet. This has been brought home by a recent study by Ofcom, as reported by The Telegraph. This is significant because 8 to 15-year-olds now are occupying double their time on the Internet than they were one decade ago....

Is prison about punishment or rehabilitation? Under Tapia v. United States, a defendant’s rehabilitative needs should not be considered when imposing a sentence. It seems then, that the Supreme Court’s view of the purpose of a prison is to punish. He started supervised release on July 28, 2009. His probation officer filed for revocation on October 1, 2009, after Bennett was arrested and charged in September for robbery with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon....

There is a growing body of scientific literature that indicates a relationship between loudness in our daily lives and degrading health. And on the flip-side, a piece by Daniel A. Gross from Nautilus suggests there are health benefits associated with prolonged periods of silence. To many of us who live in urban areas and work in an office, this is hardly surprising. At least, it comports with our intuitions about how we’d like our ideal lives to be: mostly quiet, surrounded by placid nature, punctuated every-so-often with the hustle and bustle of city noise....

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: tech company’s Chinese supplier is caught violating labor laws. Okay, don’t actually stop me. Keep reading. That’s better. This time, it’s Samsung. Shortly after announcing an “all clear” in its recent internal labor audit, at least in regards to child labor (there were plenty of other violations, of course), the company is doing a double-take after a watchdog allegedly found multiple instances of Chinese children working for a supplier using fake IDs....

Michelle Neufeld, head of compliance for Wells Fargo’s financial institutions, sees compliance and technology like a family relationship. Governments are the parents, and financial institutions are the children. It’s all good as long as the kids follow the rules. But there’s a problem with technology – especially artificial intelligence. The parents don’t really want the children to share that information. Share Information Joining other industry leaders at a conference in Sydney, Neufeld talked about challenges facing financial institutions across borders....

Non-equity partnership agreements, once a rarity in law firms, transformed the traditional partnership model. Since the beginning, law firms have had single-tier partnerships where all have equity in firm growth. Only a handful of major firms, like Cravath Swain & Moore, hang on to that business model today. While economics can change everything, non-equity partnership agreements are in vogue at most large law firms. For many firms, however, the traditional equity partnership is a standard....

It’s not exactly the American Dream, but starting a law firm with friends could be close to it. It’s almost like a family business, but without having to go home together. That’s a plus in itself – for some people. In any case, choosing your partners will be the most important decision you make in the enterprise. Here are a few thoughts if you choose friends: Choose Wisely In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Grail Knight made an epic observation when greedy Walter Donovan drank from the wrong cup....

In plaintiff’s product disparagement claim against defendant, jury’s verdict for the plaintiff and award of $4.5 million in damages for lost profits is affirmed but the jury award is remanded to limit plaintiff’s recovery to $2.7 million for it to accept or insist upon a new trial as to damages. Read Vascular Solutions, Inc. v. Marine Polymer Tech., Inc. , No. 08-1911 Appellate Information Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts...

The First Circuit just handed down a decision that will send app developers panic mode. The federal court has ruled that persons who surrender information without opting out can form the basis of a Video Privacy Protection Act suit against the companies who share that information with third parties. And, unless you’ve been living on another planet, this has implications for pretty much all companies that collect information. Much of the legal broohaha centers on what the exact definition of “subscriber” is....

You worked hard for your license to practice law. You studied the LSAT, got into school, passed the bar and passed moral character and fitness… and a single ethics violation means it could all be taken away, just like that. It’s all very scary stuff about a system that very few attorneys know about – though it haunts our thoughts. How do ethics hearings work? What is this thing called the State Bar Court?...

Brandon Raub, a Marine, made some questionable Facebook posts in the summer of 2012. Some of his fellow Marines expressed concern and contacted the FBI. The FBI interviewed Raub, then local police obtained a temporary detention order to hospitalize him against his will. He remained in hospital for seven days. Raub filed a civil rights complaint, which the district court dismissed due to qualified immunity. The Fourth Circuit affirmed. What did Raub write on his Facebook page?...

Deciding to start a solo practice is a difficult decision, especially for a new attorney with little practical experience. And it’s difficult for law firm veterans as they have to let go of the “golden handcuffs” and steady paycheck of firm life. Before going out and hanging your own shingle, you may want to ask yourself the following questions to determine if solo life is right for you: Do you like people?...

You don’t really want to be in BigLaw anymore, do you? Seriously though, after five years of working 80 hour weeks, after lasting through a recession and waves of bloodletting at your firm, what more is waiting for you – partnership? (Stifle the laughter. We know, nobody is making partner nowadays.) If you’re tired of the grind, if there is no future at your firm, you need to be looking at the next big step....

Cold turkey works for some people, but not Zachary Smith. He is a long-time addict, starting with opioid painkillers when he was a teenager. When his sister died of a heroin overdose, he got scared and serious about getting treatment. That’s why he is suing the Department of Corrections in Maine. They won’t give him his prescription, and he’s afraid he will die in jail. The ACLU is now fighting to get him addiction treatment....

Meaux Surface Protection, Inc. v. Fogleman, No. 09-20234, involved an action for breach of fiduciary duty claiming that defendant surreptitiously and unlawfully poached employees and clients while working for plaintiff. The court of appeals affirmed judgment for plaintiff in part, on the grounds that 1) it was perfectly apparent throughout discovery and pretrial litigation that plaintiff would seek lost profits, and thus the district court’s amendment of its pretrial order to permit plaintiff to do so was not erroneous; 2) defense counsel had the relevant documents prior to plaintiff’s lost profits witness’s deposition and could have questioned him about his familiarity, or lack thereof, with plaintiff’s operations and profitability; 3) the jury was well within its province to find that defendants’ recruitment of plaintiff’s employees directly caused plaintiff to suffer a loss in business; and 4) because the company and industry were not nascent and untested, copious evidence of lost profits was unnecessary....

After seven years of back-and-forth litigation, Apple and Samsung settled their epic patent battle over cell phone and tablet designs. It played out in lawsuits around the globe, as virtually the entire tech industry watched. It outlived Steve Jobs, who reportedly called it “thermonuclear war.” Cost of Litigation The beginning of the end started in 2012 when Apple won a $1.05 billion jury verdict. It was supposed to be the end of competing claims over iPhones, iPads, and Galaxy smartphones and tablets....

Attorneys often hold sensitive, private information on their clients; information which, if lost, can be extremely damaging to both clients and their lawyers. And hackers are increasingly targeting law firms, stealing proprietary information on their competitors, or using ransomware to hold important information hostage. Thankfully, a new report shows that most lawyers are starting to take the risks of a data breaches seriously: 95 percent of surveyed firms had a data breach plan in place or were developing one....