Posts

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. The topic for today: selfie sticks. How do you feel about them – positive, negative or indifferent? Let’s backtrack a bit first with a brief history lesson. That was well and good, perhaps – until photography came into being. The early versions of cameras were quite unwieldy, so if someone wanted a photo of him or herself, generally someone else would use the camera to take that photograph of the intended subject....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. We now live in an online world where words like “tweeting” and “defriending” are the new coin of the vocabulary realm. How about sexy texts also known as “sexting”? What is the importance of personal sexy texts and privacy? Related Resources: Sexting - Texting For Trouble (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life Blog) Court Weighs Teen Sexting and Child Pornography Charges (FindLaw’s Blotter Blog) 3rd Circuit Declines to Rule: Is Sexting Pornography?...

Even if you love exclamation marks as much as Elaine from Seinfeld, when drafting a pleading, there’s really only one time when using one is appropriate. And no, it’s not when you really need to put opposing counsel on blast. Much like vulgarity, or emojis, the use of exclamation marks should only be done when using quotes. Just like Elaine, you’ll likely face some wrath, or ridicule, if you don’t heed this warning, and especially if you overuse them....

In a recent ruling out of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, a panel of three justices reversed the lower court’s dismissal on summary judgment in the First Amendment retaliation case, Rodriguez v. City of Doral et al. The case involved the alleged constructive termination of a police officer due to his support of a rival political candidate. The reversal is significant not just for the plaintiff, but for the entire circuit....

Let’s face it, the fees for your service as an attorney are expensive. So if you don’t accept credit card payments, you’re missing out on a large group of potential clients. But every day we’re seemingly bombarded by some new credit card payment service or technology. How do you know which one is the best for you? Like with all things dealing with the law, the answer is that “it depends....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. When it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT), what might come to mind are “things” like the automatic regulation of settings in the home and routine ordering of household products when supplies are low. But IoT applications are more diverse than that and can be of greater societal importance, for example, when seeking to increase food production for our heavily populated planet....

While rolling out a new product is fun for companies, it can be the bane of a corporate counsel’s existence. There are lots of legal hoops to leap through. Chief among them is trademark screening. Simple and cheap aren’t two words many in houses associate with the practice, but with SAEGIS on SERION they can be. Thomson CompuMark, the company that manages SAEGIS, has just announced plans to launch 136 new databases to it popular trademark screening search service....

Conviction for committing a carjacking resulting in death is affirmed where: 1) the court properly denied defendant’s motion for acquittal as the evidence was sufficient for a reasonable jury to conclude that defendant had the intent to kill or seriously harm the victim when he took control of her car; 2) the court did not err in excluding tape recordings of the victim as the recordings did not contradict the victim’s hearsay allegations of abuse; 3) the court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to allow defendant to present expert witness testimony regarding the reliability of eyewitness identification; 4) the court did not abuse its discretion denying defendant’s motion for a mistrial as the brief mention of the possibility of a polygraph examination did not warrant a mistrial; and 5) the court erroneously admitted certain statements made by the victim’s friend and mother, but the error was harmless....

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeal ruled on a wage and hour lawsuit earlier this week, involving a group of workers in Maryland. The case hinged on issues of pay and whether employees should be compensated for the time it took them to get in and out of their required safety apparel — or as the court called it “donning and doffing” their protective gear. Quick facts: The case involves workers at a Delaware poultry processing plant....

If arguments about gender parity, viewpoint diversity, and good old-fashion equality hasn’t convinced you of the importance of women in leadership, maybe this will: having women in power is connected to increased profitability. A study recently released by the Peterson Institute for International Economics and EY (Ernst & Young) shows that having a woman in the highest corporate positions is correlated to better profits. The legal industry, long dominated by men, might want to take note....

Being a law student in the modern era may come with the drawback of a bleak job market, but maybe the technology makes up for it. Law students, if you don’t have at least the first and last items on the list below automated so that you don’t have to worry about them during your day to day life, then you’re just leaving free time on the table. Think about it, with those extra minutes you could be studying or getting some much needed distraction/relaxation....

If you’ve ever been in that situation where a client has totally botched their own case, and then turned to you to ask if you could just forget you ever saw, knew, or heard that thing you definitely saw, found out, or heard, then you’ve probably already been down that what’s-my-ethical-duty-rabbit-hole. But if you haven’t, you might want to just be prepared for what can often come next, and that’s the client asking the lawyer to help them lie....

In what may seem like a venture into the category of the legally weird for this legal tech blog, a recent lawsuit that was dismissed by the Texas courts tells a tale too odd not to share, again and again. A self-described “Objectophile” lost his Texas lawsuit filed in order to be able to marry his own laptop, and he’s tried this more than once. But barring the general considerations of the physical impossibility of marrying personal property, there’s an interesting question that follows, beyond just what in the digitally-damned hell this guy was thinking....

If you know anything about Star Wars, the Lord of the Rings, or Lawyer Marketing, cosmic truths come in threes. Three Star Wars trilogies, three rings to rule them all, and three more rules about hyperbole in law firm marketing. In our last installment, we looked at the don’ts. In this episode, we see the biggest-ever hyperbole to-dos in law firm marketing. It’s about balancing your lawyer skills in the marketplace universe....

You know that saying about how employees and corporate officers should email as if what they write will one day be read in a deposition? Well, there’s a close corollary: In a deposition, speak like what you say will be made public eventually. This may prove true for some officials deposed in the NHL CTE/concussion class action that is playing out in the Minnesota federal court. That case has been making headlines due to some damning video from some key depositions being made public....

Get any emails about last-minute court hearings in unfamiliar cases? They’re fake (almost certainly), and the attachments carry a pair of nasty viruses. Plus, an update to Java, the annoying app that loves to bug you with update reminders, broke the Fourth Circuit’s website on Wednesday. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) just posted a security alert which warns that fake emails, claiming to be coming from federal court clerks, are part of an ongoing email virus threat....

When it comes to information security and privacy, the law is vast and sprawling. There’s the threat of data breaches and the question of liability over cybersecurity failures. There are federal anti-hacking laws and children’s privacy acts. There are state laws on the use of biometric data and online identity theft. In fact, there’s so much going on in the realm of information security and privacy, that we’ve covered the topic more than 800 times on FindLaw blogs – and there’s still plenty more to discuss....

As Judge Ed Carnes notes this week, “behind every beautiful thing there’s been some kind of pain.” That’s right: Our favorite Eleventh Circuit jurist is quoting Bob Dylan as he gives a dissatisfied bottle blonde another shot at her products liability claim. The plaintiff, Amber Wright, went to a licensed master cosmetologist at a Georgia salon for blonde highlights. Nine days after Wright had her hair colored, she went to the emergency room complaining of a burn to her scalp....

The twins paradox is an issue in physics, and a problem in DNA testing. In the physics paradox, one twin zooms into space at light speed and comes back younger than his twin. That’s awkward. In DNA testing, identical twins have the same genetic signature. When it’s a question of who’s the daddy, that’s even more awkward. DNA Evidence Forensic DNA testing has been around for decades. Over time, it has become a standard for resolving paternity disputes and identifying criminal suspects....

In the state of Minnesota, an appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals is likely inspiring the state’s residents to make the switch from traditional landline telephones to VoIP telephones. The state has posed the following (potentially hyperbolic) question that the court will likely avoid answering: Whether the rule of law may be rendered obsolete by technological innovation. For individuals who already pay for high-speed internet access, tacking on VoIP services can be done rather cheaply, and are almost always a better deal than traditional landline services....