Picture this: You’re walking up to the courthouse for day one of a highly publicized case, and as you get close, you see protesters surrounding the courthouse steps. But as you get even closer, you see that the protesters are on your side. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a topless protester jumps the barricade and rushes the defendant. Law enforcement tackle and arrest the extreme topless supporter. What do you do?...
The Third Circuit boldly went where the D.C. Circuit had gone before, and invalidated President Obama’s intrasession recess appointment to the National Labor Relations Board. In doing so, they also invalidated the board’s pro-union ruling in New Vista, and shed doubt on all of the NLRB’s decisions since the disputed appointment of Craig Becker in March 2010 (he stepped down in 2012). As the Wall Street Journal notes, this is a greater time period, and therefore more decisions in jeopardy, than the appointments axed by the D....
When Apple unveiled the last, not their latest, set of iPhones, one feature that seemed to garner quite a bit of buzz was the Animoji feature. Animojis are like emojis, but animated using your facial expressions. Thanks to Apple’s hard work, using the iPhone X, or later models, you can send talking emoji messages to people. Fast-forwarding to this year, Apple announced the next step for Animoji, which was recently released in the most recent IOS 12 update: Memoji....
For elder law attorneys, an unfortunate trend seems to be on the upswing among the client base: individuals over the age of 65 filing for bankruptcy. However, given that the number one cause of bankruptcies is medical debt, this makes a bit more sense. As Forbes explained, the 65+ demographic now makes up a higher percentage of bankruptcy filers than it did a decade ago. Some speculate that the increase is due, at least in part, to the increased cost of health care over that same time....
If you’ve ever fantasized about what it was like to be a blatantly unethical defense lawyer, Devil’s Attorney may be the game for you. Devil’s Attorney recently launched on Google Play, and puts players in the shoes of criminal defense attorney Max McMann, reports Android Central. In the game, McMann can pick up a variety of cases like defending a restaurant that sells hot dogs of questionable origin and male strippers impersonating police officers....
As lawyers in the field know, a boutique tax firm has many of the same kinds of issues as their fellow professionals – in the medical field. That’s right, a firm that specializes in criminal law will, they fervently hope, never have to deal with criminal acts in their own house. But much like a doc with high blood pressure, a tax firm is often going to have to take its own advice....
In what has got to be FindLaw’s most morbid addition to the Technologist Blogs, scientists have authored a paper indicating that the consumption habits of microbes can be utilized to predict the time of death of a corpse. Interestingly, the bugs that will eventually eat you are already crawling on your skin, waiting in a specific order to dine on your flesh. And believe it or not, this little feature makes the business of “time-of-death” estimation much more accurate....
In the taxpayer’s appeal from the tax court’s approval of the IRS Commissioner’s disallowance of a “qualified family-owned business interest” estate tax deduction to the taxpayer estate, the tax court’s order is affirmed where the “qualified family-owned business interest” deduction of 26 U.S.C. section 2057 is available for an estate’s qualifying equity or ownership interests but not for debt interests such as loans receivable. Read Estate of Artall v. Comm’r. of Int’l....
Reflecting on the old days may tell us how old we are but also what we left behind. In an always evolving technological world, it reminds us that somethings will never be the same. For better or for worse, this is especially true in the practice of law. For those who remember a time before Kimmel, here’s a Letterman-like list of Top 10 Lawyer Things That Are No More: 10 - Hand-Writing Penmanship became an art form about the time keystrokes arrived....
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that Texas can block Women’s Health Program (WHP) funding to Planned Parenthood and other healthcare providers that offer abortions, reports CNN. The New Orleans-based court held that Texas may deny WHP funds from organizations that promote elective abortions. The court found that the “specific restriction on the breadth of the program functions as a direct regulation of the definitional content of a state program....
You entered this firm with the idea that in seven or eight years, you’d make partner. A few years after that, you’d have a seven-figure income. By the time you retired, your name would be on the door. Alas, that plan has not come to fruition. Besides the fact that the three names on the door are dead dudes from the early 1900s, the economy has led to partner layoffs and you haven’t exactly made it rain....
Denial of Motion to Compel Motion for Downward Departure Vacated In Gooden v. US, No. 09-10499, a prosecution for federal drug-trafficking crimes, the court vacated the denial of petitioner’s motion to compel the government to file a motion for a downward departure from petitioner’s sentence, holding that, because the district court failed to provide petitioner with the requisite notice and warning before re-characterizing his pro se “motion to modify” as a first section 2255 motion, the district court improperly denied petitioner’s subsequent “motion to compel” as an unauthorized second or successive section 2255 motion....
Over the last few years, the National Labor Relations Board has continuously expanded Section 7’s reach, a section which generally protects speech about working conditions, such as pay and hours. First, the NLRB stretched Section 7 to cover overly-broad social media policies, which often contain anti-disparagement language. And while “no badmouthing the boss or company on Twitter” may seem reasonable, the NLRB held that the broad language could discourage protected Section 7 speech....
As we enter summertime, general counsel may want to consider requiring a bit of annual preventative maintenance (or confirming that it has been done) to avoid exposure and annoying headaches. Yes, technically, whoever is in charge of facilities should have already done so, but making sure that your employees have a climate controlled environment, in some places, is absolutely critical, before summertime is fully underway. And, while that facilities manager might try to give you some line about how you don’t need a professional to come out an inspect your AC system every year, they don’t know the waste of time you’ll be faced with if an employee files an OSHA complaint, or worse, someone passes out cause the AC breaks during a heatwave....
You wake up and check your phone. Before you go to bed, you send a last-minute email from under the covers. Twenty years ago, doing so much work in your pajamas would have been unthinkable. Now, it’s the norm. And you’ve got your smartphone to blame. Mobile phones have changed how the law is practiced by your average lawyer perhaps more than any technology since the desktop computer. Few lawyers clock a typical nine to five day, and that’s been the case for decades....
If your law firm engages in marketing, more likely than not, you have social media channels open to the public. Unfortunately for those firms that are not run by social media savvy lawyers, more often than not, their social media pages will just be embarrassing and somewhat pathetic. We all know what this means: Barely any followers that aren’t obviously staff, family members, or close personal friends, and feeds filled with thinly veiled advertisements for legal services, questionable reviews, and various seasons’ and holiday greetings....
A jury convicted Eric Murdock of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Murdock was sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) to 216 months in prison. On appeal, Murdock argued that the district court erred by refusing to suppress his statement regarding the color of a bag containing firearms and ammunition. According to Murdock, the statement should have been suppressed because he was in custody and not given Miranda warnings....
Weren’t we just discussing judges’ use of social media? Oh, but wait, that was on Twitter, a slightly more informal medium than Facebook. A tweet or follow on Twitter isn’t anywhere near the same as a Facebook friendship – especially when the friend request was sent by the judge, to a family court litigant, during the proceedings. Ex parte? Duh. Just duh. And then the friendly judge, Linda D. Schoonover (she blogged too!...
Trolling isn’t just a game of porn copyrights and patented copy machines – there’s a whole ’nother league of trolling at the top of tech. Trolling, of course, is a matter of opinion. You might think that Righthaven was right, or that Apple v. Samsung has gone on way too long, and that both parties should simply duke it out in the marketplace. (Seriously, we stopped caring last year, but somehow, the battle is still raging on....
Did you know that there is now a National App Day? No, it’s not a real holiday, or even one of those “bank holidays.” Yes, it’s a marketing gimmick created by some company that wants to market their own apps, and Nationaldaycalendar.com, you know that website that tells you what “National fill-in-the-blank Day” it is. Notably, it’s only on year number two. And in order to properly honor these companies’ bold proclamation of December 11 as National App Day, below you can find five types of apps, with no specific app suggestions, that lawyers should probably all be using....
