Law Students

Impolite Language at Mandatory Settlement Conference May Mean Sanctions

Posted on July 06, 2009
Settlement can occur in a case at any time – from the time before the complaint is filed, during a deposition, in the middle of trial, after the judgment, even after the appeal. Most typically, settlements occur during a formal process known as the Mandatory Settlement Conference...

Conviction Overturned Due to Defendent?s Lawyer Reading Magazines and Napping

Posted on July 01, 2009
On June 15, a New York judge set aside a conviction on the grounds that the defendant’s attorney had provided ineffective assistance of counsel. For future reference, your lawyer may be providing ineffective assistance if he or she is sleeping or reading health-and-fitness magazines during trial...

Blackberry v. Redberry: Trademark Lawyer Drafts a Letter

Posted on June 27, 2009
Let’s say you’re RIM, owner of the BLACKBERRY trademark. After years of trying to get into China market, just as you launch, you discover that a Chinese telecom giant has just launched its own wireless email product named REDBERRY. What do you do? Well, you could contact a great Chinese trademark lawyer like Spring Chang at [...

Planning Your Digital Estate: Dealing With Online Data After Death

Posted on June 25, 2009
All grown-ups know about the importance of estate planning. Even if we don?t always heed the good advice, we know that we need a will, life insurance, and an estate plan, and we know what we need to do to ensure that our money and property is distributed efficiently and in accordance with our [...

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Creative Commons and the Law: Redefining Old Rules of Copyright

Posted on June 22, 2009
Creative Commons is an organization that allows people to issue creative works under a license that allows more flexibility than the default “all rights reserved” of copyright law. Recently, John Dvorak wrote a column asking what good Creative Commons serves...

Filling Out Your Lawyer Shopping List: Chopsticks, Coolers, Alarms, Bags, and More

Posted on June 22, 2009
Is there a lawyer on your shopping list? If I?m anything like other attorneys, we?re a hard group to shop for. So I picked out a few things you might consider for the lawyer on your list. Chopsticks in your pocket To start off this list, here?s a cool set of chopsticks for Chinese-food-loving attorneys...

Ten Rules of Legal Technology for Lawyers

Posted on June 19, 2009
For your consideration:  Ten “Rules” of Legal Technology.  Not many are new, and very few apply only to lawyers, but these are a few more nuggets I’m pulling out of previous posts to fill out my portfolio of speeches I’ve got “in the can...

California Attorney General Brown Issues Directive to Foreclosure Consultants

Posted on June 17, 2009
Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. issued a directive today that forces ?foreclosure consultants? to register with the Attorney General?s office and post a $100,000 bond by July 1, 2009. According to the press release issued by the AG?s office, the foreclosure consultants that fail to comply ?will be in violation of state law, subject [...

Honking a Car Horn is Not Protected Free Speech

Posted on June 16, 2009
In a landmark First Amendment decision that will disappoint drivers everywhere, the Washington Court of Appeals has ruled that honking a car horn is not necessarily protected speech. As you might not expect, the case arose from a dispute about chickens...

New York City Bar Event: Getting Back in the Game

Posted on June 13, 2009
Here’s a heads-up of an event in New York City, hosted by the NYC bar and Vault. The program is specifically designed for those attorneys looking to join a firm, start their own practice, or an alternative legal career. If you’re a NYC Bar member make sure to register using that specific link so [...

What a Criminal Tax Attorney Can Do To Help Get You Out of Trouble

Posted on June 11, 2009
Those who find themselves charged with some kind of criminal tax evasion may also be in the rather urgent need of a highly specialized criminal tax attorney. The reason(s) the tax authorities is after you may not matter that much. Regardless if you willingly filed false returns or if you forgot or simply made [...

LegalZoom Launching Paid Attorney Directory

Posted on June 11, 2009
LegalZoom has a clever plan to create an Attorney Directory for visitors to its web site that supports its market position. LegalZoom now attracts the most web traffic of any legal web site so this is an attempt to squeeze more value from this traffic...

Lawsuit Against Indonesian Mother That Wrote Online Complaint Letter

Posted on May 29, 2009
The case of Prita Mulyasari, a mother of two,  is currently the hot topic among Indonesian bloggers. She wrote an online complaint letter [id] against a private hospital in Tangerang, one of Jakarta’s suburban areas, and now she is being charged for violating chapter 27 verse 3 of the Information and Electronic Transaction Law (UU [...

Protests in Guatemala for Assassinated Lawyer Streamed Live from Laptops in the Streets

Posted on May 12, 2009
Protests are taking place today in Guatemala City to demand justice for an attorney who was assassinated on Sunday, and who claimed in a posthumously released YouTube video taped before his death that if he were to die, it would be at the orders of Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom...

Kazakhstan Approves Draft Law on Internet Regulation

Posted on May 04, 2009
The Kazakh Parliament’s lower chamber has approved the first reading of the draft law on online regulation, which is meant to equate all websites (including blogs, social networks, chatrooms, forums and even online shops) with mass media. On the other hand of this law, the authorities will be granted the right to block any local [...

Black?s Law Dictionary Apple iPhone App: Price Is Too High

Posted on April 27, 2009
If you work in the legal industry and you’re an iPhone or iPod Touch user, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that Black’s Law Dictionary is now available for the iPhone or iPod touch. You may also be aware that West released the new application at a price of $49...

Creative Commons Releases CCo: The Zero Copyright Public Domain License

Posted on March 01, 2009
The CC0 (or CC Zero) tool, which has been in the works since December 2007, was recently quietly released to the public in the format of a full version 1.0. CC0 is not so much a license as it is a waiver. It is an attempt by the Creative Commons organization to improve upon its public [...

Dippin? Dots v. Mosey: The Attorney Fee Appeals

Posted on February 01, 2009
2008-13379/2008-1125 Dippin’ Dots v. Mosey ND/TX 3:96-cv-1959 Dippin’ Dots appeals from Judge Thomas Thrash, Jr.’s orders awarding over $3.2 million in attorney fees to defendants under § 285.  Note that Judge Thrash is from the ND/GA...

The Celebrity California UCLA Medical Center Scandal: Snooping on Celeb Records

Posted on January 30, 2009
A serious breach of doctor-patient confidentiality has occurred within the California Department of Public Health. Sources establish that there are now 127 UCLA Medical Center employees who have made less-than-innocent peeks at celebrity medical profiles...

Federal Agents Allowed to Take Your Laptop: Is This a Necessary Evil?

Posted on January 28, 2009
Crimes committed via cyber transactions have ben rising at an increasingly alarming rate, hence many feel that random inspections and detentions of laptops and other electronic devices are ethical in the name of security. The Department of Homeland Security has released recent security information about the legalities of allowing federal agents to take, search [...

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich Has Been Impeached by a Vote of 114 to 1

Posted on January 23, 2009
The Illinois House of Representatives has formally impeached Governor Rod Blagojevich, with the initial impeachment process having begun on January 10, 2009. This development came after the governor allegedly tried to sell the Senate seat of United States President Barack Obama in replacement of solicitation for individual profit...

Secret Service Informant Turns into Identity Thief: The Brett Shannon Johnson Story

Posted on January 13, 2009
The United States Secret Service has witnessed yet another informant turned criminal. Convicted of credit card and identity theft, Brett Shannon Johnson is now facing six years and three months imprisonment and paying at least $300,000 in restitution...

Rediscovering Absinthe: Removing The Green Fairy From The Banned List

Posted on January 07, 2009
If there is any alcoholic drink in the global market that has been in for a lot of bad rep, then that would be the absinthe, or the green fairy as it is called. For decades this clear, green liquid has been condemned as a vile and vicious drink that can drive a sane [...

The José Medellín Case: When Moral Law and International Law Collides

Posted on January 05, 2009
Should outsiders stepping foot on foreign land be shielded or granted immunity for any atrocious act or heinous crime committed while in that alien territory?  Does crime beget crime? When a balancing of  interests emerges in the practice of criminal law, can one law be truly more dominant than another to merit the promulgation [...

Making an Example Out of Mondello: Feds Cracking Down Hard on Online Offenders

Posted on January 03, 2009
When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989, he certainly did not foresee cyber crimes happening on a daily basis. The fact is: no one did. Yet online offenders are not only thriving in virtual space, they are multiplying as well… also on a daily basis...

The Jammie Thomas Case: RIAA Strikes Hard at Kazaa Users

Posted on November 12, 2008
Intellectual property rights are oftentimes thorny issues in the legal community. Enforcing intellectual property laws are challenging, especially in the digital age, which is marked by instantaneous and wide-scale access to materials deemed owned by certain organizations or companies, with only a few clicks of the mouse...

The Wiretapping Debate: George W. Bush and Barack Obama

Posted on October 30, 2008
Wiretapping was unheard of back in the early days of communication when modern technology was still in its early development phase.  As the years sped by and innovations were churned out, so too did forms of unauthorized communications surveillance arise - ushering in complex cases of rights infringement...

Journalistic Prison: National Intelligence Opinion on Shield Laws

Posted on October 20, 2008
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has very strong opinions on the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007. In fact, he’s passionate enough about the subject to submit an opinion article to the newspaper USA Today. His published article reacts against the proposed legislation of a reporter shield law...

Snooping On You: The Embarq ISP Spying Scandal

Posted on October 17, 2008
Embarq, an internet service provider offshoot from Sprint, has recently admitted to federal lawmakers that it has eavesdropped on the web surfing habits and interests of 26,000 customers in Kansas without due notification. The web snooping was done to test a new and controversial advertising technology that profiles anonymous users’ online activity...

Sprint Ordered To Refund Early Termination Fees to Customers

Posted on October 13, 2008
A termination fee that amounts to about $200 is a large amount of money for most people. Apparently, a state judge has agreed with those hit with this termination fee. Late July of this year, the California Judge Bonnie Sabraw has decreed that Sprint Nextel must refund $18...

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