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Legal News

Fastcase Legal News

Covers items of interest for lawyers and other legal professionals, legal technology, legal research, firm life, and culture.

Post Frequency: 2.8/day

Last Entry: September 03, 2020 at 08:30:12

Conviction a la My Space

Posted on October 16, 2009
Last month, we blogged about the ethical pitfalls of using social networks to gather evidence. Once such evidence has been gathered (ethically), is it admissible? According to the Indiana Supreme Court, it is.Recently, The Wall Street Journal Law Blog featured the Indiana Supreme Court's decision in Clark v...

Are "Superb" Civil Rights Lawyers Entitled to Larger Fees?

Posted on October 15, 2009
The 11th Circuit Court Appeals certainly thinks so. In Perdue v. Kenny A., the 11th Circuit upheld the district court's $4.5 million upward adjustment of attorney's fees based on the "superb" lawyering by the plaintiffs' attorneys. Perdue was a 42 U...

Fastcase Docket Review: A Weekly Round-up of Notable Lawsuits

Posted on October 09, 2009
TGIF! Get your weekend started with our first ever Fastcase Docket Review - a round-up of notable (and sometimes humorous) lawsuits filed around the country. Earlier this week, NBC San Diego reported that a number of environmental groups including the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit to protect the endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep...

Legal Ethics Pitfalls of Social Networks

Posted on October 08, 2009
By now it has become standard practice for many law enforcement authorities to mine social networking sites like Facebook and My Space for pictures of folks engaged in unlawful activity (e.g. college students engaged in under-age drinking or minors unlawfully possessing firearms) in order to bring charges...

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Legal Quote of the Day: Publius Syrus

Posted on October 08, 2009
Guilty men beg, the innocent are indignant. ~ Publius Syrus

FTC Cracks Down on Payola in the Blogosphere

Posted on October 06, 2009
Under the FTC's latest revisions to its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, bloggers who fail to disclose payments they have received from the subjects of their reviews may face penalties of up to $11,000 per violation...

Watch C-SPAN's Supreme Court Documentary Online

Posted on October 06, 2009
C-SPAN is running a program special focusing on the Supreme Court this week. They've developed an interesting and engaging 90 minute documentary of the Supreme Court with interviews both of active and retired justices. Watch it at the link below: C-SPAN: The Supreme Court: Home to America's Highest Court Source: C-SPAN

Supreme Decision: Gaming the Supreme Court?

Posted on October 05, 2009
Who is the newest female Supreme Court justice? If you guessed Justice Sonia Sotomayor, then you guessed wrong. We are talking about Justice Irene Waters, a member of the fictional high court in ?Supreme Decision?, a brand new online game developed by Our Courts...

White House Clamps Down on Texting While Driving By Federal Employees

Posted on October 02, 2009
On Wednesday evening, President Obama signed an executive order banning texting while driving by federal workers. Specifically, the order prohibits federal employees from texting while driving government vehicles as well while driving their own vehicles if they are using cell phones paid for by the government...

Second Amendment Redux: McDonald v. Chicago Roundup

Posted on October 01, 2009
Less than 48 hours after the Supreme Court granted certiorari in McDonald v. Chicago (08-1521), the blogosphere is already reverberating with reactions. The question presented in McDonald is ?Whether the Second Amendment is incorporated into the Due Process Clause or the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment so as to be applicable to the States, thereby invalidating ordinances prohibiting possession of handguns in the home...

Oregon State Bar Makes the Switch to Fastcase!

Posted on October 01, 2009
Welcome to members of the Oregon State Bar -- in partnership with Fastcase, you now get access to the smartest tools for online legal research!This exclusive member benefit includes Fastcase?s patented online legal research system, the smartest set of tools for online research...

The Law of the Lawless: The Pirate Code

Posted on September 30, 2009
Liberty. Equality. Fraternity. These high-minded ideals may not be the first three words that come to mind when you think about pirates. However, a new book, ?The Invisible Hook? by economist Peter T. Leeson, explains that a desire to maximize profits led pirates to develop an organized and efficient form of self-governance embodying these ideals...

Finding Pro Bono Opportunities - Get Started Here!

Posted on September 30, 2009
Looking for a way to contribute? Take a look at your state's pro bono opportunity guide. Here are a couple of links to help you get started: Nationwide National Pro Bono Opportunity Guide By State Oregon State Bar Pro Bono Program New York State Pro Bono Opportunities New Jersey Pro Bono Opportunities Guide ISBA Pro Bono Opportunities Florida Pro Bono Opportunities By Practice Area American Immigration Lawyers Association International Law Civil Rights Or, go to Google and search for: "pro bono" and opportunity and your state

Hate Twitter? Plato Felt the Same Way About the Written Word.

Posted on September 28, 2009
Salon recently interviewed Dennis Baron, a professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Baron?s new book ?A Better Pencil? aims to put Facebook, Google, and texting into a historical context in order to show that social media isn?t ruining the world...

New AIDS Vaccine Generates Helpful Questions

Posted on September 26, 2009
The new AIDS vaccine, RV 144 was declared a success after its six-year clinical trial. Vaccinated volunteers contracted AIDS1/3 less often than those given a placebo. This was welcome news after twenty years of vaccine failures...

Oakland Neighborhood Association Sues Lehman for Clean Up and Nuisance

Posted on September 26, 2009
The Sequoyah Hills/Oak Knoll Neighborhood Association (totaling 4500 homeowners) filed claims in New York Bankruptcy Court this week looking damages related to lost funds that were to back the redevelopment of the old Oak Knoll Naval Hospital. One month after Lehman declared bankruptcy last September, the developer stopped preparing the buildings for demolition...

Witnesses Believe Doctored Video Over Memory, Study Shows

Posted on September 23, 2009
A recent study in Applied Cognitive Science shows that people believed the video taped account of an event even when it differs from the reality that they witnessed. In a time when even experts have trouble telling when a video has been doctored, this could present an evidence problem...

Facebook No Longer Fined for Failing to Release Photos

Posted on September 16, 2009
The Virginia Workers Compensation Commission recently announced that it would stop its $200-a-day fine on Facebook for refusing to comply with an airline?s subpoena for information about a flight attendant who used to work for the airline. The airline claimed that Facebook photos proved that the ex-flight attendant had posted holiday photos...

The Green Dam is Crumbling in China

Posted on September 15, 2009
The Chinese government had mandated that a filtering software be put on to all computers sold in the country earlier this year. The Green Dam software prevented sites from being viewed and is essentially a filter blocking access to what the Chinese government deemed inappropriate material...

Notable Morning Stories ....

Posted on September 14, 2009
Russian cab driver gets 7 years in prison for treason ~ RIA Novosti Turn an Email Outage into a Productivity Boost ~ Harvard Business Former Hague official found guilty of contempt for book revelation ~ France24 Google Now in XXL ~ The New York Times

New Rules for Offering Music Online in China

Posted on September 09, 2009
China's government is requiring music sites to seek approval from censors for all foreign songs distributed on the Internet. China's Ministry of Culture is requiring all music providers out of China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan submit lyrics translated into Chinese (along with other documents) for every song they wish to sell in China to prevent the "intermingling of good and bad content" online...

Fan Removed from Yankees Stadium for Using the Bathroom During "God Bless America" Settles for $22,000

Posted on July 08, 2009
Without admitting liability, the Yankees, NYPD, and NYC settled with Bradford Campeau-Laurion, the man removed from Yankee Stadium for attempting to use the bathroom during "God Bless America." Campeau-Laurion will be paid $10,001 and his attorneys (the New York Civil Liberties Union) will be paid $12,000 as a part of the settlement...

Google Operating System (OS) Announced

Posted on July 08, 2009
Google has announced their intention to release an operating system built off their speedy Chrome browser. The Google OS will be based up a linux kernel and will be developed in tandem with the open source community.If you are not using Chrome, you can download it here...

Notable Morning Stories ....

Posted on July 07, 2009
How to vanquish mobile spam ~ Cnet Automakers? Swift Cases in Bankruptcy Shock Experts ~ The New York Times Justice Deptartment eyeing telecom probe ~ Reuters Amazon Patent Details Ad-Supported Kindle Books ~ Gizmodo

Fastcase Announces Law Librarian Trivia Contest

Posted on July 07, 2009
Starting tomorrow, Fastcase will hold a trivia contest for law librarians attending the American Association of Law Libraries conference (AALL) in Washington, DC.About the Trivia Contest:The contest begins at 1:23 pm eastern on Wednesday, July 8 and will lead up to the AALL annual conference starting July 25...

Ethics Watch: May a Lawyer Examine Metadata Contained in Electronic Documents?

Posted on July 06, 2009
What is Metadata? Metadata is "data about data." It's hidden in most of your documents and contains information about the document's history. For example, if you prepare a document and send it to colleagues who amend and comment on the document, and you then email the document to a third party, that person may be able to "mine" the document and view the amendments which were later deleted...

Notable Morning Stories ....

Posted on July 06, 2009
Smaller Law Firms Get More Big Company Work, Survey Finds ~ ABA Journal Lawyers set to square off over Michael Jackson estate ~ Reuters Court Ruling Clears Path for G.M. to Restructure ~ The New York Times Carbon ring storage promises 1,000 times higher memory density ~ Engadget

Seven Facts About the Statue of Liberty: Happy 4th of July!

Posted on July 04, 2009
Happy Fourth of July! Today is the day that visitors will again be allowed to climb up into the crown of the Statue of Liberty. (The statue had been closed for security reasons following September 11.) In celebration - we bring you these: "7 Obscure Facts About The Statue Of Liberty...

Free Book of the Month: The Art of Cross Examination

Posted on July 01, 2009
Click here to download.Source: Google Books

Law Technology News: "Fastcase has the clear edge."

Posted on June 30, 2009
Law Technology News today ran an in-depth comparison of Fastcase and Casemaker - the two most popular legal research services offered by state bar associations - and concluded that although both are valuable, "Fastcase has the clear edge."The point-by-point comparison, by legal journalist Robert J...

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