Monthly Archives: May 2014

The Reason Why You Should Use Evernote.

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Evernote, Law Office Management, Legal Technology, Technology, Time Management

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A Great Free Guide for Utilizing Evernote, by Jim Calloway, Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Blog

http://www.lawpracticetipsblog.com/2014/05/great-evernote-guide.html

Here’s a great explanation of why you need to use Evernote.

‘Evernote is software that is a digital extension to your biological memory. Remembering ideas becomes trivial….The intellectual demands on professional life can be overwhelming. Great minds are best deployed to the intractable problems to hand. But life is made up of lots of little things that have to be remembered. Evernote stops you wasting effort on remembering all those little things, and liberates your imagination.’

That explanation was written by Philippe Doyle Gray, a barrister from Sydney, Australia. I was privileged to sit in on the session he taught at ABA TECHSHOW on How to Optimize Evernote. He is now sharing his paper and his training videos on how to use Evernote with the world. Sometimes a picture, or a short video, really is worth a thousand words. Check out his online collection of Evernote resources for lawyers. We believe that Philippe was the first Austrailian to give a presentation for ABA TECHSHOW and my guess is that this will not be his last time. . . .

Using Trial Graphics For Powerful Court Presentations.

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Jury Persuasion, Legal Technology, Presentations, Technology, Trial Tips and Techniques

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Part IV – Trial Graphic Fundamentals: Guidelines for Trial, by  Adam Bloomberg, Managing Director -Visual Communications, Litigation Insights Blog

http://bit.ly/1juynu0

Please note that this is fourth in a series, and take a look at the three that come before it. -CCE

This blog is the fourth in a series that focuses on the fundamentals of trial graphics. Its content is based on a program Adam Bloomberg, Litigation Insights’ Managing Director for Visual Communications, co-presented with Bryant Spann, Partner at Thomas Combs & Spann PLLC, at the 2014 Midyear Meeting of the International Association of Defense Counsel in Carlsbad, California.

Graphics are powerful, because they have the ability to communicate more clearly and concisely than words. Depending on how that power is channeled, however, a graphic can either help or harm your case. The following tips for developing graphics can significantly improve them for use at trial. . . .

PDF File Reduction Lifesaver For E-Filing Restriction.

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Adobe Acrobat, Courts, E-Filing, Legal Technology

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Reducing The File Size Of A PDF The Fast, Easy Way, by Ernie Svenson, PDF for Lawyers

http://pdfforlawyers.com/category/e-filing/

Lawyers sometimes need to slim down the size of a PDF, often to meet an e-filing restriction (i.e. where a court limits the size of files uploaded to its servers).

There are two ways to reduce the file size of an existing PDF: (1) the Reduced Size option, and (2) the Optimized PDF option. . . .

Rhode Island Supreme Court Has No Problem With Impeachment.

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Assault, Criminal Law, Evidence, Impeachment, Rhode Island Supreme Court

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Impeachable?: Supreme Court of Rhode Island Finds No Problem With Impeachment Via Old, Similar Conviction, Editor:  Colin Miller, EvidenceProf Blog

http://bit.ly/1oEpyhi

[S]o, assume that a defendant is charged with resisting arrest, and the trial is held in 2012. Also, assume that the defendant has the following convictions: assault on a police officer (1987), a 1982 assault on a police officer (1982), and simple assault (1982). If the defendant files a motion in limine, seeking to preclude the prosecution from introducing evidence of these convictions into evidence, how should the court rule? . . . .

Are Patent Rights A Marital Asset?

10 Saturday May 2014

Posted by in Divorce, Family Law, Intellectual Property, Marital Asset, Patent Law

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Patent Rights are a Marital Asset and Non-Inventing Spouse is a Co-Owner, by Dennis Crouch, Patently-O Blog

http://bit.ly/1mce19e

James Taylor v Taylor Made Plastics (Fed. Cir. 2014)

I should note here that this case is neither about the musician or the golf club company. Rather, it is about the now fractured Taylor family and their patented pipe plugs. I discussed the district court decision earlier here.

Several years ago James T. invented storm drain equipment and obtained a patent in his name only. U.S. Patent No. 5,806,566. When he and his wife Mary T. later divorced, the divorce court ordered “equitable distribution of marital property” with Mary T. receiving 60% of proceeds from the patent and James T. receiving 40%. The divorce court seemingly only dealt with equitable title in the form of rights-to-proceeds and not with legal title to the patent itself. And, in particular, the divorce court did not identify who held the exclusive rights associated with the patent. . . .

GoodReader4 App for iPads Adds PDF Page Management.

10 Saturday May 2014

Posted by in Adobe Acrobat, Apple, Apps, iPad, iPhones, Legal Technology

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Review: GoodReader 4 — Next Generation Of Goodreader Adds PDF Page Management, by Jeff Richardson, iPhone J.D.

http://bit.ly/1uOPxXx

GoodReader has long been one of the most useful apps on my iPad because it makes it easy to organize documents into folders and read them on the iPad.  I have folders for each of my cases, sub-folders within each case folder for Correspondence, Pleadings, Exhibits, etc., and I sync all of my non-privileged documents to and from my iPad using Dropbox.  It’s a good system that has worked well for me, and I know countless other attorneys who do the same thing.

Yesterday, the next generation of GoodReader was introduced.  It is a new app called GoodReader 4, and you need to pay for it.  It is currently on sale for $2.99, but after an introductory period the price will go up to $6.99.  Unlike the prior version of GoodReader, GoodReader 4 is a universal app so you can buy it once and use it on both your iPhone and your iPad.  You can tell the old app from the new app because the old app icon was green whereas the new one has an aqua gradient  The old version of GoodReader was also updated yesterday to version 3.21, and you need to get that update in order to migrate your documents from the old version of GoodReader to GoodReader 4. . . .

Include Juror Background Profiles For Strong Trial Strategy.

08 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in Jury Persuasion, Jury Selection, Trial Tips and Techniques, Voir Dire

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Jury Research Education Series | Developing a Juror Profile: Having a Strong Foundation, by Merrie Jo Pitera, Ph.D-CEO, Litigation Insights

http://bit.ly/1ipKpno

Ultimately, a panel of jurors will decide your case. Knowing as much as possible about those jurors is therefore a critical element of trial strategy. Developing a juror profile you can requires gathering information about the characteristics of pro-plaintiff/pro-defense jurors in a scientifically valid manner. Just asking staff at your firm or a group of friends what they think doesn’t give you reliable information. The most reliable tool to develop your profile is based on the background questionnaire used in your jury research projects. In this blog post, we discuss how results from a questionnaire can serve as the foundation for your juror profile and how to design a well-constructed background questionnaire that gives you information you can trust. . . .

Legal Analysis & Writing Links.

05 Monday May 2014

Posted by in Acronyms, ALWD, Bad Legal Writing, Citations, Internet, Legal Analysis, Legal Directory, Legal Writing, Legalese, Quotations, References, Research, The Bluebook

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Legal Analysis and Writing, Grammar & Writing Resources, Lewis & Clark Law School

http://bit.ly/1kFtlHk

A nice assortment of writing resources.  -CCE

Georgetown’s Legal Ethics Research Guide.

05 Monday May 2014

Posted by in Legal Ethics

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Legal Ethics Research Guide, Georgetown Law Library

http://bit.ly/1mx4ms9

This guide focuses on the codes of professional ethics and ethics opinions available from the American Bar Association and various state bar associations. Contents of this guide include Codes of Professional Ethics and ethics opinions.

Introduction

When researching issues of legal ethics, you will need to consult sources beyond the familiar cases and statutes, such as codes of professional ethics and ethics opinions issued by state and national bar associations. To assist you with your research, there are numerous secondary sources that focus specifically on issues in legal ethics. These secondary sources, including books and journal articles, are designed to help you understand the issues and locate primary materials.

This guide will give you an overview of the materials available, both print and online, that you will need to conduct your research in legal ethics. Locations of materials in the library are given. . . .

U.S. Supreme Court Amends Four Hearsay Evidence Rules.

05 Monday May 2014

Posted by in Court Rules, Evidence, Rule 801, Rule 803 Exception

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Four Amendments: Supreme Court Amends Four Federal Rules of Evidence, by Evidence ProfBlogger, Editor: Colin Miller, EvidenceProf Blog

http://bit.ly/1ifPnD6

The Supreme Court has approved four amendments to the Federal Rules of Evidence that will take effect on December 1, 2014 unless Congress takes another action. The Rules altered? Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(1)(B) and Federal Rules of Evidence 803(6), (7), and (8).

Apple Loses Billions In Damages To Samsung In 2nd Patent-Infringement Lawsuit.

04 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Intellectual Property, Patent Law

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Jury Finds Samsung Infringed Some Apple Patents, Must Pay $120M In Damages, by Martyn Williams, PC World News

http://bit.ly/1kDlj2L

Apple was dealt a blow in its second major patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung when a Silicon Valley jury awarded the iPhone maker damages of just US$119.65 million for Samsung’s infringement of several of its smartphone patents.

Apple had requested $2.2 billion in damages.

The decision by the eight-person jury came at the end of the third full day of deliberations. . . .

Microsoft Office for iPad

04 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in In Custodia Legis

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I’ll be interested to see how well the apps work, and whether it lives up to its promises. -CCE

Litig8rTech's avatarLITIG8R TECH


If you have been waiting for Microsoft to deliver Word, Excel and PowerPoint to iPad, your wait finally came to an end about a month ago.

From the developer:

View original post 127 more words

Basics of Legal Research – And More.

02 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Case Law, Federal Law, Law Libraries, Legal Encyclopedia, Mandatory Law, Primary Law, Regulations, Research, State Law, Statutes

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Basics of Legal Research, Cornell University Law Library

http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/whatwedo/researchguides/basics.cfm

If you are not familiar with the Cornell Law Library and the Cornell Legal Information Institute, you are missing a fantastic, free legal research honey pot.  This link will take you to Cornell’s basic legal research guide. If you know nothing about legal research, this is a great introduction. If your legal research is rusty, this is an excellent refresher.

But we are just getting started. The Legal Information Institute (LLI) (http://www.law.cornell.edu/) is one of the top online law libraries – and it’s free. Even though it’s free, I encourage you to make a donation. To understand why, please go to http://www.law.cornell.edu/lii/about-lii. There is no question that you definitely get a big bang for your buck. -CCE

Trailer Park Duck Is Repeat Offender With Dangerous Propensities.

02 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Animal Law, Damages, Litigation, Personal Injury, Punitive Damages, Torts

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Lawsuit Alleges Duck Attack, by Kevin Underhill, Lowering The Bar Blog

http://www.loweringthebar.net/2014/04/duck-attack.html

KATU in Portland reports that a woman who says she was attacked by a duck at a trailer park has sued the duck’s owner.

Plaintiff alleges in part that said duck was a repeat offender.

According to the complaint (which KATU was kind enough to post), Cynthia Ruddell alleges that she was just stepping out of her motor home ‘on or about May 7, 2012,’ when she was suddenly attacked by a local duck. . . .

Big Banks, Big Business, And The DOJ.

02 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Consumer Law, Contract Law, Criminal Law, Intentional Misrepresentation, SEC, White Collar Crime

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Big Banks, Business and Butter: Highlights From Our Q&A on Corporate Impunity, by Blair Hickman, ProPublica

http://bit.ly/1fCRh1R

Reporter Jesse Eisinger offers his thoughts on the lack of white-collar prosecutions, journalism and the Green Bay Packers.

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I don’t think enough attention has been paid to the fact that the white collar laws are inadequate, so there haven’t been many proposed remedies. One thing the DoJ should use is the ‘willful blindness’ or ‘conscious disregard’ charge. As Judge Jed Rakoff wrote recently in the New York Review of Books: Such a charge ‘is a well-established basis on which federal prosecutors have asked juries to infer intent, including in cases involving complexities, such as accounting rules, at least as esoteric as those involved in the events leading up to the financial crisis. And while some federal courts have occasionally expressed qualifications about the use of the willful blindness approach to prove intent, the Supreme Court has consistently approved it.’ . . .

The Strategy of Dissociation – Don’t Go To Trial Without It.

02 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Closing Argument, Cross-Examination, Defense Counsel, Direct Examination, Jury Persuasion, Opening Argument, Trial Tips and Techniques

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Dissociate (to Separate Bad Image from Good Image in Litigation), by Dr. Ken Broda-Bahm, Persuasive Litigator Blog

http://bit.ly/1lJsEka

At the start of their game last Sunday, members of the L.A. Clippers ceremonially left their warmup jackets in a heap in center court, and warmed up with their shirts turned inside-out in order to conceal the name and logo of the team. This act came in response to recorded comments by team owner Donald Sterling telling his girlfriend ‘not to bring them [‘black people’] to my games.’ The response by the players was a move of dissociation: a way to say “We are not that,” and to clarify, in no uncertain terms, that the owner’s racism does not represent the team. This need to dissociate – to separate one meaning from another – is common in all communication situations, including those that involve the potential for litigation. Recently, for example, General Motors made the bold move of offering a full and complete apology for its inaction in addressing a long-term problem with its ignition switches, but in subsequent congressional testimony, CEO Mary Barra was careful to draw a distinction between the ‘Old General Motors’ prebankruptcy, and the ‘New General Motors’ that today stands before congress, court, and consumers.

Dissocation plays a role in lower profile cases across the country as well. A range of litigation-relevant situations create a need to communicate that ‘we are not this.’ Like most good persuasive strategies, the notion has its roots in rhetoric, the ancient and modern study of the best available means of influence. But the idea is more than just ivory tower philosophy.  Dissociation also translates into some important practical strategies worth considering by trial attorneys in a number of situations. This post takes a look at the underpinning, as well as the concrete strategies of dissociation. . . .

Cloud App Used By Police and Public To Catch The Bad Guys.

02 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Android Phones, Apps, Cell Phones, Clouds, Criminal Law, iPhones, Law Enforcement

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New Tool Helps Police Crowdsource Evidence, by Tami Abdollah, Associated Press, posted by Forensic Magazine

http://bit.ly/1lJps89

An annual spring party in a Southern California beach town devolved into a riot last month when revelers turned violent, rocking cars, smashing windows and throwing rocks. Dozens were injured and about 50 people ended up in the hospital, including several police officers.

Today, as authorities seek help with the investigation in Isla Vista, they’re employing a new online and mobile app that designers say was created specifically for this type of situation.

‘When the public really wants to catch these bad guys as badly as we do, this is the mechanism,’ said Los Angeles Sheriff’s Cmdr. Scott Edson, who helped conceptualize the system in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings. ‘They can help us by sending us pictures and video.’

The innovation, known as LEEDIR, the Large Emergency Event Digital Information Repository, pairs an app with cloud storage to help police use smartphones as tools to gather evidence. . . .

Mediation and Settlement Presentation and Strategies.

02 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Brief Writing, Legal Argument, Legal Writing, Mediation

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The Best Strategies to Present Your Case In Mediation, by Derek Ryan, Cogent Legal Blog

http://bit.ly/R9l7zU

Over the last 10 years, there’s been a significant shift in the way mediations are conducted. When I first started in the field, mediation briefs would come in via fax the night before the mediation. The mediator would begin the case with a joint conference where each side would make an opening statement, similar to trial, and after these openings the mediator would often have to spend the rest of the afternoon defusing the tension created by a joint conference.

There are two important aspects of developing presentations for mediation:  (1) Communicate with the mediator before the mediation; and (2) develop a presentation that will inform but not inflame the opposing party. Remember that mediation is voluntary, and the goal is not to make the other side walk out. The goal is to get the case settled in the best way for your client.

In this blog post, I’ll cover several strategies to best present your case at mediation, including dos and don’ts for using graphics and technology to enhance your results. . . .

Breach of Contract Claims Against Allstate by Its Employees.

01 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in Contract Law, EEOC, Employment Contracts, Employment Law, Intentional Misrepresentation

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New York Times Report on Litigation Challenging an Allstate Waiver Agreement, by Jeremy Telman, Contracts Prof Blog

http://bit.ly/1kwF7GI

According to this article in today’s New York Times, 6,200 Allstate employees, who joined its Neighborhood Agents Program in the 1980s and 1990s, were called into meetings in 1999 at which they were told that they would now proceed as independent contractors, forfeiting health insurance, their retirement accounts or profit-sharing, and terminating the accrual of their pension benefits.   If they wanted to continue to sell Allstate insurance, they had to sign waivers in which they agreed not to sue the insurer.  Thirty-one agents signed but have now sued nonetheless, alleging age discrimination and breach of contract.

They sued thirteen years ago, but the case is still far from over.  They are still seeking class certification.  The Times article indicates that cases such as this one are hard to win, but the judge in this case has already stated that those that signed the waivers were made substantially worse off, that Allstate’s claimed corporate reorganization was actually a disguised staff reduction, and that Allstate’s conduct was ‘self-serving and, from most perspectives, underhanded.’  In addition, Allstate seems to have misrepresented to the agents the consequences of not signing the waiver, having told the agents that they would be barred for life from soliciting business from their former customers.  Allstate has already paid $4.5 million to settle an age-discrimination claim brought by the EEOC on behalf of 90 of the agents.