Crime
-
There’s No More Getting Away With Murder
Between our phones and the multitudes of video cameras, it’s difficult to avoid detection.
-
At Page Vault, we know it’s become vital that legal professionals specializing in cyber harassment understand where the harassment can take place.
-
-
Crime, Small Law Firms, Solo Practitioners, Technology
Is Your Firm Vulnerable To The Recent Ransomware Attack?
Tech columnist Jeff Bennion explains how ransomware works and how you can protect yourself.
-
7th Circuit, Antonin Scalia, Crime, Football, Non-Sequiturs, Religion, Richard Posner, Supreme Court, Technology
* Morgan Lewis approves the Bingham deal, with 227 of the roughly 300 Bingham partners moving over as full partners. Morgan Lewis is calling it a “mass lateral move,” which is the nice way of telling the remaining 70+ partners (and whatever associates and staffers they don’t care to include) to enjoy early retirement. [American Lawyer; WSJ Law Blog]
* A follow up report on the horrific story of the lawyers accused of stabbing a managing partner and his wife. [Washington Post]
* Justice Scalia realizes that strict constructionists are just jerks. [The Onion]
* When the title of the story uses the phrase “super-drunk judge”… [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
* Judge Posner took a detour into Jewish theology, apparently based on scholarly research from “Google” and “Wikipedia.” In his defense though, he thought he was citing the well-known Hebrew texts of “Elgoog” and “Aidepikiw.” [The Jewish Daily Forward]
* It may sound like a terrible horror movie, but “Darkhotel” is actually a campaign of cyberattacks against business executives logging in from their high-end hotels. [Internet, Information Technology & e-Discovery Blog]
* Um, Florida State may care so much about their (number 3) football team they gloss over criminal activity. And this article is NOT about Jameis Winston. [New York Times]
* Linda Greenhouse. Damn. “In decades of court-watching, I have struggled — sometimes it has seemed against all odds — to maintain the belief that the Supreme Court really is a court and not just a collection of politicians in robes. This past week, I’ve found myself struggling against the impulse to say two words: I surrender.” [New York Times]
* If you’re in L.A. tonight, check out the 6th Annual Justice Jam, celebrating “A Tradition of Advocacy” at 5:30 p.m. at La Plaza De Cultura y Artes. The event benefits Community Lawyers, Inc., an organization working to promote access to affordable legal services for low- and moderate-income individuals. [Community Lawyers, Inc.]
-
Copyright, Crime, Intellectual Property, Morning Docket, Technology, Trademarks, Twittering
* A U.S. congressional panel has voted to charge Attorney General Eric Holder with contempt of Congress. [Thomson Reuters News and Insight]
* Paul Ceglia’s motion to stay discovery, pending the resolution of his motion to disqualify Facebook’s attorneys, was denied. In last night’s ruling, the judge was less than sympathetic to Ceglia. [United States District Court Western District of New York]
* We wrote about Thomas Jefferson Law grad Michael Wallerstein‘s struggles with a quarter million dollars in law school debt last year. But it looks like he may have found an unorthodox, if not somewhat dodgy, escape route. On the other hand, maybe he’s gone out of the frying pan into the fire. [New York Post]
* The McCormick legal recruiting firm sued one of its former account managers for violating a noncompete clause. Fun times were had by all no one. [Blog of the Legal Times]
* The lawyer going after The Oatmeal and the charities benefiting from the “Bear Love Cancer Bad” campaign has now subpoenaed Twitter and ArsTechica. That’s pretty impressive for just about a week of work. [ArsTechica]
* An online knitting community feels the wrath of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s intellectual property enforcement team. [Gawker]
-
Crime, Free Speech, Masturbation, Non-Sequiturs, Sex, Technology, United Kingdom / Great Britain
* For some reason, the Supreme Court has hardly ruled on any of the First Amendment cases before it this term. Cue the Twilight Zone theme.[PrawfsBlawg]
* New strategy for closing the gender gap: stop relying on mentors so much. Because, you know, Jack Donaghy can only do so much before Liz Lemon has to start figuring stuff out on her own. [Careerist]
* He’s not saying your antivirus software is useless, it’s just not exactly useful. [Volokh Conspiracy]
* Happy Diamond Jubilee to that elderly English lady who wears big, old-fashioned hats and is always politely waving to large crowds. [Charon QC via Blawg Review]
* A man stole a $4,000 gold plated vibrator, but he forgot to nab the charger. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along. [Legal Juice]
* What not to do in a judge’s chambers. [Greedy Associates]
-
Crime, Jury Duty, Rape, Technology
Child Sexual Assault Conviction Tossed Because of Juror’s ‘Online Cultural Research’
Juror misconduct by internet can lead to mistrials, and it’s becoming increasingly (and unfortunately) more common. Last month the Vermont Supreme Court overturned an unsettling child sexual abuse conviction because the juror conducted his own research about the Somali Bantu culture central to the parties in the case. What a mess…
-
Crime, Divorce Train Wrecks, Document Review, iPhone, Technology
This Might Be the Most Tumultuous Divorce of All Time
For a long time, I have been a staunch advocate of putting passwords on all electronic devices — laptops, phones, tablets, etc. There’s no reason to leave your private life or sensitive business data accessible to any schmo who might have access to your phone, just because you’re too lazy to spend three seconds typing […]
-
Bad Ideas, Crime, Facebook, Rank Stupidity, Social Networking Websites, Technology
Wannabe Rapper Convicted of Making Criminal Threats on Facebook
I am constantly amazed at how dimwitted some criminals can be. We have covered them in these pages before, from the guy who left evidence of his violent plans open on his desktop, to the robber who reached out to his victim via Facebook. On Thursday in Pennsylvania, a federal jury convicted Anthony D. Elonis […]
-
-
Bad Ideas, Crime, Cyberlaw, Free Speech, Police, Technology
San Francisco Subway Shuts Off Cell Service, Hackers Get Angry
I rode BART into San Francisco on Monday for dinner. As our train approached the Embarcadero station, the driver came on the intercom. “We aren’t stopping at this station. Don’t want to drop you in the middle of a protest.” So my roommate and I got off a block later and backtracked. We encountered a […]
-
California, Crime, Cyberlaw, Facebook, Privacy, Social Networking Websites, Technology
Don’t Mess With Your Friend’s Facebook; It Might Be a Felony
When I was in college, it was not altogether uncommon for people to leave their laptops unattended with their Facebook accounts still logged in. It was not altogether uncommon for an enterprising prankster to creatively twiddle with said account. A little switch of sexual preference here, a mildly offensive profile picture there, and maybe a […]
-
FBI Rolls Out the Hacker Paddywagon in Nationwide Raid
It’s been an unusually exciting month in the legal tech world. Several lawyers have been charged with (and cleared of) upsetting electronic crimes. An Am Law 100 firm got sued for allegedly screwing up e-discovery. I haven’t even had the time or need to write the same vague jibber-jabber about Google+ that everyone else on […]
-
Crime, Prisons, State Judges, Technology, Trials, Videos
Video Arraignments Save Money and Make Judges Feel Safer
Maybe I’m just naive, but I find the concept of conducting any courtroom business via video enthralling but also a bit unnerving. It seems so inconsistent with the mythical and timeless ideals of the hallowed halls of justice, yadda yadda yadda. Whether we like it or not, however, video conferencing is creeping into courthouses across […]
-
Bad Ideas, Crime, Facebook, Social Networking Websites, Technology
Do Your Facebook Pictures Prove You’re A Criminal?
File this one under “Disappointing, but not really surprising.” According to a new study, it turns out that quite a few law students not only break the law, but also post the evidence on Facebook. We’ve already covered why this is a bad idea. For some reason I keep hoping Facebook has been around long […]