Kashmir Hill writes:Republican Dan Patrick, who was the sponsor of the bill in the Senate, withdrew it when he realized he would not have the votes he needed to pass it. “There was a time in this state, there was a time in our history, where we stood up to the federal government and we did not cower to rules and policies that invaded the privacy of

The other J-Dog, at Restoring Dignity to the Law, opines that Joseph Rakofsky is also a symptom of one of the fundamental problems of attorney oversupply and writes:I'm ultimately your ally, Joseph, because you're a victim, just like most of our generation of law graduates. To make it into and through law school, you obviously have higher than average intelligence. And it's clear that you have an

When courts summon everyone who meets the minimum requirements for sitting on a jury – that they are county residents at least 18 years old and not convicted felons – there’s a potential of “diluting” jury pools, said Athens attorney Harry Gordon, who served as district attorney for Clarke and Oconee counties for nearly three decades.“There’s a possibility (the new law) could open up jury service to

On Monday, I was hired by a man's father to represent the man on a serious felony case.When I say, "I was hired" here I mean that the father and I agreed on a fee for my representation, and the man approved my representation. We had, in other words, a contract. It was not a written contract, but this is Texas, where we do business on our

In a great and rare example of real judicial activism, the Indiana Supreme Court has, without even being asked, outlawed something that hundreds of years of common law have allowed and the Indiana Legislature has explicitly authorized.And the law of England has so particular and tender a regard to the immunity of a man’s house, that it stiles it his castle, and will never suffer it to

There is a class of lawyer that thinks that there is no bad publicity; that anything that gets their name in the news, regardless of how undistinguished, is worth doing and bragging about. I know one lawyer here in Houston who will take a newsworthy case for a small downpayment, pump the case for publicity, hold press conferences that harm the client’s interests, and then, when the

For your enlightenment and amusement: (More as I find them, or in the pingbacks.) How Young Lawyers Should NOT Conduct Themselves Online « An ... Feeling Left Out - The Criminal Lawyer - Commentary on Law and Policy Simple Justice: Rakofsky v. Internet* MyShingle's Been Sued in Rakofsky v. - My Shingle This Is Not A Post About Joseph Rakofsky « Work Product Resuscitating the Joseph Rakofsky

Rakofsky had a problem.He'd gotten into a bad situation.A newspaper had written about it. People had commented on it on the internet. So he filed a lawsuit.But not this lawsuit (which Scott Greenfield has dubbed "Rakofsky v. Internet"). This one.Not these comments (list at the end of Josh's post).Not this newspaper.Not this situation (this one, if you're interested).And not this Rakofsky.The "bad judgment" gene must be near

Who should decide whether your children may be spanked while at school?Your national government;Your state government;Your local government;Their teachers; orYou?Republicans in the Texas Legislature think the answer should be "your local government." Allowing you to decide whether teachers are allowed to spank  your children, in their view, represents "big government intrusion."Okay, Republicans, let's review: parents are not government. You have been saying for decades that parents, and

A geeky little game I play with lawyers' internet advertising: from one website, I take a phrase that is unlikely to be written more than once intentionally. I google it and see who else is using the same copywriters, or who is plagiarizing whom.So when I saw this South Carolina ethics opinion (Greenfield quoted it at length here) quoting (in Allegation A) several false and misleading statements