At Attorney Credits, we recognize that we live in a fast paced, ever-changing world. Every new day brings new inventions, new fads and emerging trends in the practice of law – from utilizing cloud technology to drone law. New CLE Courses: A Practical Approach to 1031 Exchanges A Sneak Peek at the Possible New Rules of Professional Conduct Appellate Oral Arguments: Nuts…
The schools of today are very different than the schools of our youth. Students today are faced with cyberbullying, sexting, Facebook and all the novel problems that our new digital world has created over the last decade. Schools and school districts must know how to address and respond to these new issues created by digital technologies so they can best help students…
Senator Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha took his ongoing fight with the Nebraska State Bar Association to federal court on Wednesday. Senator Lautenbaugh is suing the Nebraska State Bar Association in order to challenge the constitutionality of the mandatory annual dues that lawyers pay to the association.[1] The class action lawsuit seeks to prevent the Nebraska State Bar Association from collecting mandatory bar…
By Jason Castillo, Director of Legal Education Do you think that this Facebook post violates a criminal defendant’s Constitutional right to a fair trial? And should the juror’s Facebook postings protected under the federal Stored Communications Act (SCA)?[1] An appellate court in California has been asked to decide these novel electronic issues.[2] In June, 2010, shortly after the jury convicted the parties involved in…
‘Investigative Blogger’ Crystal Cox was ordered to pay $2.5 million this week for defaming the owner of Oregon investment firm Obsidian Financial. Cox runs various law related blogs like industrywhistleblower.com, judicialhellhole.com, and obsidianfinancesucks.com. The distinction between “journalist” and “blogger” made a very large difference in the case. Because U.S. District Court Judge Marco A. Hernandez found that Cox was not a journalist…
Advertising has been a vexing problem for the legal profession for years now. Before legal advertising was deemed legal with the 1977 Supreme Court decision in Bates v. Arizona, the fear was that advertising would erode notions of professionalism. And since advertising become legal for attorneys, we have had to suffer though the late night ‘Larry Parker got me $2.1 million’ commercials.…
Guest post by Gretchen Shipley With fewer resources than ever before, school district administrators are overwhelmed with trying to keep up with and respond to on-line misconduct by students and teachers. In an era of sexting, cyberbullying, and Facebook, school administrators walk a fine line in trying to provide a safe school environment and at the same time, trying not to infringe…
California jurors that just can’t resist tweeting about that ‘whacked out defense lawyer’ may now end up behind bars for six months. Last week California officially banned jurors from tweeting, texting, or using smartphones to discuss or research details of their case.[1] Authored by Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes and signed by Governor Jerry Brown, AB 141 tries to combat a growing problem. Judges…
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The last few months have seen a number of revolutions and governments topple in the Middle East.…
As Director of Legal Education with Attorney Credits I spend quite a bit of time cruising through cyberspace. Whether it’s looking up attorney information on the Cal Bar website or researching a new potential topic, I have become something of an ‘Internet rat’ in the respect that I have gotten quite good at finding very useful, credible legal information online about continuing…