NSA Surveillance – How Secure Are Your Calls & Emails @ Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce
The Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce is presenting “NSA Surveillance – How Secure Are Your Calls and Emails?” on Wednesday, April 30, 2014. This presentation will explain NSA mass surveillance of email and phone communications and will discuss the security of your personal and business communications. It will provide …
Tor Anonymizer for Lawyers
In the wake of the Snowden disclosures, lawyers and their clients are looking for ways to communicate, research, and generally use the internet without mass surveillance. This article from the April 2014 edition of the Palm Beach Bar Bulletin explains (a) Tor and its practical applications to use the internet …
Accepting E-Coupons or Liking General Mills May Require Arbitration, Waive Litigation
If you use a coupon from the internet, “like” a company on Facebook, enter contests, or otherwise connect with a company like General Mills, any dispute that arises may be forced into arbitration — waiving your right to bring a lawsuit in state or federal court. Per a report from …
CSBS Emerging Payments Task Force: Hearing on Bitcoin / Virtual Currency
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors’ (CSBS) Emerging Payments Task Force is holding a public hearing on Friday, May 16, 2014 in Chicago in order to seek information involved in legacy payment systems, retain payment innovations, and virtual currencies (namely bitcoin). If you’re unfamiliar with CSBS, it is a nationwide …
2013 Florida Discovery Handbook
A reliable resource for all discovery issues, the 2013 edition of the Florida Discovery handbook includes a chapter on e-retention, e-discovery, ESI, and Florida’s new Rules of Civil Procedure. The Handbook is here.
Conflicting Court Opinions on NSA Surveillance
One year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the case of Amnesty International v. Clapper and… few people cared. After all, “Clapper I,” as it became known, held that political activists had no standing to even discover if the government was spying on them. But four months later, the floodgates …
iPhone Apps for Mardi Gras — Or for Fastest Breaking News
Last year, after the Boston Marathon Bombing, I wrote about my experience reading Twitter and listening to Ustream to get news on the manhunt which was coming in 10-30 minutes faster than it reached CNN. A year later, the article is still solid and gives some good resources to say …
Are You a Victim of Revenge Porn?
Revenge porn may or may not be prosecuted in your state, depending upon how they were obtained, whether copyrights exist, and if a video voyeurism statute applies. The site WomenAgainstRevengePorn.com has some step-by-step hints to remove photos. If you have a copy of the nude picture, you can use Google’s …
Government GPS Tracking Since U.S. v. Jones
The Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in U.S. v. Jones involving GPS tracking is trending towards being a landmark decision in how the Court interprets the Fourth Amendment in technology cases. But what has happened to GPS tracking since the Jones decision? This February 2014 article from the Palm Beach …
Using an iPad in Deposition
We see lawyers using iPads during depositions quite often… except they are not the ones asking questions since they are using the iPad to pass the time. This article, from the January 2014 Palm Beach County Bar Association Bulletin, will explain how to question a witness using your iPad and …
Florida Judge Disqualified After Facebook-Friending a Litigant
A Florida judge has been directed to recuse herself by an appellate court after the judge sent a Facebook-friend request to a party during divorce proceedings. Specifically, Judge Linda D. Schoonover was presiding over a divorce and, prior to entry of a final judgment, sent a Facebook-friend request to the …
Supreme Court: If You Possess Any Child Pornography, Do You Owe the Victim Restitution?
The case of Paroline v. United States will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court today. This is one of those cases where emotions are appropriately high but ultimately court observers may find that the Court may dryly rule upon statutory construction issues… meaning grammar. But this case highlights a …
Webinar: Electronic Spying and Tracking Spouses in Divorce Cases: What’s Legal in the Digital World?
Come join us via the internet in a 1.5 hour webinar about spying, surveillance, GPS monitoring, keylogging, and other privacy invasions which occur in the context of divorce cases. While this is discussed in the context of divorces, these tips and techniques arise in our personal and professional lives, regardless …
US Supreme Court Denies Cert in Osama Bin Laden Burial Photos
On January 13, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court denied cert in the case of Judicial Watch v. Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency (scroll down to page 5). This case arose from a FOIA request for photos and/or video of Osama Bin Laden corpse and burial at sea. The Obama …
What is a “Trade Secret” in Florida Discovery? (the existence of free cable tv, apparently)
What’s a “trade secret” for discovery objections and what are the steps for trial court review? In Bright House Networks, LLC v. Albert C. Cassidy et al. (Florida Second District, Jan. 10, 2014), we learn that at least one cable TV provider apparently provides free service to “a significant number …