The recent December 17, 2015 opinion in Kelly Forman v. Mark Henkin (NY Appellate Div., First Dept. 2015), provides an otherwise unremarkable discovery opinion except for the dissent, which argues that New York courts are imposing a higher burden on social media discovery.   This has led to a fair amount …

When most people think of data breach lawsuits, they think of large class action cases and settlements like Remijas v. Neiman Marcus and Target. But the vast majority of courts are denying class certification in cyber security cases. Within nearly a week of each other, two federal courts in New …

The FTC recently announced settlement with Henry Schein Practice Solutions for $250,000 in exchange for resolving the FTC’s claims that Schein falsely advertised that its dental office management software provided encryption. You can read the article, “The Database Software says it is ‘encrypted’… but is it?” here at McDonald Hopkins’ …

A January 2016 opinion from the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sheds more light on the “public-benefit factor” regarding entitlement to attorney fees under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) than it does provide information about the subject of the case: the Kennedy Assassination. For more than …

If you log onto the once-popular virtual currency exchange, Cryptsy, you can see the virtual version of tumbleweeds blowing through a western town in the form of “volume – 00.00” across the board. On January 14, 2016, the host “Big” Paul Vernor posted this blog post stating that hackers had …

The First District Court of Appeal, for the second time, has called out a conflict with the Fourth DCA regarding how strictly the rule must be construed. In Colvin v. North Florida Women’s Care, a plaintiff served on the defendant a proposal for settlement for $20,000.  She proceeded to trial …

You likely have heard that the FAA has required every drone to be registered.  And, especially with the holidays, that particular task may have fallen down your list of things to do.  Change that. Drone registration is mandatory.  Even the large amateur drone association(s) finally concluded that everyone should go …

During the May 2014 Billboard Music Award show, a hologram of Michael Jackson wowed the crowd as he/it performed the song, “Slave to the Rhythm.”  You can see the performance here. Lawsuits regarding the hologram arose between two companies involving patent and business tort disputes.  According to the allegations, Alkiviades David, …

Posting an online review of a lawyer’s services which include false claims that the lawyer lied about attorney fees and falsified a contract is libel per se, ruled the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal on January 6, 2016. Even though the parties had settled their case and at least …

According to a recent study, 42% of Florida lawyers used LinkedIn for professional purposes.  An ABA study suggests 90% of firms of all size have a LinkedIn profile. Two helpful but conflicting ethics opinions regarding lawyers’ use of LinkedIn have come from the New York City Bar (“NYC Bar”) and …

In 2011, 2014, and (now) 2016, I have written columns for the Palm Beach Bar regarding how jurors use technology. 2016 is different. The question is no longer whether jurors are using technology (they are), the question is what is their relationship with technology.  Even if someone is extremely tech-savvy, they may …

While the Zapruder film has become a widely-recognized piece of history, the Nix film has been its silent step-sister.  Abraham Zapruder, of course, shot the sixteen second film from atop the Grassy Knoll which captured the initial and fatal shot of President Kennedy.  Mr. Nix was standing on the opposite …

This one page article explains the 9 most common ways your clients and companies get hacked — in a single page Palm Beach Bar article. Don’t know a DDOS from a SQL attack? Brute force or a reverse brute force. Read the kama sutra of hacking-for-lawyers, here.

The recent cases of FTC v. Wyndham and In Re TerraComm and YourTel America, we have seen that federal government agencies are pursuing companies who have negligent cybersecurity standards — and the government is winning. In fact, the government need not point to specific statutory violations to win these cybersecurity cases …

In light of the rulings in FTC v Wyndham and In Re TerraCom and YourTel, it is evident that government agencies are taking the position that they can pursue “common law” cyber security negligence claims rather than relying on standards set by regulation or statute.  At least some of these …