And we have a new favourite politician : Meet Dr. "Goodluck Jonathan" Nigeria's new acting President who assumed powers today after President Umaru Yar'Adua, who has been ailing and out of the country for the last two months, called the BBC and said he was in Saudi Arabia recovering from a heart ...

On February 9, 2010, the medical malpractice lawsuit of Marshall v. Moniz, No. CL08-2018 in Circuit Court for the County of York and the Town of Poquoson, Virginia, was heard on the Defendants’ three dilatory pleadings. Plaintiff alleges that various surgery-related acts and/or omissions caused him ...

In twin February 4, 2010 decisions, the Third Circuit reached opposite rulings on whether a school violated a student's First Amendment rights by disciplining him for creating a defamatory MySpace page about the school principal. In both cases, a student used an off-campus computer to create the pr ...

A recent post-Koken decision has been handed down in Philadelphia County in the case of Zerggan v. Rietman and Nationwide Insurance, No. 0906 o1752 June Term 2009 (Phila. Co. Jan. 20, 2010 McInerney, J.). Judge Patricia McInerney sustained the preliminary objections filed by the tortfeasor and trans ...

Mike Masnik of the Techdirt blog asks why shouldn't jurors be allowed to do a little online research outside the courtroom. His view is since jurors come to the table with their outside experiences, biases and prejudices, what harm would it do to allow the smart ones to use a little technology to ai ...

By –       Kurt R. Karst Two recent rulings out of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania stemming from allegations about antitrust violations from the submission of citizen petitions have once again raised the issue of so-called “sham” citizen petitions and, insofa ...

Houston lawyer Harry C. Arthur’s courthouse battle with Christ Church Cathedral and The Beacon, a homeless day center in downtown Houston, is over. This morning, 234th District Judge Reece Rondon of Houston signed an order granting Arthur’s motion for a...

Diane Karpman, a legal ethics expert, has the following reminders for “tuning up” attorney-client retention agreements: Lawyers should consult the State Bar fee forms on the California State Bar website, because they represent the “gold standard”—tested, blessed and familiar to fee arbitrat ...

As attorneys, mediators or negotiators we are in the communication business. Our success or failure is directly related to what we say and how we say it. How we communicate determines in large part whether people see us as “civil,” “competent,” “credible,” “professional’ and “ethical.” This is tr ...

A few months back, the Student Bar Association at Northwestern University School of Law got its panties in a bunch over inappropriate language and the "unthinking use of stereotypes." Saying that you were "raped" by an exam, for example, was offensive to some on campus, said the SBA. (They preferred ...