Recently in Legal ethics Category

From an e-newsletter sent by Sabrina Pacifici:

Source: Pacifici, Sabrina. "New on LLRX.com for January/February 2010." Copyright © LLRX TM, Law Library Resource Xchange, LLC. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://www.llrx.com/subscribe.htm>.

This post was written by John Heckman: "The Arizona bar has released the first ethics opinion about the propriety of online storage. Read the article here 

The key provisions are:

"First, the client files would be accessible only through a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) server, which encodes documents, making it difficult for third parties to intercept or read them. Second, the lawyer would assign unique randomly generated alpha-numeric names and passwords to each online client folder. The folder names contain no information that could identify the client to which it belongs. The password would not be the same as the client folder name. Third, all online client files would be converted to Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files and protected with another randomly generated unique alpha-numeric password."

The password provision amounts to saying that on-line storage is completely unrealistic..."

Continue reading this interesting post and reach the active link by clicking on the author's name.

Source: Does It Compute?, 25 January 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.

In the news: "Give a long second thought to padding that resume or fudging the truth on a job application, especially if you're a lawyer. Consider the case of a lawyer whose professional standing is under attack because Connecticut grievance officials believe he lied multiple times on his resume and an application submitted for a state agency position. Frank E. Rudewicz, an attorney who investigates people and companies for BDO Consulting, said professional service firms have been contacting his company more than ever before."

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 8 January 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

From the e-newsletter: "Think about the lawyers whose conduct appears to be "on the edge" but who are nonetheless largely ignored. Should questions arise about our own conduct precisely because of such willingness to let our colleagues' behavior go unchecked? The longer we avoid such questions, the more we place at risk our collective professional reputation, write Joel Cohen and Katherine Helm."

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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 4 January 2010. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Brian Tannebaum: "Trial and Jury Consultant Dennis Elias posted this gem yesterday about how far we lawyers have fallen in the category of ethics & honesty - in just one year.

The article is a fascinating, but not surprising summary of what people think of various professions.

Making the highest gain - police.

Making the largest drops - lawyers, and worse, clergy.

We're better than priests?

Not really, they just dropped more than us this year.

Maybe the clergy have lost our respect due to the various sex scandals, or maybe people think God is not doing enough to help the economy. I don't know.

But let's talk about lawyers.

Lawyers dropped from 18% to 13%. So I guess 87% of the public don't hold lawyers in high esteem.

...

We dropped 5% in one year. Why?

It doesn't matter.

My advice, don't lie, cheat, steal, try to give some of your time when you can, and do a good job for your clients.

It's no longer about the profession, it's about you, as a professional."

The full text of this post is available at the source site listed below

Source: My Law License, 10 December 2009

Talking points for Episode 104: November 30, 2009 include:

"Can Lawyers Lie?

What's the Difference Between Perjury and Plain Lies?

Do Lawyers Know if Their Clients Are Lying?

Confidential Communications are Off-Limits

Can Lawyers Defend Clients They Know are Guilty?

Recap: Can Lawyers Lie?"

To listen to the podcast or read the transcript, visit the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Lad, 30 November 2009

From the blog: "I have seen a few significant changes in blogging over the years, but none that may be quite as important or wide-ranging as the new FTC regulations, 16 CFR Part 255, concerning endorsements. Effective December 1, 2009, bloggers who endorse a product or service must disclose whether they have a "material connection" to the advertiser that might affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement.  This means that bloggers that receive cash or any other payment, including free products, for their endorsement must disclose that connection.  The new regulations contain a number of examples that illustrate the various situations that may constitute a "material connection," but none of them are particularly illuminating.

The new regulations also require advertisements that convey a consumer's experience with a product or service as typical when, in reality, it is not, to disclose what the typical results would be.  Advertisers can no longer portray a result and disclaim it with fine print that says, "Results not typical."  The rules for celebrity endorsements under Part 255 have also changed.  Celebrities must disclose their connections with an advertiser and both parties can now be held liable for untruthful or misleading advertising.  Celebrities also must disclose their relationships with advertisers when they promote products outside of traditional commercials or print advertising, such as on talk shows or in interviews. Finally, if an advertisement refers to a scientific study for support, the advertiser must disclose his or her relationship to the researcher or research agency.

There are several other changes in the law that must also be complied with, as well as several new examples to illustrate the application of the pre-existing rules that have been in effect since 1980.  It is important that bloggers understand these rules and examples because they can be held liable for up to $11,000 per post for a violation.  It is a changing blogging world out there, and it seems as if the law is starting to catch up."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: The Greatest American Lawyer, 9 November 2009

From an e-mail: "The Government Domain: A Handful of Classics

http://www.llrx.com/govdomain43.htm

Peggy Garvin has updated her directory of useful government information resources online, the e-Government and Web Directory: U.S. Federal Government Online. Her research has found that federal web sites do not change as rapidly as users believe. The content on these sites is dynamic, constantly being refreshed and redesigned. However, the sites themselves, the ones that represent so much of the work of the federal government and are selected for inclusion in the book, are fairly stable.

Using Technology to Estimate, Control And Manage Litigation Document

Review Budgets

http://www.llrx.com/columns/litdocrevbudgets.htm

Conrad J. Jacoby details approaches and exercises that contribute to a successful process for calculating - and staying within - a realistic budget for a litigation or regulatory document review.

Legal Implications of Cloud Computing - Part Two (Privacy and the

Cloud)

http://www.llrx.com/features/cloudcomputing2.htm

As a follow-up to last month's article that provided an overview of cloud computing in the context of significant legal issues, this article by Tanya Forsheit reviews the issues of privacy and cross-border data transfers.

Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide

http://www.llrx.com/features/ciguide.htm

Sabrina I. Pacifici's completely revised and updated pathfinder focuses on leveraging selected reliable, focused, free and low cost sites and sources to effectively profile and monitor companies, markets, countries, people, and issues. This guide is a "best of list" of web, database and email alert products, services and tools, as well as links to content specific sources produced by government, academic, NGOs, the media and various publishers.

Pretexting, Legal Ethics and Social Networking Sites

http://www.llrx.com/features/pretexting.htm

The court decisions, ethics opinions and articles comprising Ken Strutin's guide provide background into current legal thinking about covert investigations, and include recent publications addressing online pretexting as well as the privacy limits of social media. -- Published October 6, 2009

LLRX Court Rules, Forms and Dockets - updated by law librarian

Margaret Berkland

http://www.llrx.com/courtrules

Source: Pacifici, Sabrina. "New on LLRX.com for October 2009." Copyright © LLRX TM, Law Library Resource Xchange, LLC. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://www.llrx.com/subscribe.htm>.

From the blog: "Social Networking - Legal and Ethical Issues for Lawyers and Investigators

Should an investigator or attorney "friend" a prosecution witness in order to find impeachment evidence? Are there legal or ethical bars to surreptitiously gathering data from social network profiles? Should the intent of the user have any bearing on the formulation of law related to access? These and more questions were stirred up in the mix of case studies presented at the (first, annual?) symposium, Social Networks: Friends or Foes? Confronting Online Legal and Ethical Issues in the Age of Social Networking, sponsored by UC Berkeley School of Law. Yeah, a long title but, hey, these folks are academics. And the case studies constituted just the first panel ("Problems Unique to Social Networking and the Law") of an extraordinary assemblage of academic, government, activist, policy and practicing lawyers rounding out the 5-panel day.

Much of the discussion concerned access to profile content, - the difference between civil and criminal (where there's the familiar prosecution/defense imbalance) cases - whether certain information should be private even if it can be viewed by unintended parties. For example, should employers be able to view deleted personal information? No one mentioned the issue of whether schools have a legal right to compel students to turn over their user names/passwords (See: "Area School Wants Access To Students' Social Networking"). There may be instances when a legal requirement for disclosure would apply. Lauren Gelman, Executive Director, Stanford Law, Center for Internet and Society, raised the question of whether evidence in the online sites could be used, say, in divorce cases, to support evidence gathered by other means. The Deputy General Counsel for Facebook took the position that user's profile content is private, begging the audience to sue the company to settle issues of access.

See: Social Networks: Friends or Foes

[Their] Source: PI Buzz

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: ResourceShelf, 25 October 2009

Posted by Raymond Ward: "Law professors, judges, and practicing lawyers have one thing in common besides a law degree: All of us write. And in writing, we often borrow from the writings of others. Indeed, a certain amount of borrowing is permissible--even expected.

At what point does borrowing cross the line into plagiarism? Professors Carol Bast and Linda Samuels tackle that question in their article, Plagiarism and Legal Scholarship in the Age of Information Sharing. Although the title suggests that the article is directed toward academia, it also addresses plagiarism issues in judicial chambers and law firms. If you write anything, and if you want to avoid accusations of plagiarism, then you should read it."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: the (new) legal writer, 14 October 2009