Recently in Misc. Category

In the news: "Media coverage goes with the territory in high-stakes litigation and experienced lawyers take it as a matter of course that they will need to craft a strategy for handling it. Consultant Carl Whitaker provides tips for meeting the press, based on his discussions with media-savvy lawyers."

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 5 March 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

This post was written by Cheryl: "Last week, everything in my house broke. There was the house generator that needed a new starter; there was my internet connection that wouldn't stay connected, and the spring on the garage door broke, and my car was held captive for a day. So there I was ...on the phone lodging complaints.

So how does a person effectively complain over the phone? Here are my suggestions based on a week of personal experience, research and investigation.

• It is very possible you will have to leave a voice mail...
• When someone does call you back, be reasonable...
• Initially assume good faith about the company and staff...
• Make sure you get the agent's name, identification number, date and time of call and follow-up in writing...
• If there is a language barrier...
• Stay calm...
• Compare policies of other companies...

I also noticed that most companies have a message at the beginning of the customer service menu advising the caller that the calls may be monitored for quality assurance. Companies do take complaints seriously, and although no one wants to complain, it does mean there is a problem. Make sure you follow-up with a written correspondence, and if all else fails, a customer's main revenge is to abandon the company and move on to their competition."

Continue reading this interesting post by clicking on the author's name.

Source: Service Untitled, 1 March 2010. © 2006-2010 Service Untitled Group, reproduced with permission of Douglas Hanna.

This post was written by Rita Handrich: "Maybe you can. While ink on the skin doesn't mean what it used to (see our post here) it still is a concern for many among us. Body art/ink has become mainstream as evidenced by its presence among a wide cross-section of the population. Even the very educated have tattoos. One of the blogs at Discover Magazine's website recently uploaded a variety of 'science' tattoos which decorate the bodies of scientific researchers. Very amusing.

But parents worry. And so do litigators choosing juries. What do those tattoos mean? There's research for that!..."

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

Source: The Jury Room, 24 February 2010. Reproduced with permission of Douglas Keene.

This post was written by StephanieWestAllen: "The word "slackoisie" was recently included in the Urban Dictionary.

Prounounced "Slack-wah-zee". This term was coined by J. Daniel Hull, Esq., author of the "What About Clients?" blawg, and popularized by Scott H. Greenfield, Esq., author of the "Simple Justice" blawg. It refers to:

(1) a class of narcissistic young professionals, particularly attorneys (usually Gen Y/millenials), who believe that having a job is an entitlement, rather than a privilege. They often complain about the work they have (if working), opine the lack of "real lawyer" jobs available in the market, and are critical of the long hours and inadequate pay found at most small firms..."

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

Source: idealawg,1 March 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author

This post was written by StephanieWestAllen: "Is aging a state of mind? Do we age as we do because we are taught since birth that we must grow old, become infirm, and then die? Dr. Ellen Langer thinks our culture, and particularly supposedly knowledgeable professionals, are convincing us of things that are not true. For more about Langer and her research, read two past posts: 

• Should we change our assumptions about elders? Do we know as much as we think we do? Should we say no to aging?
• Psychology of possibility: Interview of Ellen Langer about a book my dad just ordered at my recommendation

And here are some articles (all from examiner.com) to make you think about the role your beliefs about aging play in how you grow old..."

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

Source: idealawg, 28 February 2010, reproduced with permission of the author

This post was written anonymously: "The Ohio Supreme Court has translated 27 common forms used in general, domestic relations, juvenile and probate court cases into Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, and Somali. A few of the key forms include those related to domestic violence and stalking. Click here to find the translated forms."

Active links are available by clicking on the author's name above..

In the news: "Some lawyers think the way to get a "name" is to give presentations at conferences. They're right, but they might be surprised at the nature of that name, says anonymous columnist The Rodent. Presenting is much better than being a lobby lizard, but make sure your speech is a good one."

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 11 February 2010. Copyright 2009.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

This post was written by Simon Fodden: "As everyone will doubtless know, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against permitting the District Court for the Northern District of California to broadcast on YouTube the challenge to California's Proposition 8, as had been originally planned. That doesn't mean that the screen's gone blank, though..."

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

Source: Slaw.ca, 3 February 2010. Reproduced with permission of Simon Fodden, founder of Slaw.

This post was written by John Jantsch: "Warning: I have no scientific research to back up the theory I'm about to ponder...

I don't really recall the first time I discovered this, but it's happened enough that I can't deny the powerful tool it is.

When I am looking for inspiration for my writing or simply trying to connect the dots to make something whole, I fall back on a process I've come to call monochromatic reading... Here's the idea behind this. Whenever I am trying to get inspired, original or innovative in my thoughts to add to a presentation, blog post, article, product, service or book, I spend a fair amount of time reading. No surprise there, everyone does that, but what I've found is that some of the best ideas come from unrelated texts - if I know how to read them.

What I do is come up with one single topic - business growth, referrals, persuasion - whatever I am trying to work on - and I pick up books that are not related to the topic and read through them quickly looking only for ideas that relate to or parallel my subject. So, if I doing a piece on business growth, I might actually find some incredibly innovative ideas in a book about how bees build colonies. (Actually nature works are some of the best) The key to this is the single or monochromatic focus while I read..."

The full text of this post is available by clicking on the author's name.

Source: Duct Tape Marketing, 2 February 2010. © 2003-2010 Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing, reproduced with permission of the author.

This post was written by StephanieWestAllen: "The presence of dogs is growing in US courtrooms. From "Using training and lovability, Amos the dog calms kids in court" (Free Press - Michigan):

The idea of using dogs to ease courtroom tensions is not new and is gaining popularity across the country. Courthousedogs.com began in Seattle when an assistant prosecutor in King County, took her disabled son's service dog to work one day a week and discovered that the dog had a profoundly calming effect on young witnesses. Now that county, and others in Texas, Georgia, Montana, Florida and Maryland have dogs working courtrooms..."

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

Source: idealawg, 1 February 2010. Reproduced with permission of the author.