Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly articles from June 2009

Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly archives from June 2009

Commentary: could Twitter spell the end of 'no comment'?
June 8, 2009... Byline: David Yas Even a veteran lawyer like J.W. Carney Jr. didn't see this one coming. Carney is defense counsel for Jabrai Jordan Copney, the New York man accused of murder in connection with the shooting death of a Salem State...

R.I. Supreme Court expresses doubts over validity of sex-offender law.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Thomas E. Egan A defendant convicted of sexual assault could be ordered to register as a Risk Level III offender despite not being granted a hearing at the Sex Offender Board of Review, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has ruled. ...

U.S. Supreme Court ruling: higher pleading standard applies to all civil complaints.
June 8, 2009... Byline: David E. Frank Civil litigators say a recently decided U.S. Supreme Court case makes it crystal clear that a controversial ruling the court issued in 2007 drastically heightened the standard of proof required to survive motions to...

Bill in Congress would require paid sick time.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Kimberly Atkins A bill requiring employers to provide up to seven days of paid sick leave per worker each year has been introduced in Congress. The Healthy Families Act, introduced in the Senate by Sens. Edward Kennedy,...

U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in age bias case.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Kimberly Atkins The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments recently in an age discrimination case in which the legal issues were so thorny, even a seasoned high court litigator was compelled to comment. "The issues here are...

How to self yourself ... to an employer.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Correy E. Stephenson Selling yourself to an employer has never been more important. At a recent American Bar Association webinar, "How to Sell Yourself: Developing the Perfect Pitch," panelist Martha Fay Africa, a partner at...

Commentary: in editing others' docs, accentuate the positive.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Julie A. Baker Write On provides guidance for attorneys on writing legal memoranda and briefs. All legal professionals write, and most of us are asked to read and "edit" other lawyers' writing, too. For practitioners, this can...

Commentary: transition from big to small firm calls up one's entrepreneurialism.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Edward Poll In an earlier column, we speculated about a trend that anecdotal evidence says is growing but one for which there is not yet solid statistical proof: lawyers who are starting solo practices after either being laid off...

Eighty years later, Sacco-Vanzetti case still stirs debate.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Barbara F. Berenson The 1920s trial and executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti has aptly been called "the case that will not die." For decades, lawyers and others have obsessed over the guilt or innocence of Sacco and...

The 1920s trial and executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti has aptly been called.
June 8, 2009... Byline: Barbara F. Berenson The 1920s trial and executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti has aptly been called "the case that will not die." For decades, lawyers and others have obsessed over the guilt or innocence of Sacco and...

Commentary: suing Cap'n Crunch: a real cereal killer.(consumer protection)
June 15, 2009... Byline: David Yas I always had my doubts that there might not be actual berries in Crunch Berries breakfast cereal. Thank goodness a federal judge in California just cleared that up for me. Hal Hewell, a class-action lawyer in San...

Restatement of Employment Law draft adopted amid opposition from experts.
June 15, 2009... Byline: Sylvia Hsieh A draft of the Restatement of Employment Law was adopted by the American Law Institute at its annual meeting last month, despite opposition from some employment experts. Those who oppose the restatement contend...

Rhode Island Supreme Court: fee award premature in home warranty case.
June 15, 2009... Byline: Thomas E. Egan A company embroiled in a dispute with homeowners should not have been awarded counsel fees where the litigation had been stayed pending arbitration, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has decided. The defendant...

Q&A with Victoria M. Almeida, Rhode Island Bar Ass'n new president.(Interview)
June 15, 2009... Byline: Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly Staff When Providence attorney Victoria M. Almeida takes the Rhode Island Convention Center stage later this week to deliver her inaugural address as incoming president of the 6,200-member Rhode Island...

Debt collection suits source of business for consumer lawyers.
June 15, 2009... Byline: Sylvia Hsieh The crushing debt faced by consumers is spawning a strong practice niche for consumer lawyers: suing debt collectors for illegal collection practices. Some of those attorneys have gone so far as to narrow their...

'Powerful' jury instruction follows discovery violation.
June 22, 2009... Byline: Eric T. Berkman A severe sanction obtained by a Boston lawyer in a federal environmental case recently prosecuted in Montana serves as a powerful weapon for lawyers everywhere. In United States v. W.R. Grace., et al., several...

Rescission right barred despite deficiency claim.
June 22, 2009... Byline: Thomas E. Egan A homeowner could not rescind a mortgage refinancing even though the notice he received of his rescission rights left blank the spaces for the date of the transaction and the actual deadline to rescind, the 1st U.S....

Litigation over non-competes on the rise.
June 22, 2009... Byline: Sylvia Hsieh Litigation between employers and former employees over non-compete agreements and other forms of restrictive covenants is increasing. In the past few years, employers have dramatically stepped up their use of...

Commentary: making the case for lawyers on Facebook.
June 22, 2009... Byline: Marc LaCasse President Obama is doing it. Congressmen are doing it. Governors and mayors are doing it. And yes, lawyers are doing it. Or at least some lawyers are doing it. "It" is using Facebook to market oneself and one's...

Commentary: helping profession should do just that for troubled members.
June 22, 2009... Byline: Edward Poll The story was tragic and provoked wide comment among lawyers and bloggers on the Internet. A 59-year-old lawyer who, in his career, had been a senior Justice Department official, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court...

Commentary: midyear: time to get client-development efforts in gear.
June 22, 2009... Byline: Jeff Scalzi Seller's Market offers practitioners information about marketing their skills and services as attorneys. Midyear is upon us, and while many of us are planning well-deserved summer vacations, it is important to...

Commentary: senior lawyers may hold a valuable commodity.
June 29, 2009... Byline: Edward Poll The global financial crisis has created fear and confusion for countless lawyers who, like many others, suddenly have seen nest eggs shrink dramatically and fear they may outlive them if they do not continue working....

Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans from Too Much Law.(Book review)
June 29, 2009... Byline: Andrew M. Abraham Philip Howard's new book, "Life Without Lawyers," should be called "Life Without Individual Rights." This so-called advocate of legal reform, as his book jacket portrays him, weaves a web of half-truths and...

Rhode Island Supreme Court finds child-custody order invalid.
June 29, 2009... Byline: Thomas E. Egan A Family Court magistrate should not have awarded custody to a divorced mother after an out-of-state court had made a child-custody determination of its own, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has ruled. The court...

In unusual move, Superior Court judge calls mistrial in med-mal case.(Rhode Island)
June 29, 2009... Byline: Barbara Rabinovitz In a move described by a Providence plaintiffs' attorney as "very unusual," Superior Court Judge Alice B. Gibney earlier this month called a mistrial in a vigorously contested medical-malpractice case just as the...

Surprise ruling makes age-bias cases tough for plaintiffs.
June 29, 2009... Byline: Kimberly Atkins Attorneys, employee advocates and lawmakers say a surprise U.S. Supreme Court ruling eliminating "mixed-motive" claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act will make proving age-bias in the workplace a...