There are times when keeping the the letter of the law makes for absurd results. The Minnesota High Court has ruled that sleeping in the car with keys on the console and no evidence at all of the sleepy-head recently driving is “in control” enough to convict for DWI. That’s right. If you do the responsible thing — pull over into a private area, open your car door, take the keys out, and have a drink, you are “in control” and thus culpable.
Read more here.
Updated: Google has announced it is adding a new search function that will find full-text legal opinions from federal and state courts.
Users can go to the Google Scholar online search engine and type in case names, topics or key words to find the relevant cases. “We think this addition to Google Scholar will empower the average citizen by helping everyone learn more about the laws that govern us all,” Google says in an announcement posted at TaxProf Blog.
Researchers can try an “advanced scholar” search link that narrows searches to opinions in specific states, according to the Supreme Court of Texas Blog. Users can also specify whether they want to search for “all of the words,” an exact phrase, or at least one of the words. They can also add date and author restrictions.
Case law goes back about 80 years for federal cases and more than 50 years for state cases, according to Information Today Inc. The opinions will have “cited by” and “related articles” links that take readers to other opinions and articles that will help them understand the information. But there is no citator service that flags when an opinion is overruled or called into question.
The Supreme Court of Texas Blog says the new search option is “quite polished and looks like it might be usable for serious legal work.”
Josh Blackman’s Blog is also impressed with the results. “Extremely quick, efficient, and free,” the blog says. “And it doesn’t just link to FindLaw or Cornell. It actually has an original, full text version. I just entered in a few key Supreme Court cases, and a few prominent circuit cases, and they were all in Google. Pretty cool.”
There are some shortcomings, however, according to the story by Information Today Inc.
“This product is not going to put Lexis or Westlaw out of business,” Carol Ebbinghouse, law library director at the California 2nd District Court of Appeals, writes for the blog. “These files do not cover the time dating from the beginning of our country, nor to the beginnings of the individual states.”
Ebbinghouse notes that although there are hyperlinks within cases to other opinions, hyperlinks to other materials are not there.
“There are no hyperlinks to statutes, codes, regulations, administrative opinions, or anything else quoted or referred to in the text of the opinions,” she says. “Finally, there is no citator service to verify that a particular opinion has not been overruled or vacated, distinguished, or otherwise declared of dubious value.”
See the article here:
http://www.abajournal.com/news/google_offers_legal_research_for_the_average_citizenand_lawyers_too
For those attorneys out there with an Iphone, the ARCode09 app is a must have. It is the Arkansas Code with both Search and Browse capabilities. I have it and it is killer.
Click here to see it in iTunes.
Its free so 18 year olds will love it. Heck, its a recession. We ALL love free stuff.
The Arkansas Bar Association has published a new handbook for young Arkansans. I haven’t reviewed it but the table of contents looks exhaustive.
I have two comments about the video.
First, it is very well done. It would be a shame if the quality was so shoddy that it was a distraction to the prospective jurors. I am impressed with the quality.
Second, I think any trial lawyer should watch it. It is the first thing the jurors hear. Why would you not want to see what information they are getting? I say this because in my jurisdiction, the attorneys are not in the courtroom when the jurors watch the video.
You can watch the video here.
The Arkansas Supreme Court released new rules for Appellate Briefs. Make sure you comply. Among the changes, the rules allow for an increase in pages allowed (30) and font size is now 14.
Read the new rules in their entirety by clicking here.
The appeal was based on the trial court’s failure to exclude an alleged accomplice’s testimony from consideration when making its ruling. Ark. Code. Ann. 16-89-111(e)(1)(a) states that before a conviction can be had on the testimony of an accomplice, there must be corroborating evidence tending to connect the defendant with the commission of the crime.
The Arkansas Appeal court agreed that there was scant or no evidence connecting my client to the commission of the crime.
You can read the opinion here.
The case was tried at the level by Bill Lewellen and myself.
The local paper, The Evening Times, reported on the story here.
BERRYVILLE — Lawyer Cindy Baker, 36, was arrested on charges two counts of delivering methamphetamine Friday night in a raid of her home and office on U. S. Highway 62 in downtown Berryville.
The amount of the drug recovered from her office-home was not made public. Other items seized included “syringes that appear to contain blood,” according to court records.
Sheriff Bob Grudek said Monday that there had been rumors about Baker but “suspicion is not sufficient” and a case had to be made that would stand up in court.
Investigator J. J. Reddick’s affidavit for search and arrest warrants says an informant wired for audio and video surveillance went to Baker’s office-home Oct. 22, and the two went over Baker’s ledger showing what the informant owed Baker for previous methamphetamine purchases.
The two discussed a previous transaction in which Baker supplied the informant with seven grams of methamphetamine and told the informant to keep one gram and sell the rest for Baker, the affidavit says.
The informant also wore a wire in the two transactions that prompted the charges of delivery of methamphetamine, a Class Y felony, which is the most serious level under Arkansas law:
• The sheriff said the confidential informant bought a gram of what is believed to be methamphetamine for $200 from Baker at her office-home Wednesday.
The bills turned up when authorities seized $1,000 in cash from suspected meth supplier Mynor Jimmy Aleman-Gonzalez later the same day, the sheriff said. Jail records show Aleman-Gonzalez, 24, of Green Forest was jailed Wednesday on charges of delivering a controlled substance.
• The same confidential informant bought a half gram of what was believed to be methamphetamine from Baker for $50 Friday, the sheriff said. He said the informant gave Baker a $100 bill and received $50 in change.
Search and arrest warrants were issued, and the $100 bill that the confidential informant gave her for the drug earlier Friday was taken from Baker during her drug arrest, the sheriff said.
The charges include two counts of delivering methamphetamine, a count of conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance and delivery of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of Berryville High School and First Methodist Church.
Read more here.
Last week the Ingham County Circuit Court in Michigan entered a judgment ordering AT&T Michigan to pay ACD Telecom $7,994,590 in damages for breach of contract.
Under the contract, ACD and AT&T had mutually agreed to let their customers under long-term contracts switch their services to the other company without having to pay the early termination fees in their contracts. Most commercial telecommunication services are purchased on term contracts with substantial termination penalties, much like a consumer cell phone contract. This makes it difficult and expensive to switch phone companies when new technology, lower prices or better services become available.
ACD says AT&T refused to honor the agreement and charged two of the customers that switched from AT&T to ACD early termination penalties in excess of $40,000 each.
AT&T then sued these two companies to collect early termination penalties. One of the two companies, Lansing-based ARQ Internet, went out of business in the face of the termination charges AT&T assessed in breach of the contract.
Read the whole story here.
This from a a story by Joan McCoy:
Some officials in Jacksonville say it might be time for the city attorney’s position to become full time. But when it comes to city attorneys in Arkansas, part time and full time are just words that have only the weight the city councils decide to give them.
State law says first-class cities with mayor-council governments shall elect city attorneys every four years. But how much those attorneys are paid and their exact duties vary from city to city and appear to be based as much on tradition as law.
Buck Gibson, elected as the city attorney in Searcy in 2002, prepares ordinances and resolutions for the city council, prosecutes in district and circuit court and advises the mayor and council on legal matters.
He is considered a full-time city attorney, but Gibson says his $22,000 take-home pay for the job doesn’t begin to support him in the manner that people mistakenly believe lawyers are accustomed. His real income is from his private practice, he says.
In contrast, Robert Bamburg, Jacksonville’s part-time city attorney, is paid $64,432 for services similar to those Gibson provides. And like Gibson, Bamburg has a private practice.
Read the whole story here.
