Be nice on the airplane . . . or lose your license.

Bad Behavior as Airline Passenger Grounds Attorney from Law Practice


From the LEGAL ETHICS section of the
ABA eJournal
Posted Sep 28, 2009, 05:05 pm CDT By Martha Neil

A South Florida attorney has been temporarily disbarred, by consent, after
allegedly using obscene language, groping a flight attendant and carrying a
7-year-old child down the aisle while the plane was airborne—nearly hitting the
child's head on an exit sign—two years ago as a passenger aboard a Southwest
Airlines flight.

John Michael Moody, 45, will not be able to practice for
five years under the agreement. He earlier pleaded guilty to a federal criminal
charge of intimidating or assaulting a flight attendant on an aircraft
concerning the June 11, 2007 incident and was sentenced to a four-month prison
term, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

He could not be reached by the newspaper for
comment.

Click here to read the entire article.

http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/bad_behavior_as_airline_passenger_grounds_attorney_from_law_practice

Bloggers: Beware

From the ABA Journal, Legal Ethics Division:

Too Much Information: Blogging Lawyers Face Ethical and Legal Problems

Posted Sep 14, 2009, 09:52 am CDT; by Debra Cassens Weiss

Updated: Chalk it up to the age of Facebook. Blogging lawyers and judges have landed in trouble with legal ethics regulators and judges, while one blogging lawyer ended up as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit.

The lawsuit began on Sept. 14 in Tyler, Texas, Texas Lawyer reports. It ended Monday with a settlement, before jurors began deliberations, according to IP Law and Business. The plaintiff, intellectual property litigator Eric Albritton, claimed lawyer Richard Frenkel defamed him in anonymous postings on his Patent Troll Tracker blog, written when Frenkel was an in-house lawyer for Cisco Systems.

The suit said Frenkel defamed Albritton by accusing him of conspiring with a federal judicial clerk to alter documents to obtain subject matter jurisdiction in a patent suit. The defamation suit settled after the federal judge overseeing the case ruled Albritton could not win punitive damages unless he proved actual malice.

The New York Times chronicles the ethical travails of other legal bloggers, including Kristine Ann Peshek, fired from her job as an assistant public defender in Illinois and accused in a disciplinary complaint of revealing client confidences in blog posts with thinly disguised references. The Legal Profession Blog was first to report the case.

Peshek didn’t comment to the New York Times, but she told the ABA Journal on Thursday that she disagrees with the assessment that her clients could be identified through her blog. “I would not have posted any information in such a manner that I thought a specific client could be identified, without that client’s permission, or without the information being a matter of public record,” Peshek said. The blog posts identified clients by either their first names, a derivative of their first names, or by their jail identification numbers, according to the disciplinary complaint (PDF).

In other blog posts, Peshek complained that one judge was clueless and another was an ---hole. Criticizing a judge also landed blogging lawyer Sean Conway in trouble, the Times notes. In a conditional plea, Conway agreed to a reprimand for calling a judge an “evil, unfair witch” in a blog post. He claimed in a brief submitted to the Florida Supreme Court that his remarks were protected by the First Amendment, but the court affirmed the disciplinary agreement this April, the Times says.

The Times also cited these examples:

• A lawyer requested a continuance due to a death in the family, but the Galveston, Texas, judge checked her Facebook page and discovered news of a week of drinking and partying. The judge, Susan Criss, told lawyers about the episode at the ABA Annual Meeting.

• Lawyer Frank Wilson of San Diego lost his job and got suspended from practice for 45 days for blog postings he wrote as a juror.

Troll Tracker Defamation Trial Ends in Truce

by Joe Mullin; IP Law & Business; September 23, 2009

After four days of testimony, the "Troll Tracker" defamation lawsuit ended in a confidential settlement the day before the East Texas jury hearing it was set to begin deliberations.

Plaintiff Eric Albritton and defendants Cisco Systems and Rick Frenkel -- a former Cisco lawyer who blogged anonymously as the Patent Troll Tracker -- settled the case Monday night, shortly after Judge Richard Schell ruled that the jurors would have to find "actual malice" on the part of Frenkel and Cisco in order for Albritton to win punitive damages from the tech giant.

None of the lawyers involved in the case would comment on the settlement Monday. Cisco issued a statement Tuesday morning in which it said the dispute between the parties "has been resolved to their mutual satisfaction, and Rick Frenkel and Cisco apologize for the statements of Rick Frenkel on the Troll Tracker blog regarding Eric M. Albritton." Frenkel is now of counsel at the Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

The jury, which had been scheduled to hear closing arguments and begin deliberations Tuesday, was not in court Monday as Schell considered a motion by Cisco and Frenkel for judgment as a matter of law. In that motion, the defendants argued that Albritton didn't have enough evidence to warrant proceeding to a jury verdict. Schell denied all of the defendants' arguments, except for one: that the plaintiffs had to prove "actual malice" in order to collect punitive damages.

"Actual malice" -- a high standard for a defamation plaintiff to meet -- was established by the Supreme Court in its historic New York Times Co. v. Sullivan decision. To prove "actual malice," a plaintiff must show that the defendant either knowingly published falsehoods as facts, or showed "reckless disregard" for the truth. In general, a plaintiff must be a public figure to trigger the "actual malice" standard. Someone considered a private figure must only prove that a publisher was negligent in its actions in order to win a defamation claim.

Schell had ruled earlier during the four-day trial -- at which Frenkel, Albritton and Ward all testified -- that Albritton was a private figure, and could therefore win his case by proving that Cisco and Frenkel had been negligent. Earlier rulings barred Albritton from seeking damages to his reputation, leaving him to pursue damages for "mental anguish" or, if he proved "actual malice," for punitive damages against Cisco. On Monday, Schell ruled that while Albritton was indeed a private figure, Frenkel's blogging was about an issue of public concern (the work of the court clerk's office), which meant Albritton had to meet the higher standard of "actual malice" in order to qualify for punitive damages.

Throughout the litigation, Frenkel maintained that the two blog posts at the heart of the case, which he wrote about a changed date in the docket in Albritton's ESN v. Cisco patent infringement suit, contained both true facts and constitutionally protected opinion about "abusive" patent litigation in East Texas. On the witness stand, Frenkel apologized for referring to the Eastern District of Texas as a "Banana Republic" in one of the offending posts, which he later revised to eliminate that reference.

A second defamation lawsuit, Ward v. Cisco Systems, has been brought by T. John "Johnny" Ward Jr., another Eastern District patent heavyweight representing ESN in its patent suit against Cisco. That lawsuit has dropped Frenkel as a defendant personally, and continues only against Cisco. It is scheduled for trial in early 2010. The ESN v. Cisco suit that launched the dispute also remains active.

Forgive Student Loans, reports the American Bar Journal

From the ABA Journal:


Was It Worth It? With Debt of Up to $250K, Some Law Grads Are Dubious

Posted Sep 4, 2009, 01:20 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

Zack Leshetz would like to get married and buy a home.

But his $175,000 in student loan debt is a significant roadblock, reports the Wall Street Journal in a lengthy article about the growing educational debtload being shouldered by
young Americans.

Even though some of his loans are in forbearance, he is living paycheck to paycheck, the 30-year-old Fort Lauderdale, Fla., attorney tells the newspaper. Engaged since March, he is reluctant to schedule a wedding due to the cost.

"I feel like I'm putting my entire life on hold," he says.

And he's far from the only one wondering about the high cost of his apparent academic success.

Kristin Schlaud owes almost a quarter of a million dollars in educational debt after going on from college to earn a juris doctor degree from Wayne State University Law School and a master's degree in real estate from the John Marshall Law School.

"I know I have accomplished a lot, but I wonder if it was all worth it," the 28-year-old tells CNN.

A New York lawyer, Robert Applebaum has been rallying support on Facebook and an advocacy website, Forgive Student Loan Debt, for a proposal that the government
should eliminate educational debt as part of an economic stimulus program, the news agency notes.

Click here to continue reading this great article.

Student Loan Forgiveness? Yes, and stimulate the economy.

http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/smartspending/archive/2009/08/28/should-feds-forgive-student-loan-debt.aspx

Should Student Loans be forgiven?


Should the federal government wipe the slate clean? What do you think? Should the federal government wipe the slate clean? Do students overburdened by the debt they took on deserve some kind of help? What are other solutions?


What are some possible solutions to help those who are overextended -- and to prevent it from happening? Here are some ideas that have been tossed around:

* Allow student loan debt to be discharged in bankruptcy court. (Another site, StudentLoanJustice.org, has made that part of its mission.)
* Provide more education to young borrowers. "Even if someone would have told me 10 years ago that my payments would be $880/month, at that point, could I have really
understood the consequences?" reader "Saddled_With_Debt" said at Consuming Interests.
* Increase grants to needy students.
* Provide more federal aid for those who face huge student loan debt to fill essential occupations, like family practitioners, internists and geriatricians in the medical
field.
* Encourage students to avoid private loans.
* Make student loan forgiveness even more available for those who take public service jobs. "I've heard of programs that forgive student loans to insure a supply of doctors
and teachers for rural areas. That makes economic sense as it is a bonus to attract new applicants, not a bailout," All Financial Matters reader Rick Francis wrote.

Graduates, meanwhile, can take advantage of another new program. In an article at MSN Money, Liz Pulliam Weston described how it works:

(Graduates) have the option to limit payments on federal loans to no more than 15% of their discretionary income or 15% of the amount of their income that exceeds 150% of the
federal poverty level. (For example, the 2009 poverty level for a single person is $10,830, so payments would be capped at 15% of his or her income over $16,245.) Unpaid interest
and principal are added to the loan, but any balance would be forgiven after 25 years of payments.

What do you think? Should the federal government wipe the slate clean? Do students overburdened by the debt they took on deserve some kind of help? What are other solutions?

Don't Die Quietly: Baltimore medics mistakenly declare man dead

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99RIJ680&show_article=1



Baltimore medics mistakenly declare man dead

Breitbart.com
August 3, 2009 02:16PM


BALTIMORE (AP) - Baltimore police say a burglary suspect mistakenly declared dead by medics after he was shot by an officer laid on a convenience store floor for half an hour before anyone noticed he was still alive.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi (goo-lee-EL-mee) says 51-year-old Michael Quarles was shot early Saturday when he lunged at an officer with a long screwdriver. Guglielmi says the officer thought Quarles had a knife.

Guglielmi says emergency medical technicians pronounced Quarles dead at the scene, then left. But officers noticed about 30 minutes later that Quarles was moving and called the medics back to the scene.

Quarles was taken to a trauma center and remained in critical condition Monday.

The medics have been reassigned until an investigation is finished.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99RIJ680&show_article=1

Yikes. Thanks, Drudge Report.
http://www.drudgereport.com/

Tips on How to Avoid an Adoption Scam

The following article appeared in the Fall 2008 edition of Conceive Magazine and includes a quote from Michigan Adoption Attorney, Joni M. Fixel.

How to Avoid an Adoption Scam
by Joan Fleischer Tamen
as printed in Conceive Magazine Fall 2008

Adoption fraud doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Here's what to look out for, and experts' best advice on how to protect yourself.

Ms. Tamen lists a number of adoption "scams" and also advises how prospective adoptive parents might protect themselves.

Click the link below to read the entire article:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/4817633/Conceive-Magazine-Fall-2008

Thank God for Evolution.

Thank God for Evolution.

Click on the Video and turn up the volume.

Evolution and Religion awesome together.

Wonderful.

http://thankgodforevolution.com/

Wheels across America - Folks are really NICE.

College students off and pumping on 4,000-mile bike trip
POSTED 16 hrs ago

CLEVELAND -- A group of 27 cyclists rolled into Cleveland Friday night. Four hundred miles down. Only 3,600 miles to go in their trip across America.

The cyclists, ranging in age from 18 to 23 years, will spend the next two months on the road raising money and awareness about cancer.

It's the ninth year for the 4K For Cancer ride which was started by a student at Johns Hopkins University to honor his father who died of cancer.

"It's hard to think of anybody who hasn't been affected (by cancer)," said Raffi Wartanian. "You're constantly meeting people who were affected and they're telling you their story.

"And you put that on your shoulders and use that to get up the mountains and through the rain," said Wartanian, who is partipating in his second 4K For Cancer ride.

Each of the cyclists raised at least $4,000. The group hopes to donate $110,000 dollars to the Hope Lodge in Baltimore and to cancer research.

Two vans carrying sleeping bags, clothes and donated food accompany the cyclists.

The cyclists rely on churches, YMCA's and community centers for food and lodging.

Cyclist Nicole Pangborn, a pre-med student at Johns Hopkins University, has found motivation and inspiration from the people she's met during the trip.

"We rely completely on donations for lunch and lodging and food for dinner," said Pangborn. "It's like we really don't buy anything. And we go across the country.

"A lot of us haven't encountered that type of generosity," said Pangborn. "It's just unbelievable that people give everything to us because we're doing something for the greater good."
© 2009 WKYC-TV

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