During his campaign, Mr. Obama promised us to create a meaningful universal health care law that would provide all Americans with necessary health care coverage. I suppose by that he meant that he would institute the Republican, pro-insurance industry requirement that we all get in line to spend what little money we have to purchase private insurance policies from big insurance companies, lest we be held liable for violating the ironically named "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Law" - an Orwellian name for a law that is itself unconstitutional.
Read MoreMany business professionals often lack a sufficient understanding of the fundamentals of US Patent Law. To bridge the gap and make my professional conversations with clients more useful and time-effective, I offer the following synopsis of US Patent Litigation and Patent Law. Please note that this synopsis is only for basic informational and entertainment purposes and should not be relied upon as legal advice. You should consult with me personally to discuss your Patent Litigation matter.
Read MoreThe California laws regarding Sex Crimes, especially those that are registerable sex offences under Megan’s Law, can stir powerful debates in this state for various reasons. Some consider them to be outdated and out-of-touch with the realities of sexual activity in contemporary society, where it is arguably commonplace for teenage minors to engage in sex with each other in their parents’ homes, where it may be routine practice to have sex when you’re drunk with your girlfriend or boyfriend or even somebody you just met in a bar, where it is not unusual to see public nudity on California’s college campuses on the first rain of the season or on California’s public beaches or big city parks, or where various shocking fetishes and sado-masochistic practices may be more popular in certain social circles especially in edgy metropolitan areas such as San Francisco or Los Angeles.
Read MoreIt’s important to mediate on what we accomplish in our life’s work, what kind of company we work for, what its impact on the world really is, and also to think about how we spend our money, what companies and habits we support, and our impact on our communities and the planet. It’s important to think about how we treat people with whom we interact each day in small ways and large as we walk the streets, drive our cars, shop, talk on the phone, and so on.
Read MoreOut of all the respondents, a quarter of the women admitted to perpetrating the domestic violence and, when the violence was reciprocal, women were often the ones to have been the first to strike. In addition, an analytic view of 552 domestic violence studies published in the Psychological Bulletin found that 38% of the physical injuries suffered in domestic violence disputes were suffered by men.
Read MoreIt is best to review your business’s policies and procedures in maintaining the highest available levels of security for your databases and online accounts, be as organized and diligent as possible in your data management and online security practices, and take all the necessary precautions by training your personnel appropriately. Since nobody is impervious to online attacks, as we learn from Mr. Honan’s unfortunate example, it is important to also clearly inform your clients of such possibilities in your contractual language.
Read MoreFrom my experiences as a bicoastal business attorney practicing in CA, NY, WA, DC, and MA, our nation’s most progressive business startup states, I know that many startup founders are brilliant intellectuals who have created winning positions in their field by way of their professional creativity and personal drive. Yet simultaneously these individuals often lack any real legal knowledge and high-quality legal representation to help them avoid Intellectual Property litigation and understand the power and nuances of Trade Secrets Law. To that end, I have prepared this brief outline of California Trade Secrets to help startup professionals understand the legal and rational underpinnings of this area of the law, helping them to better communicate with me during legal representation.
Read MoreI truly believe that the single best piece of advice that any lawyer can give is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is well worth your time and money to consult with an attorney and to hire an attorney to prepare the legal foundations of your business, including crucial contracts and other legal brochures and papers that you can use to try as best as you can to protect yourself in your dealings with various individuals and companies. That way, if you are sued or otherwise involved in any sort of legal problem, you may find yourself in a safer and stronger position that you may have otherwise been.
Read MoreA contract is a contract. When you promise to pay a man for work he performs for you, you have to keep your word. Regardless of whether you can slip through the cracks into anonymity, foist some false-hearted or meager defense, or point to his relative wealth in comparison to your own financial austerity, we must all keep our promises to the very best of our abilities.
Read MoreAs soon as our reeling minds start to focus on why this tragedy happened and how we could try to prevent it from happening again, the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut today, along with similar school shootings throughout the country over the last decade including the famous 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Columbine, Colorado, raises questions for us about gun control laws in the face of the US Constitution's Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Read MoreFree Speech lawsuits generally conjure sensational images of controversial civil protests by angry grassroots political activists burning flags or crosses in broad view of the public. In recent months, a couple of interesting cases have been raised to the fore behind the regulated walls of public school rooms involving young girls causing a stir in Free Speech law.
Read MoreAccording to the EEOC, while the number of sexual harassment lawsuits as a whole has declined over the last decade, the number of sexual harassment lawsuits filed by male victims has increased in that time period. In fact, between 1992 and 2008, the number of sexual harassment lawsuits filed by men doubled from 8% to 16%. David Grinberg, an EEOC spokesman stated, "While some people may think sexual harassment of male employees is a joke, the issue is real [...] We are seeing more of it, and such conduct has serious legal consequences for employers." It is quite possible that the number of male victims of sexual harassment are far greater than the EEOC data represents, since there may likely be psychological factors such as peer pressure and gender identity issues that prevent male victims from coming forward to report being victims of sexual harassment and unwanted advances at work.
Read MoreAs a few immigrants have realized in recent years, there is a federal law that, especially when combined with popular divorce and child custody statutes across the nation, allows them to relatively easily and quickly acquire permanent residency and even citizenship status in the United States whereas such would have been nearly impossible beforehand, use that immigration status to bring over loved ones from their homeland via family reunification visas, and if they play their cards right, receive spousal and even child support soon after arrival to cover their living and shopping expenses: alas, the American dream, all for the price of a broken heart and a ruined life - not their own, of course.
Read MoreThe California Family Law System is deeply dysfunctional, and it is need of some serious positive changes. Though the problem of child abductions is connected to various international issues which shall be discussed later in this article, on the local level alone, it is often inextricably linked to the discussion of California Child Custody and Divorce laws regarding domestic violence.
Read MoreProposition 19 has been defeated by California voters in the 2010 state elections, resulting in more concerns about marijuana related crime and drug violence in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Monterey Bay Area. As a result, police forces in Alameda County, Santa Clara County, San Francisco County, and Santa Cruz County will continue to be burdened by dealing with marijuana possession and distribution crimes, and the courts and jails in these areas will have to deal with overcrowding with persons alleged to have violated non-violent drug possession and distribution crimes.
Read MoreThe American Tea Party styles itself as fundamentally focused on upholding the core values of the US Constitution, yet in reality it is politically essentially a socially and fiscally conservative branch of the Republican Party, backed heavily by polarizing politicians such as Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. Tea Party candidates strongly oppose immigration, gun control, abortion rights, affirmative action, social welfare, uniform health coverage, and other big government policies. Basically, the American Tea Party takes the entire retinue of ultra-conservative Republican Party values and attempts to justify them by a perspective on American jurisprudence that disregards the two centuries of legal precedent and evolution that has occurred since the drafting of the US Constitution, and rather focuses on that original document much like a text as sacred as the Bible is to Christians.
Read MoreThe inherent violence of Mr. Mehserle's act is clarified by his decision to Taser Mr. Grant, as he thought he was doing. It is a grossly unnecessary and aggressive level of violence to choose to Taser at close range a face down, unarmed youth who is arrested for fighting on a train platform. It is the presence of such violence in the act, albeit an act that was ultimately a tragic and involuntary killing, that should have urged the judge in this matter to give Mr. Mehserle the maximal sentence of 4 years. Mr. Mehserle was lucky that he did not threaten Mr. Grant before he reached for the weapon, as those few words may have been sufficient to convict him of second degree felony murder with an underlying felony of aggravated assault, leading to a possible life sentence. More so, Mr. Mehserle was lucky that the judge used his wide discretion to give him the minimum sentence here. Mr. Grant, his family, and the African-American community should be so lucky.
Read MoreThe California prison system is the largest in the nation, and it suffers from serious problems of overpopulation, violence, and insufficient health and education services for its juvenile and adult inmates, especially for those with special needs. It is unconstitutional for a State prison system to operate at such dilapidated levels, because “cruel and unusual punishment” is illegal under the State and Federal Constitution.
Read MoreIn this poor economy, our nation is seeing a sharp spike in the number of reported business fraud cases being reported by investors, as reported in a USA Today article written on August 5, 2010 by John Waggoner - "Investment Scams Thriving; Folks with Big Stock, 401(K) Losses Have Taken Some Hits." According to the USA Today article, investors who are seeking to recoup major losses from their retirement plans are falling prey to con-artists posing as entrepreneurs seeking venture capital or investment moguls seeking partners.
Read MoreThe role of government and religion in the creation and regulation of the institution of marriage is hundreds of years old, specifically dating back to 1563 when the Council of Trento decreed that marriage is a lifelong sacrament meant only for one man and one woman. The dramatic backdrop to this pivotal decision is filled with anti-Jewish sentiment, xenophobia, political posturing, and military strategies.
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