Cultivated Compendium is my personal website with the occasional link to my reporting and to important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news.
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News and Reporting
February 25th, 2014
Craig Mundie, writing in Foreign Affairs, says that in the era of big data a new approach is needed. Instead of worrying about limiting data collection, control should be focused on "the moment when it is used."
One of Mundie's arguments against curbing the collection of data is that there can be dividends from aggregated data, such as learning how to "better address public health issues, learn more about how... Continue Reading
February 25th, 2014
The Guardian's Cyril Ghosh writes that one downside to the fight to establish same-sex marriage rights in the United States is the demise of civil unions. Most states that had civil unions have phased them out in favor of converting them to marriages, Ghosh says. Civil unions have many advantages, he says: "There are a number of good reasons why both heterosexual and homosexual couples may wish to enter into a civil union instead of a... Continue Reading
February 25th, 2014
Re/code reports that the four biggest television networks told the U.S. Supreme Court in their brief filed Monday that "Aereo, which provides broadcast TV shows to subscribers over the Internet without paying licensing fees to stations, is violating federal copyright law designed to protect content creators and distributors. Aereo has denied violating broadcasters’ copyrights through its unique online delivery system,... Continue Reading
February 24th, 2014
SCOTUSBlog's Lyle Denniston reports that a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court appears to favor the Environmental Protection Agency's position in favor of climate-change regulation in the six cases the court heard today: "As is so often the case when the Court is closely divided, the vote of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy loomed as the critical one, and that vote seemed inclined toward the EPA, though with some doubt. ... Continue Reading
February 24th, 2014
I'm blogging several times a day about products liability for Law.com. Each day I cross-post an excerpt of the day's blog I found most interesting.
A notice in a Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy, that tort claims would be barred after a date certain, applies to plaintiffs who did not know they would develop illnesses induced from a chemical producer's product, a federal judge has ruled.
Nine plaintiffs who... Continue Reading
February 24th, 2014
The Third Circuit is considering a constitutional challenge to New Jersey's ban on lawyers putting complimentary quotes from judges' opinions into ads, the New Jersey Law Journal. Only the full text of the opinion with the comments can be presented, the Journal notes.
On one hand, proponents of the ban argue it ensures that the judiciary does not appear to be biased in favor of one side and won't be pulled into ... Continue Reading
February 24th, 2014
Here's an excerpt of a piece I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune about how clerical and administrative jobs in law firms are changing due to technology as well as being reduced in number:
Technology has allowed people to work together in different offices around the country on labor-intensive cases like class actions.
There's no typing pool anymore.
The clerical and administrative work on legal cases has changed to tasks... Continue Reading
February 24th, 2014
Brennan Center for Justice's Andrew Cohen wrote in an opinion piece that "not a single national news organization has filed a single motion recently seeking to dissolve or at least diminish the great cloud of secrecy that has sprung up over the past few months over lethal injections in America." But several media organizations went to court to exercise their First Amendment rights to access the police videos of the arrest of... Continue Reading
February 24th, 2014
A challenge to Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage and on joint adoption by same-sex couples is going to a bench trial this week, the Detroit Free Press reports: "A key issue in this trial will be whether children raised by same-sex parents fare better or worse in life than children raised by heterosexual parents — or whether there’s no difference in their well-being." The plaintiffs argue that even under the lowest... Continue Reading
February 23rd, 2014
The New York Times reports on the copyright issues photographers face: "Technological advances, shifting artistic values and dizzying spikes in art prices have turned the world of visual arts into a boxing ring for intellectual-property rights disputes. Photographers, in particular, are complaining not only that their work is being stolen by other artists, but also that their ability to create new work related to their originals is... Continue Reading
February 23rd, 2014
An excerpt of a piece I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune:
A libel lawsuit being prosecuted by a Connecticut law firm against a California-based legal practice is showing some of the perils of using legal blogs.
Karl D. Shehu, whose Shehu LLC law firm is based in Waterbury, filed a lawsuit alleging defamation by San Diego-based attorney William Adams, of Norton Moore & Adams.
One key ruling so far in the case has been... Continue Reading
February 22nd, 2014
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer must decide whether to sign legislation that would allow conservative religious business owners to refuse to provide services to same-sex couples regarding their marriages, such as wedding photography, wedding cakes and flowers, The New York Times reports. On one hand, "civil libertarians and gay rights advocates say there is a difference between protections for clergy and houses of worship that do not want to... Continue Reading
February 22nd, 2014
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 5-2, ruled this week that law enforcement may not a track a suspect's movements from cellphone data without getting a warrant, The Wall Street Journal reports. The court held, "'“even though restricted to telephone calls sent and received (answered or unanswered), the tracking of the defendant’s movements in the urban Boston area for two weeks was more than sufficient to... Continue Reading
February 21st, 2014
I'm blogging several times a day about products liability for Law.com. Each day I cross-post an excerpt of the day's blog I find most interesting.
Mass torts cases must not be aggregated, and plaintiffs must provide facts to support their claims through expert reports, in order to avoid having nonmeritorious cases clogging the court process, says the federal judge presiding over the federal Asbestos Multidistrict Litigation for... Continue Reading
February 21st, 2014
The latest development in the controversy over changing how poor Philadelphians get their lawyers was City Council’s passage Thursday of a legislative package to establish financial and quality-control auditing requirements for some contracts.
The next question is whether Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter will veto the legislation.
If Nutter signs the legislation, then one piece of legislation involves a ballot question to be put... Continue Reading
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