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Reporting

My original reporting on legal events and trends:

Reporting

March 18th, 2014
Consent does not protect privacy in the era of big data because it is not meaningful in an era of giving permission through clicks on a screen, said Kate Crawford, a researcher at Microsoft Research and MIT, at the Social, Cultural & Ethical Dimensions of 'Big Data' held last night. Big data analytics are being sliced and diced to create personalization and segmentation, Crawford said. But predictive analytics can create "... Continue Reading
March 17th, 2014
I wrote a story for Hearst about one of many prayer vigils held around the country to commemorate the people lost to gun violence. Here is an excerpt:  Each pair represented the absence of people killed by guns. Dale Ferguson's father was one of those people. Edward Ferguson was a school custodian shot dead outside of the Elizabeth S. Shelton elementary school in Shelton in August 1988. Ferguson was 8 years old. His... Continue Reading
March 11th, 2014
I'm blogging several times a day about products liability for Law.com. Occasionally I cross-post an excerpt of a blog I find interesting: Plaintiff's lawyers in a bellwether trial over whether Eli Lilly and Company's Actos drug causes bladder cancer allege that a witness for defendant Eli Lilly has committed perjury and have asked for the court to issue a default judgment as a consequence. The plaintiff's counsel also... Continue Reading
March 5th, 2014
I'm blogging several times a day about products liability for Law.com. Occasionally I cross-post an excerpt of a blog I find interesting: The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled against a plaintiffs' attorney for the second time in a dispute with two former clients over who owes money for discovery undertaken on the behalf of all plaintiffs in the massive federal diet-drug litigation. Herbert Lee Jr. represented 13 plaintiffs who... Continue Reading
March 5th, 2014
An excerpted version of a piece I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune: One of David Rosen's personal injury cases resolved for a confidential amount last fall. When he got the case, his offices were in New Haven, about 10 miles away from where plaintiff Brenda Adelson was living in Hamden. But Adelson hadn't been hurt in Connecticut or even the continental United States. Her leg was severely crushed by a failing water... Continue Reading
March 4th, 2014
I'm blogging several times a day about products liability for Law.com and The National Law Journal. Occasionally I cross-post an excerpt of a blog I find interesting. The federal judge presiding over 40,000 vaginal-mesh cases has appointed Garretson Resolution Group to resolve liens asserted in all six consolidated multidistrict litigation. Medicare is mandated by federal law to seek repayment for treatment it has provided... Continue Reading
February 27th, 2014
The National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Media Law Resource Center jointly conducted a survey, which showed troubling trends for transparency. Here is an excerpt of the report I wrote for NFOIC and MLRC about the 2013 survey results: Just as similar informal surveys in 2009 and 2011 had, the 2013 Open Government Survey found a substantial decline over the last two to five years in the amount of resources devoted by media... Continue Reading
February 26th, 2014
I'm blogging several times a day about products liability for Law.com. Each day I cross-post an excerpt of a blog I find interesting. The Consumer Products Safety Commission is seeking public comment on its proposal to change the disclosure of information about manufacturers of products. The commission voted 2-1 in favor of putting the proposed rules out for public comment. The dissenting commissioner said her colleagues were... 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
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 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 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
February 10th, 2014
A recent documentary is highlighting the issue of racial bias in the juvenile justice system. In reporting a piece for the Connecticut Law Tribune, I learned that Connecticut is widely praised for making great steps in improving its juvenile justice system. But statistics show that, despite those reforms, racial bias hasn't been erased. More kids of color than white kids are sent into the system and sent into the system for longer.... Continue Reading
February 10th, 2014
Connecticut homeowners who still haven't been paid by their insurers over damage from Superstorm Sandy are running out of time to sue their insurers, I reported for the Connecticut Post and the Stamford Advocate. Here's the full story: Homeowners whose insurance companies still have not paid them for Superstorm Sandy damage and may need to sue their insurers will soon run out of time to do so. Even though Connecticut law... Continue Reading

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