A NEW PRO BONO SERVICE

The New York and American Bar Association have started a service called "Free Legal Answers"

From the website:

"Free Legal Answers is based on the walk-in clinic or dial-a-lawyer model where clients request brief advice and counsel about a specific civil legal issue from a volunteer lawyer. Lawyers provide information and basic legal advice without any expectation of long-term representation.

Users who meet eligibility sign the use agreement, create a username and password, post a request for legal advice information and provide facts about their case that will help the lawyer answer the question. Users will be asked to select a category (such as “housing” or “debt”) that best describes their question. The lawyer may ask for additional information before responding to the user’s request, but the user will have a choice to respond to that request or not. Users' name and county, but no other identifying information will be shared with the volunteer lawyer. Users are informed that there is no guarantee that a question will be answered. If a question is not answered within 30 days, the user will receive an email from the website administrator instructing them to seek assistance elsewhere. The user will also be provided with a list of additional resources."

For more information, https://ny.freelegalanswers.org/see 

THERE ARE SIX TYPES OF LAWYER MOVIES

 According to ABA Journal, there are 6 types. Find out more at: http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/6_lawyer_movie_tropes

ONLINE REVIEWS- THE ASTER DENTAL CASE

From the current ABA Journal:

"Robert Allen Lee desperately needed a dentist.

Dr. Stacy Makhnevich at Aster Dental in New York City was able to squeeze Lee in to treat his toothache. When Lee arrived, the dentist required he sign a "mutual agreement to maintain privacy"—a confidentiality agreement with a nondisparagement clause that waives patients' rights to publicly comment on services and assigns copyright to the provider. Anxious for treatment, Lee signed and slid into the dentist's chair.


Though Lee found relief from his toothache, dealing with his dentist over the bill—which totaled $4,766 for the filling—became a pain. He complained about Makhnevich on Yelp and DoctorBase, another online site, claiming the dentist overcharged him and did not furnish the treatment records that would allow him to make an insurance claim and be reimbursed.
Makhnevich fought back. Armed with the privacy agreement Lee signed, she sent takedown notices to the websites hosting the complaints. She then threatened to sue Lee, sending him invoices of $100 a day for copyright infringement.

Lee returned fire. He filed suit against the dentist in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, aiming to invalidate the copyright claim.

“She charged him a lot of money. It was outrageous,” says Paul Alan Levy, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group in Washington, D.C., who works on online free speech issues and handled Lee’s case. “What he wrote was true.”

More than four years after treatment, Lee won. The court, in its 2015 ruling, termed the privacy agreement null and void, calling the contract “a deceptive act or practice in violation of New York General Business Law,” which bars deceptive business practices. Lee was awarded $4,766 in damages."

NOTE THE FOLLOWING:

According to one source: "Makhnevich and her practice disappeared after the ruling, and even her own lawyers were unable to contact her." See http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/02/dentist-said-to-hit-patients-will-pay-12k-for-trying-to-out-youtube-critic/

A google search on Dr. Makhnevich reveals that she is a "dentist, artist and opera singer" apparently now in Canada and/or in Europe (see http://www.stacymakhnevich.com)

IMPORTANT LEGAL STORIES OF 2015

These are the 10 most important legal stories of 2015 according to ABA Journal:

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/10_most_important_legal_stories_of_2015/?utm_source=maestro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly_email

MY "CONNECTION" TO LUCKY LUCIANO

In this month's ABA Journal, there is an article on the 1936 trial of Lucky Luciano. Moses Polakoff, Luciano’s longtime attorney, worked on the case along with criminal counsel George Morton Levy.

In the early 1979-1980, I was an associate to Berman & Zivyak and next door to my office was Moses Polakoff. One of my duties as an associate, was to assist Mr. Polakoff on various matters.

And that's the extent of my connection to organized crime and Lucky Luciano. By the way, Mr. Polakoff would never discuss his representation of Luciano and, of course, I was forbidden to ask.

DIVORCE ACTIONS - SETTLEMENT

This link is to an article from the American Bar Association's GP SOLO and is entitled:

"Preparing a Client for Settlement"

See http://www.americanbar.org/publications/gp_solo/2015/july-august/family_law_preparing_client_settlement.html

LAW AT THE MOVIES

 

From the American Bar Association Journal:

 

"This year marks the 100th anniversary of the ABA Journal, so we’ve been exploring the legal and cultural history of the past century. For our annual pop culture issue, we looked for the best legal movies released in the decades since our launch in 1915. What follows is our list of the most important and influential legal movies for each decade, along with comments from some of the jurors who helped us with our picks."

 

See http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/100_years_of_law_at_the_movies/

 

LAWYER DEMOGRAPHICS

According to the American Bar Association (ABA), in the United States there are 1,281,432 licensed lawyers.

Legal profession statistics from the ABA can be viewed at this link:

http://www.americanbar.org/resources_for_lawyers/profession_statistics.html

LAWYERS AND MENTAL HEALTH

Excellent article from ABA Journal  - Lawyers who self-medicate to deal with stress sometimes steal from those they vowed to protect

MENTAL HEALTH INITIATIVE

The ABA Law Student Division’s National Mental Health Day is March 27 and law schools across the country are being encouraged to spread awareness and promote discussion about mental health and substance abuse in the legal community.

For more information: http://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_students/initiatives_awards/lshealth.html

LAWYERS & JURORS & SOCIAL MEDIA

In the past few days, the press has been reporting on the fact that The American Bar Association says it's ethical for lawyers to scour online for publicly available musings of citizens called for jury service — and even jurors in deliberations.

This was actually from an opinion issued in April 2014 and here is a link to the full opinion:

http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/professional_responsibility/formal_opinion_466_final_04_23_14.authcheckdam.pdf

FOR ABA MEMBERS - FREE CLE TODAY ON ONLINE REPUTATION

A one hour webinar described as follows:

"Trolls, Flame Throwers and Haters are all over the internet. As an attorney, you have a reputation you want to protect from people writing horrible things about you or even outright lies. How do you create and manage your brand from being destroyed by individuals who have negative things to say?"

Important not just for one's own practice, but to counsel clients who also experience this.

"Visit our website at www.americanbar.org/gpsolo.
Recordings of this program and others will be posted on the GPSolo website after each session.
Please visit http://ambar.org/GPSoloBrownBag to listen to the audio."