Attorneys of America, beware: after health care, reform is coming to you next. Singlepayerlegal.org is a new website arguing for legal costs and care to be made available for all Americans equally. As some of their demands, the people at Singlepayerlegal.org hope for a system “in which all attorneys are salaried, and are required to provide legal services to all-comers, regardless of income or disparity-group status, at fair and stable reimbursement rates determined by a Department of Legal Services (DLS).” The idea is to apply to attorneys the same kind of system that is being applied to doctors, thanks to the new health care reform act. But doing so is likely to be a very difficult process, not least because it would involve going up against the attorneys in America who are most likely to best be able to prevent this kind of change from coming about in the first place.
To Reform the Attorneys, or Not To Reform?
June 4th, 2010Lawyers and Deceptive Advertising
June 4th, 2010Lawyers in New York are now capable of claiming that they can jump buildings in a single bound and stop bullets with their teeth in their ads, though it is unclear how these traits would encourage clients to hire them as lawyers. Nonetheless, according to courthouse news.com, “The 2nd Circuit struck down most of New York’s content-based restrictions on attorney advertisements, ruling that even an ad depicting giant lawyers with superhuman speed who regularly defend space aliens is not likely to mislead consumers.” Now, lawyers are capable of advertising in almost anyway they want, except for (1) depicting fictitious law firms, and (2) referring to specific incidents before 30 days have gone by since the incidents’ occurrence. The change actually resulted because the law firm Alexander & Catalano, led by lawyer James Alexander, had actually created an ad fitting the description provided in the quote, of lawyers defending space aliens.
Electronic Privacy Law and the Never-Ending Struggle
June 4th, 2010Technology has grown more and more quickly of late, and it has been changing the world as it does, reshaping our means of communication and information storage. Unfortunately, thanks to the nature of the American political system, it is very difficult to keep America’s laws up to date with the changing technological scene. No single technological development greater exemplifies the way in which America’s laws becomes outdated compared to technology than the Internet. The Internet has led to major changes in access to information, and in information storage, which thereby change the methods in which the law must interact with information. Now, Google and Microsoft are pushing for a modernization of America’s privacy laws, so as to update those laws to fit the current level and nature of technology.