The BBC highlights research showing friends add years to your life (excerpt): Good friends promise to be there for you, and their presence can actually help you live longer, researchers say. Australian scientists said having friends around in old age…
Clarifying euphemisms
The ABA’s Litigation News features “Change in Deposition Testimony Leads to Preclusion,” by Joseph Beckman. The article links to two additional articles: E. Phelps Gay, Professionalism in Depositions: The Sound of Silence, Louisiana State Bar Ass’n, Professionalism and Quality of…
Mixed misunderstanding
The AP is reporting on developments in Lebanon, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville, where a family court judge ordered a Mexican immigrant mother to learn English at risk of losing her child (excerpt): [Felipa Barrera] said she loves her daughter…
Weally wicked Wiccan witings?
The AP reports on a divorce court’s attempt to prevent parents from exposing their 9-year old son to their religious beliefs. Ken Kusmer writes (excerpt): A court commissioner wrote the unusual order after a routine report by the court’s Domestic…
People who need people
The New York Times tells of the power of kindness and the ties that bind. Matt Richtel writes (excerpt): In scenes exhibiting a vivid range of feelings – acrimony, compassion, rekindled love, abiding friendship – sick and dying Americans are…
Wi-Fi on the Road
Many hotels now offer free wireless Internet access. The Hilton hotel chain, which includes the value-priced Hampton Inn group, generally offers free in-room Wi-Fi. However, some chains offer only wired high speed Internet in guest rooms. That means your laptop…
New Tech Products of Interest to Lawyers
Here are a half dozen new technology products of interest to lawyers (and geeks in general).
Among back issues of The Signal
AP reports Walt Whitman’s 117 year old advice, recently discovered by The College of New Jersey’s Nicole Kukawski. Chris Newmarker writes (excerpt): “First, don’t write poetry; second ditto; third ditto,” Whitman says. “You may be surprised to hear me say…
Celebrity-moms
USA Today interviews mom-celebrities and celebrity-moms about that delicate balance. Donna Freydkin writes (excerpt): Jenny McCarthy *** “He is my No. 1 priority. I turn down everything that will take me away from him for too long. I have turned…
Scarlet letters?
Findlaw covers the issue of fault (adultery) and alimony (spousal support), as raised before the New Jersey Supreme Court. Joanna Grossman writes (excerpt): Courts and legislators also developed a particularized dislike for fault considerations in alimony awards, given the development…
Through the squalls of conflict
The New York Times examines the the ability of therapists to help couples in the short term and the long run. Susan Gilbert writes (excerpt): To be sure, many couples credit counseling with strengthening their marriages. And therapists say that…
Free Remote Access to Your PC
I’ve been testing a free remote access service called LogMeIn. Remote access services are indispensible to a busy family law attorney who wants to avoid rushing back to the office at night or on a weekend to check office email,…
First comes college, then comes marriage
The New York Times reports on studies showing that the divorce rate in the United States has never been 50% and probably never will. Dan Hurley writes (excerpt): Women without undergraduate degrees have remained at about the same rate, their…
Snooping around
USA Today repeats the warnings about everyday spies, threats to privacy and unintended consequences. Janet Kornblum writes (excerpt): A Florida state appeals court judge, for example, ruled in February that spy software that a wife had installed on her husband’s…
What’s it all about?
This American Life will be showcasing stories of making sense of marriage and divorce. Check for your local public radio station and air times (or check back with the website for audio replays).
Beyond the headlines
USA Today shows that even in Hollywood, real trials don’t follow scripts. Martin Kasindorf reports on some of the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction moments from the Michael Jackson’s child-molestation trial.
Come closer . . . now leave me alone
The New York Times reports on the problem of moving our kids from teens to adults and the need to do something by 7th grade, but not too much. Eric Nagourney writes (excerpt): Children with the most distant [parent] relationships…
“Why is everybody always picking on me?”
The ABA e-Journal discusses the plight of a former judge, now practicing law in Hawaii, facing disbarment for trying to impose penalties on clients who complain about him. Richard Y. S. Lee is “perturbed at the system.” Terry Carter writes…
Death & humanity
The United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Roper v. Simmons (March 1, 2005). The Court held, in a 5-4 ruling, that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments forbid imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under the…
“100-Mile” Rule Ruling
The Court of Appeals has given practitioners in Michigan a ruling regarding the so-called “100-mile” rule, MCL 722.31. The recent case is Grew v Knox II, unpublished decision per curiam of the Court of Appeals, issued Frebruary 24, 2005 (Docket…