Legal Search Marketing

Archive for the ‘General Legal News’ Category

Good article from Law.com about how lawyers are using social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace to get information on clients.

By Vesna Jaksic
The National Law Journal
October 15, 2007

At Malbrough & Lirette in Houma, La., a secretary browses MySpace and Facebook Web sites each day.

She’s not checking the online social networking sites for personal reasons, but is performing one of her job duties.

"It’s an everyday occasion," said Joan Malbrough, a partner at the three-attorney firm, which handles family law, personal injury and corporate law matters. "Every new client we do a MySpace and Facebook search on to see if they or their spouse have any useful information."

In one case, Malbrough said she helped secure shared custody for the father after finding his wife had posted sexually explicit comments on her boyfriend’s MySpace page. In another case, a husband’s credibility was questioned because, on his MySpace page, he said he was single and looking.

Lawyers in civil and criminal cases are increasingly finding that social networking sites can contain treasure chests of information for their cases. Armed with printouts from sites such as Facebook and MySpace, attorneys have used pictures, comments and connections from these sites as powerful evidence in the courtroom.

"It’s going to be more and more helpful in the future," said Mark Diebolt, a deputy county attorney in Pima County, Ariz.

The free sites allow users to post comments, pictures and videos, build online networks and communicate with others. Users can set different privacy settings, but many have public profiles that anyone can view.

The popularity of these sites continues to grow — Facebook alone has more than 42 million active users.

Diebolt said an eyewitness recently identified a first-degree murder suspect in a group photograph posted on MySpace. Such social networking sites have also been helpful in prosecuting gang-related crimes.

"[Gang members] won’t say they committed a crime, but they talk about some of the behavior and antics which relate to why we’re looking for them," he said.

John Palfrey, executive director of The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, said that, because social networking sites are fairly new, there are not many court decisions about the admissibility of information from them in court. But judges have indicated that they will treat this information like other electronic evidence, Palfrey said.

Read Full Article

Good article on the new Windows vista system from law.com.

Vista is the successor to Windows XP, the PC operating system currently used by over 400 million people. After more than five years of intensive efforts, Windows Vista is finally complete. This new operating system is a major Windows update with lots of new functionality and features. The words Microsoft uses to present its new operating system are "Confident, Clear, Connected." It is a complex product and a big product, 50 million lines of code. It’s the first Windows version to provide developers with a major new programming model in ten years. This article looks at what is new about Vista, pros and cons of upgrading, hardware requirements and how this new operating system will impact the technology path of your office.

CNET is reporting real estate info site, Zillow, has had an FTC complaint filed against it for posting misleading home pricing estimates.

In its complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition states that Zillow is “intentionally misleading consumers and real-estate professionals to rely upon the accuracy of its valuation services despite the full knowledge of the company officials that their valuation Automated Valuation Model (AVM) mechanism is highly inaccurate and misleading.”

Good article from Robert J. Ambrogi from Law.com about the new Internet Explorer browser version 7 and comparing it to the rival browser Firefox.

Good article about law firm web design by Jim Austin of The Legal Intelligencer.

Some interesting highlights…

Fewer firms are using "splash" pages — animated graphics or Flash presentations with little to no content. Splash pages increase download times, confuse search engines and can discourage visitors looking for content. Also, firms are moving away from tired legal clip art — columns, scales, briefcases, etc. The decrease in splash pages and big, boring graphics also lets firms make better use of the real estate on their home pages for constantly changing content, to highlight big news and upcoming events, and to tie print advertising campaigns to the firm’s Web site.

"Lawyer bios are still the single most important part of a law firm site," Buchdahl said. He said he is particularly impressed with firms like Arent Fox, which has made of point of adding a "life beyond the law" section to lawyer biographies, outlining lawyers’ hobbies, interests and other details of the person behind the legal credentials.

Court TV’s online service will offer full coverage of Saddam Hussein’s trial when it resumes, perhaps as early as next Monday.

Court TV Extra said Tuesday it would show the trial on a 20-minute delay. It is scheduled to air from roughly 4 to 9 a.m. EST, with on-demand highlight clips also available.

Source: Law.com