Friday, March 22, 2013

Legal links of interest for the week ending March 22, 2013


Some of the stories about courts, the law and lawyers in the news this past week:

·         Study on wrongful convictions finds prosecutorial misconduct and weak defense play a significant role: The report may be useful to practitioners to help understand how these factors come into play and how to ameliorate or alleviate them
 ·         Russia slams Texas prosecutors for not charging parents of dead adopted boy: A Texas coroner had declared the child’s death in January accidental, but Moscow demanded a complete report from U.S. officials.
 ·         Congressman objects to Seneca-Cayuga land-into-trust bidRep. Tom Reed (R), Seneca County’s representative in Congress opposes the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma’s application to put 230 acres of land it owns in Seneca and Cayuga counties into federal trust.
 ·         Public Access Guide to NY Courts available:  The Guide contains an application for the media when they seek to conduct coverage of court proceedings and will be available at all court clerks’ offices in the District and available at security posts on each floor of the Hall of Justice in Rochester, NY.
 ·         Red-light camera firms get heat over tickets: Legal challenges, public outcry not slowing industry growth
 ·         Stricter laws due in July to govern underage kids on social media: Sites such as Facebook will likely be forced to remove photos, audio recordings or other personal identifiers of children -- or else face stiff fines, under updates to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
 ·         Justices apply copyright first-sale doctrine to foreign goods: Libraries, museums, retailers and others who buy copyrighted goods made abroad can resell them without violating federal copyright law, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
 ·         Just how bad off are law school graduates?  There are a surprising number of job postings for lawyers that offer no salary at all, including government law jobs.

For more on each of these stories, click the links above.