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US high court: warrant needed for GPS tracking
Law Firm News |
2012/01/23 10:21
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that police must get a search warrant before using GPS technology to track criminal suspects.
The ruling represents a serious complication for law enforcement nationwide, which increasingly relies on high tech surveillance of suspects, including the use of various types of satellite technology.
A GPS device installed by police on Washington nightclub owner Antoine Jones' Jeep helped them link him to a suburban house used to stash money and drugs. He was sentenced to life in prison before the appeals court overturned the conviction.
Associate Justice Antonin Scalia said that the government's installation of a GPS device, and its use to monitor the vehicle's movements, constitutes a search, meaning that a warrant is required. |
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US army panel advises trial in Afghanistan suicide
Court Watch |
2012/01/23 10:20
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An investigative hearing has recommended that an American soldier be court-martialed over hazing that allegedly led to a fellow infantryman's suicide in Afghanistan, but dismissed the most serious charge against him, the U.S. military said Monday.
Spc. Ryan Offutt is one of eight soldiers charged in the death of 19-year-old Pvt. Danny Chen, who shot himself on Oct. 3 after what investigators say were weeks of physical abuse, humiliation and racial slurs.
A native New Yorker of Chinese descent, Chen had been in Afghanistan only two months when he shot himself in a guardhouse at a remote outpost in Afghanistan's Kandahar province.
The investigative hearing recommended that Offutt, 32, be court-martialed on charges including assault, negligent homicide, and reckless endangerment, a statement from U.S. military said.
It said the hearing, which ended Sunday, did not recommend trial for an additional charge of involuntary manslaughter, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The most serious charge Offutt now faces is negligent homicide, which carries a prison sentence of up to three years.
The regional American military commander will make a final decision on any court-martial based on the hearing's recommendations, the U.S. statement said.
Attorneys for Offutt could not immediately be contacted. Offutt, a native of Greenville, Pa., joined the Army in 2006 and served 14 months in Iraq before being deployed to Afghanistan. |
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Heitman Law Firm, PL. - Florida Construction Law Attorney
Firm News |
2012/01/23 10:19
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a href=http://www.palmbeachconstructionlaw.org/disputes-contractsh4Palm Beach Construction Law Attorney
/h4/a
High Quality Legal Representation
By quality, we mean degree of excellence. Heitman Law Firm practices construction law. Mr. Heitman is an expert in construction law, board certified by the Florida Bar. He is a member of an elite group of board certified construction attorneys. In addition, Mr. Heitman is a Florida Licensed Professional Engineer, with years of experience building real world construction projects. As such, the Firm is extremely well qualified to render its clients high quality legal representation.
Client Service
Heitman Law Firm serves its clients by first comprehending the specific issues our clients face and then tailoring our representation to those specific needs. Construction law cases often involve legal, technical, engineering, design, constructability and scheduling issues. We speak the language of construction. We understand your business. We know how to read a set of plans. Our client service is based on the idea that the client should not be required to pay to bring us up to speed on the construction issues. Instead, we make it our business to be ahead of the learning curve. |
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Herskovits PLLC - New York Securities Litigation Law
Lawyer News |
2012/01/22 10:19
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a href=http://www.herskovitslaw.comh4New York Securities Litigation Law Firm/h4/aWe are trusted advisors for litigation and regulatory enforcement matters. When disputes arise – in the enforcement, customer and employment context – we are skilled negotiators, using every available resource to protect our clients and minimize disruption to their business. When litigation is unavoidable, however, we are tenacious advocates with time-tested experience before state and federal courts and regulatory bodies, and in a broad range of arbitration and mediation settings.
Leveraging decades of collective experience in the financial services sector, our firm was established to help clients respond to this rapidly changing environment and highly complex marketplace.
Please click the links below to learn more about our law firm's practice areas:
a href=http://www.herskovitslaw.com/new-york/securities-litigation-and-arbitrationSecurities Litigation and Arbitration/a
a href=http://www.herskovitslaw.com/new-york/securities-industry-regulatory-defenseSecurities Industry Regulatory Defense/a |
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Police witnesses called in fake 'Rockefeller' case
Court Watch |
2012/01/20 10:09
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A Superior Court judge testified in a murder case against a man who posed as an heir to the Rockefeller fortune, saying that more than two decades ago he lent a chain saw to the defendant while the two were living in San Marino.
William Stewart said he was a lawyer when Christian Gerhartsreiter, then known as Christopher Chichester, asked to borrow an electric chain saw in late 1984 or early 1985.
He said he had a problem with a branch on a tree that was scratching a window, Stewart said Thursday.
Stewart, who met the defendant at his church, said Chichester kept the tool for several months, returning it just before leaving town in the spring of 1985.
The hearing for Gerhartsreiter will determine whether there is enough evidence to put him on trial for the apparent bludgeoning death of John Sohus that only came to light when the victim's bones were dug up at the former home of John and Linda Sohus in 1994, nearly 10 years after the couple vanished. Gerhartsreiter was a tenant in the guesthouse at the home. |
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Amazon Hit With Class Action Over Zappos Data Breach
Topics |
2012/01/18 10:05
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Shoe retailer Zappos is facing a national class action suit one day after it warned customers that its servers had been hacked.
On Monday, the Amazon-owned shoe company sent a mass email stating that 24 million customer accounts had been breached. The incident resulted in hackers obtaining names, phone numbers, emails, encrypted passwords and the last four numbers of customer credit cards.
The lawsuit claims Amazon violated a part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to properly encrypt and secure customer information, and seeks unspecified damages for 24 million customers.
The lead plaintiff in the case is a Texas woman but the suit was filed in federal court in Louisville, Kentucky on the grounds that Amazon has servers located in that state.
As these type of hacking incidents have become more common, so too have related lawsuits. So far, though, few of these lawsuits been successful because customers have been unable to show that they have been harmed by the data breaches.
The Kentucky lawsuit appears based in part on a novel legal theory that customers will now be more susceptible to phishing and other online scams because hackers have their email. It also alleges the plaintiffs suffered emotional distress. Other high-profile data breach cases such as one involving Sony’s Play Station have been based in part on state consumer laws.
Although courts have been reluctant to find that customers have been harmed by data breaches, there is evidence this may be changing. A security publication recently reported
that an appeals court allowed customers to claim they suffered harm in the form of having to buy insurance for identity theft.
Some media publications this week praised Zappos’ for having a pre-arranged plan to respond to the data theft. The company claims that its customer credit cards remained secure because they were stored in a separate server. |
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