While Alex Jones was the most recent high-profile example of a controversial public persona creating very personal and private problems, he is certainly not alone. Similar in theme, but not in execution is the case of the Michael and Heather Martin who are described as “YouTube stars” and post to a channel with over 760,000
Facebook Antagonist Has Conviction Reinstated
We’ve reported on the United States v. Elonis in the past. This case involved a Northampton County man who made a series of threats on his Facebook page directed at his estranged wife, his employer, and an FBI agent who came to investigate a threat he made to attack an elementary school. Elonis, in
Post on Social Media, Go to Jail – How a Facebook Post Violated a Court Order
A recent criminal case addressed, in part, an issue we saw in the case of Elonis v. United States. The Elonis case went to the U.S. Supreme Court which ultimately reversed the criminal conviction of a man based on statutory construction grounds that his Facebook postings did not offer the requisite mental intent to
No Lawyers Allowed – Discovery Rule Decision Bars Counsel from Observing Evaluation
The Discovery Rules account for all manner of need for obtaining evidence. Many of these rules are seldom, if ever, utilized by family law attorneys because either they are not germane to a family law case; not permitted by the Divorce Code (i.e. prohibition against discovery in simple support cases), or; family court cases have
Discovery Master Programs Increase to Handle Volume of E-Discovery
In nearly every facet of litigation, the issue of electronic discovery and how to manage its production and review is becoming an important issue. This is no different in family law cases. Increasingly, individuals, businesses, and financial institutions are producing discovery via PDFs, hyperlinks to shared databases, and hard drives or cloud access. The collection
Think Before You Text: iPad Texts are not Protected Under the Wiretapping Act
We have written about electronic discovery and Pennsylvania’s wiretapping law on this blog before. For family law attorneys, they are issues which can be critical to your case, but also present a minefield of ethical and evidentiary issues. How information may be collected and in what manner can be
What the Ashley Madison Data Breach Really Means to Divorce Lawyers and their Clients
When I first heard of the Ashley Madison data breach, I seem to be one of the few family law attorneys who felt somewhat cool to the idea it was going to result in a
PA COURTS WILL ENFORCE OUT-OF-STATE RESTRAINING ORDERS
Like many border areas of states, living in eastern Pennsylvania commonly results in legal issues which “span the river” into New Jersey, New York, Maryland, or Delaware (for our colleagues in the central and western part of the state, you
SOCIAL MEDIA PRENUPS TRY TO ENSURE PRIVATE MOMENTS STAY PRIVATE
A recent story through ABC’s Good Morning America website highlighted the evolution of the prenuptial agreement in the social media age. Divorce lawyers are reporting an increasing amount of requests for language in prenuptial agreements – if not stand-alone agreements – addressing social media usage.
It
SECRET, SECRET, I’VE GOT A WORK-PRODUCT PROTECTED SECRET
Many of my cases involve the use of expert witnesses; individuals hired to review and testify about a specific issue or topic. Usually they are financial experts whose job is value a particular asset