Privacy Law

TV station posted interrogation video with Social Security number, says lawyer who plans lawsuit

The South Carolina woman accused of leaving her 9-year-old daughter in a park while she worked at McDonald’s is planning a lawsuit against a TV station that posted her interrogation video without editing out her Social Security number, according to her lawyer. Debra Harrell was charged on July 1 with…

Aug 20, 2014 3:18 PM CDT

Arrest records linger in FBI database and websites; acquitted law student sees consequences

Getting arrested doesn’t necessarily result in conviction or even prosecution. But arrest records in an FBI master criminal database aren’t always updated with the disposition, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. And individuals trying to find proof of dropped charges can hit roadblocks when the cases are old and…

Aug 19, 2014 7:34 PM CDT

Federal suit claims family members were banned from mom’s nursing home over social media posts

The children of a patient in a nursing home in Sugar Land, Texas, have sued the facility, alleging that they can’t visit their mother there because they have been banned over their social media posts. The plaintiffs say Silverado Senior Living had no valid reason for the ban, which was…

Aug 19, 2014 4:40 PM CDT

Judge says he had no obligation to disclose prosecutor’s live feed of court hearings

A judge in Warren County, Ohio, is defending his decision to allow a live camera and audio feed of hearings and trials to be piped into the prosecutor’s office. Judge James Flannery said judges had no obligation to tell lawyers about prosecutor David Fornshell’s cameras; instead it was up to…

Aug 15, 2014 1:07 PM CDT

Name of officer in Ferguson shooting is released; ACLU sues for incident reports

Updated: Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson has identified the officer who shot 18-year-old Michael Brown last Saturday, sparking protests and clashes with police for five nights. Jackson identified the officer as Darren Wilson during a news conference on Friday, the New York Times reports. Wilson has been an officer with…

Aug 15, 2014 11:59 AM CDT

Judge Judy settles suit over ads with her likeness

Judge Judy has settled her suit that contended a Connecticut personal injury lawyer used her image without her authorization. Judy Sheindlin said in a statement that she and Hartford lawyer John Haymond “reached an amicable resolution of their claims against each other,” according to the Connecticut Law Tribune and TMZ.…

Aug 12, 2014 3:12 PM CDT

Never mind: US says it doesn’t need to redact transcript of public court hearing after all

A challenge to “dragnet surveillance” by the National Security Agency became a battle over transparency after the United States secretly sought an advance look at a transcript of a public hearing so it could remove any classified material. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the suit on behalf of AT&T…

Aug 7, 2014 10:45 AM CDT

Some 17,000 seek to join law student’s Facebook class action in Austria

A class action filed against Facebook by an Austrian law student, contending that its data-collection practices violate European law, is gathering steam. Some 17,000 users of the social media site have signed up to join in the case following a call to action by 26-year-old Max Schrems last week, Reuters…

Aug 5, 2014 10:25 PM CDT

Financier backs Austrian law student’s class action against Facebook; it seeks damages under US law

Backed by an unidentified financier, a 26-year-old Austrian law student has filed a class-action lawsuit against Facebook in his privacy-friendly home country. The Vienna commercial court case filed by Max Schrems claims privacy violations under European Union law, pointing to Facebook’s sharing of user data with third parties through the…

Aug 4, 2014 7:15 PM CDT

Ethics complaint accuses former GE lawyer of disclosing client secrets

An ethics complaint filed in Washington, D.C., accuses a former in-house lawyer for General Electric of disclosing confidential company information after she was fired. The complaint (PDF) against lawyer M. Adriana Koeck alleges she copied her computer hard drive and disclosed confidential information to the media and to federal agencies,…

Aug 4, 2014 3:51 PM CDT

11th Circuit upholds ‘Docs v. Glocks’ law in First Amendment challenge

A federal appeals court is allowing enforcement of a Florida law that prevents physicians from talking with patients about guns in their homes when it is irrelevant to medical care. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday vacated an injunction that had prevented the law from taking…

Jul 28, 2014 2:40 PM CDT

People look to Yelp to find lawyers online, survey says | Fallout over Facebook mood study?

Larry Bodine noted a survey of 3,465 people finding that 58 percent of those seeking lawyers make their first stop at business review site Yelp. And this is significant considering three out of four consumers seeking lawyers use online resources at some point in the process, according to a 2012…

Jul 11, 2014 1:30 PM CDT

Woman billed $5K for hospital body cavity searches gets $1.1M settlement

A Texas hospital and two emergency room physicians have agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle a suit by a New Mexico woman who claimed she was subjected against her will to “multiple, redundant and increasingly intrusive” body cavity searches at the facility. The woman, identified as Jane Doe in…

Jul 10, 2014 5:12 PM CDT

Two Muslim American lawyers were subject to NSA email surveillance, report says

Two Muslim American lawyers were among five prominent Americans whose emails were apparently monitored by the National Security Agency, according to a published report. Both lawyers say they believe they were targeted because of their religion, the Intercept reports in a story based on documents released Edward Snowden. Legal Times…

Jul 10, 2014 12:22 PM CDT

Sleeping Yankees fan caught on camera sues for alleged defamation

A Yankees fan who was caught on camera napping at an April 13 game has filed a $10 million suit for alleged defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit filed on behalf of fan Andrew Robert Rector claims the ESPN announcers “unleashed [an] avalanche of disparaging words” about…

Jul 8, 2014 1:33 PM CDT