Moritz Legal Information Blog

Our previous coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing covered civil liability for defamation, the right to privacy, and criminal procedure. The trial finally started (after several motions to change venue over concerns about the ability to secure an "impartial" jury in Boston), and opening statements were made. Jury selection took 22 days in court. Twenty-two days! Consider CLEs have been offered advising on a meaningful and effective 30-minute voir dire ! What's more, though jury selection has been said to "make or break" a trial verdict, often judges are in the driver's seat when it comes to the actual questioning and selection of jurors, depending on your court. We of course have numerous resources you could consult on how to conduct effective voir dire. And if you're looking for a respite from trial practice, consider checking out Runaway Jury .

Copyright infringement litigation is ubiquitous, perhaps because infringement is a relatively easy claim to allege, and there are big stakes so damages can be significant. From an economics perspective, the statutory damages rate theoretically has to be high enough to discourage infringement rather than negotiating a license, but actual damages may be relatively easy to prove and might be higher. At any rate, plaintiffs have at least two possibly lucrative avenues should they prove infringement. A quick search of Google news produces dozens of recent copyright infringement suits filed, and here are just a few that might pique your interest: Heavy-Weight Plaintiffs Left Shark journeys from Super Bowl to Internet meme to lawsuit threat : Katy Perry's legal team has sued a figurine maker who is trying to capitalize on Left Shark's 15 minutes of fame. An Equal-Stakes Bout Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams Deny 'Blurred Lines' Copyright Infringement Claim: " Ro

How many heads tall is the average man? What on earth kind of measurement is "a head?" Or a bushel? Or a fortnight? You know we love weights and measures here at the Moritz Law Library, and its a more pressing topic  as drug laws around the country change . Well, great news! Franklin County, Ohio, will celebrate National Weights and Measures Week March 1-7 celebrating the 216th anniversary of the first weights and measures law in the United States. The Franklin County Auditor’s Office Weights and Measures Department will be hosting all sorts of cool events to celebrate

In the past, using Black's Law Dictionary on WestlawNext has been trying.  You look up "constitution" and see a reference to another definition for "penumbra."  But you cannot click on "penumbra."  You must start a new search. That problem has been solved.  WestlawNext recently added hyperlinks, so you can click through cross-references and find what you need more quickly.  In other WestlawNext news, users can now save files from WestlawNext directly to DropBox. Clicking the download button offers this choice.

The intricacies of legislative history beset many a researcher.  Changes in the legislative process can further complicate an already difficult process.  For example, in 2011, the House of Representatives adopted a new rule requiring a Constitutional Authority Statement linking every bill or joint resolution to specific constitutional bases.  This rule produces a new legislative history document, one which Another congressional change in the news involves committee names.  Understandably, some committee names evolve with the culture or with technology, as when Committee on Roads and Canals became the Committee on Railways and Canals and now the Transportation Committee.  Of late, Senator Cornyn has removed "civil rights" and "human rights" from the name of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee he chairs, leaving it the Constitution subcommittee.  Tracing multiple attempts at a bill over a series of Congresses may mean researchers will encounter unfamiliar committee n

Federal court rules change, and you do not want to be the attorney behind the times who doesn't keep up with those changes. Change is good. Really. Especially when the changes are responsive to modern technologies. For example, back in 2013, the Supreme Court proposed changes to Rule 45 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, i.e., discovery. Where the changes adopted? If you looked at the latest version of the FRCP, could you tell? Could you tell what the old language looked like? Good news for researchers: Georgetown has a comprehensive research guide all about federal court rules! Section XVI is titled “ Where to Find the Legislative History of Federal Court Rules ;" it refers you to the federal court rulemaking process as described here . The guide also provides extensive details about the process. It’s quite complex and interesting. The Judicial Conference has a Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (i.e., the Standing Committee), and there are also five

Portlandia ---a television show that depicts Portland, Oregon, in what might find a cringingly accurate (yet lovable) way---had an excellent segment that featured artist/bike messenger Spyke (1) being sued by Matt Groening for copyright infringement because Spyke was screen printing shirts featuring Bart Ska-mpson, and (2) stopping by his local law library (!) to research and prepare for the copyright trial. The concept is great: "the man" suing the street artist for copyright infringement. But as you'll soon discover after taking an intellectual property class in law school , the accuracy of the law is shunted to the side in favor of the story. Problem number one: the trial is not necessarily set in federal court. Instead, it's in "Portland Courthouse South-west Portland." Not a big problem, I know, but it sets the tone. And then I spent the rest of the episode analyzing the legal claims. So if a career in copyright law doesn't pan out, conside