New Apps Flood Lawyers With Information

Attorneys, perhaps more than any other professionals, are awash with information; information about their cases, information about changing laws, a constantly shifting schedule.  The pace with which the information now flows can only be described as instantaneous.

The manner in which a lawyer collects, stores and utilizes this information is a good indicator of that lawyer's professional skill.  In this era of a 24/7 stream of digitized information, mobile devices are beginning to offer specialized apps for lawyers.

Here are some examples:

SCOTUS App.  The Oyez Project has just launched an app that will download U.S. Supreme Court activity to your mobile device.  This will include digitally recorded oral arguments, text of the High Court's decisions, as  well as media coverage and analysis.  Pretty cool, to be sure; but is this information-overkill?  Why not just wait until you get back to your computer?

Mobile Transcript.  This app allows you to download, manipulate, summarize, and transmit deposition transcripts right from your mobile phone.  Great for when litigation data must be processed fast.  Try using this while on vacation, however, and you will likely need to hire a divorce attorney.

Family Law Apps.  Speaking of divorce, there are plenty of divorce-related apps in both the Droid and iPhone markets.  For those residents of Gotham, there is an app to calculate your child support, there are apps to save your marriage; apps to stop your divorce; apps to help you win custody and, or course, apps for various forward-leaning divorce attorneys and law firms.  Exhausting, to be sure.


State Bar App.  Useless here in Michigan, but perhaps a harbinger, the Maryland State Bar Association has produced an  app that downloads their rules of evidence, rules of professional conduct, and bits of professional philosophy right to your handheld device.  Can the SBM be far behind?


Law Blog Apps.  In a case of life imitating art, or perhaps this is best described as lawyers taking themselves too seriously, the blawg "FutureLawyer" announced on Tuesday that there is an app available to download their tech-related posts directly to your mobile device.  As if you just could not live without their updates; now you can digest their posts about the latest tech developments while you wait for your case to be called; could have used this App today.

In 18-months, most of these current apps will be considered obsolete.  The thing about high-tech is that products are constantly being improved.

Soon, you will be able to go to your doctor and just get a "chip" implanted into your skull; that way you'll have all the world's latest data right under your hood.  

www.clarkstonlegal.com

info@clarkstonlegal.com

Post-Divorce Nesting

Brown Bird Design for Time

This week in Time Magazine, there is a story in the "Society" section about a mode of parenting known as, "Nesting".  This is where divorced parents each secure a residence beyond the former marital home; the couple's children remain in the marital home, to "nest".

The theory behind nesting is that it seeks to minimize the sense of upheaval that children of school age often experience during and after their parent's divorce.

Time's Belinda Luscombe speculates that the nesting mode of post-divorce parenting has emerged over the past decade as an innovative version of co-parenting.  It remains rare, however, to get both parents on the same page be able to pull it off.

In the past decade, I have completed nearly 250 divorces and only two of those featured a nesting arrangement.  Of those two cases, one of nests was destroyed, via foreclosure.

On the other hand, the difficult real estate market has forced many divorcing couples to hang onto their former marital home; like it or not.  Nesting would seem to be a viable option.  Usually, however, one of the parents "takes one for the team" and remains in the marital home, or the couple "walks away" from the home to begin their new post-divorce lives under the cloud of foreclosure.

Proponents assert that the nesting arrangement eliminates the continuous shuffling between two homes by the children that comes with a traditional parenting schedule; the parents do the shuffling in a nesting arrangement.  Also, for children of a certain age, the arrangement allows them to continue living and going to school in a familiar environment, their childhood home, while they adjust to their parents' divorce.

Most family court judges look upon nesting arrangements with a certain degree of skepticism, if not outright scorn.  In family court, however, parents are free to make whatever arrangements they desire so long as the judge can be convinced it is in best interests of the children involved in the case.

As a temporary post-divorce parenting technique between two cooperating amiable co-parents, nesting can work.  It very well may provide the minor children with a better opportunity to adjust to the strains of divorce.

www.clarkstonlegal.com

info@clarkstonlegal.com

Oakland County Re-Visits Medical Marijuana Drama

The Oakland County Sheriff's interpretation of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act (MMA) and the Controlled Substances Act has forced two local marijuana facilities to lock their doors.  One of the pot-growing operations, Big Daddy's Hydro, in Oak Park, closed voluntarily; the other facility, right here in Commerce Township where this blog post is being composed, was the subject of a task-force raid.

The Oakland Press ran a front-page story on Saturday about Big Daddy's Hydro.  The facility was on the receiving end of an Oakland County Sheriff's raid back in January.  Since then, the owners were resolved to carry on their operation; an operation they insisted was legal under the MMA.  Sounds like a movie might be in there somewhere.

Before Hollywood came knocking to negotiate the movie rights to this true crime drama, however, Big Daddy's in Oak Park locked its doors.  The decision was based on the observations of its management group that "patients" were being shook down on the street after leaving the facility.  Also, it did not help that four members of the management group were charged with distribution felonies by the Oakland County Prosecutor.

Big Daddy's is consolidating pot growing and distribution operations into their Chesterfield Township facility in Macomb County, and in Detroit.  Therefore, Big Daddy's alleged violations of the MMA or the Controlled Substances Act are now in the hands of Prosecutors Eric Smith and Kym Worthy.

The more recent raid on the Commerce Township facility presents an example of an increasingly sophisticated approach to medical marijuana enforcement by the Oakland County Prosecutor.  This bust was executed by a joint task force with a federal component; the DEA.  [Remember, marijuana remains illegal in any form under federal law.]  Also, the Sheriff has commented publicly that the facility violated the Controlled Substances Act, not the MMA.

Criminal defense attorney Neil Rockind was quoted in the Oakland Press yesterday as saying, "They can try to describe it any way they want.  I know what happened...and if they want to pursue a case then I'll be there."  Yeah, sounds like Neil; never one to shy away from high-stakes criminal defense litigation.

The Michigan Court of Appeals handed prosecutors a serious weapon when it issued its People v McQueen decision last month.  The published, thus binding, decision of the Court of Appeals runs a lance through most MMA distribution schemes; at least if those involved want to make any money from their elaborate growth and distribution operations.

This brings us back to the intent of the medical marijuana referendum that passed overwhelmingly by Michigan voters in the 2008 election.  The MMA is designed to encourage a "grow-your-own" and "trade-among-friends" approach to distribution.

From the outset, those involved in growing pot have been looking to make money from the provisions of the MMA.  Because the Act is silent on pot sales, a legal debate has, er, cropped-up about whether distribution via sale is permitted or proscribed by the Act.

Also, as the Law Blogger has pointed out time and again; the premise of patients getting medical attention from marijuana, although legitimate in a number of cases, is a complete sham in the overwhelming number of patient-care provider relationships.  This scam will likely bring down the MMA in the end.

www.waterfordlegal.com

info@waterfordlegal.com