August 30, 2019, 12:06 pm CDT
Image from Shutterstock.com.
Kenneth Allen.
T. Edward Page.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Suit against family members of attorney’s murderer cites Indiana’s red flag law
Trials & Litigation
Image from Shutterstock.com.
A lawsuit filed against family members of an 84-year-old Indiana man convicted of murdering his tax attorney claims they did nothing to stop him from carrying a gun even as his behavior became more bizarre.
The negligence and wrongful death suit was filed Thursday on behalf of Kevin Swanson, husband of slain Hobart, Indiana, lawyer T. Edward Page, report NWI.com and ABC7 Chicago. The defendants are family members of William “Bill” Landske, who was convicted of murder Wednesday. Landske is also a defendant.
The lawyer representing Swanson, Kenneth Allen, said at a press conference Thursday that the suit seeks to give teeth to Indiana’s red flag law. The law allows police to temporarily confiscate guns from people who are threatening to harm themselves or others, the Indianapolis Star reported earlier this month.
There is no need for a warrant, but the officer who seizes the guns has to submit a written statement to a judge explaining why the firearm owner is considered dangerous. The judge has 14 days to hear from the gun owner and review the case. The judge then decides whether police can keep the guns or whether they must return them.
“Gun violence has spiraled out of control in this country and needs to end; and our hope is we can help abate it by holding accountable those who know a family member is armed and dangerous, yet do nothing,” Allen said in a statement emailed to the ABA Journal.
The suit, filed in Lake County, Indiana, says Landske’s adult children “knew or should have known that Landske was demented, dangerous and constantly armed with a loaded handgun.”
The suit also alleges the children should have been aware that Landske intended to harm Page when they overheard Landske speaking with his late wife’s ashes before the murder. Landske told the ashes that it would all be over that day, the suit says.
The children failed to take the necessary steps to take the gun away from Landske, the suit says.
Indiana is among 17 states and Washington, D.C., that have red flag laws, though their details vary, according to the Giffords Law Center.
Landske shot Page last August when he went to the attorney’s home to pick up tax documents. Landske was angry because Page had sought several extensions of time to file the taxes, and Landske concluded the lawyer was procrastinating.
Landske’s defense lawyer had argued unsuccessfully at trial that the crime was committed in a sudden heat that made the offense voluntary manslaughter.
Page was a friend of Landske’s family and had worked on their taxes for free. He had recently submitted his retirement as a public defender and also worked as a senior traveling judge.
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The PR Process That Drives Hundreds of Links Time After Time via @seo_travel
Links remain one of the strongest currencies in SEO, despite many years of people claiming otherwise.
But getting ones that carry value is becoming increasingly difficult as Google continues to get better at understanding which links are manipulated purely for SEO.
So it’s becoming more important to get good links that will move the needle on your performance.
How do you do that?
By not thinking about links at all.
If you take a step back and approach your link building activity with a more general marketing hat on, then you start to look at ways that naturally drive links along with it.
We use traditional PR approaches to gain coverage for clients on top publications, which then drag links along with them even without it being the first thought.
And we’ve come up with approaches that work time after time to build strong, sustainable link profiles for clients that drive SEO performance over the long term.
Want to know how?
What Is a PR Campaign?
We carry out a variety of PR approaches for clients, from press releases to reacting to journalist requests that land in our inbox. But the thing that allows us to gain hundreds of links in one fell swoop is our creative PR campaigns. These involve coming up with creative ideas that make our clients stand out, pitching them to relevant journalists, and watching the coverage roll in. One of the key difficulties many people have with their PR is that they just pitch the regular qualities of their client which don’t make them stand out from all their competitors who do exactly the same thing. To get coverage, you need to offer something unique or new that warrants being written about. What if your client doesn’t have anything new or unique to write about? That’s where we come in.Brainstorming
So how do you come up with ideas that journalists are going to love and write about? Well, you look at what they’re already writing about! It’s as simple as that. Identify the publications that you want to be featured on and then scour them to get familiar with the kinds of stories they cover. It might be:- New product launches.
- Money-back guarantees.
- Free trips for students.
- Competitions to go on free trips.
- Anything else that offers a slight break from the norm.
Implementation
Once you’ve come up with your idea you need to implement it so you have something to show when you reach out to a journalist. They can smell a PR stunt a mile off, so this needs to feel genuine, even if it is created with PR in mind (and if your stunt is good enough then they’ll cover it anyway). For us, this might mean adding a new quirky tour to a client’s website, publishing a blog post with details of a competition and how to enter, or creating a page on our website with the results of a study we’ve done. This is important for two reasons:- You can direct journalists to a page on your website with all the information, without having to jam it all into a press release.
- The journalist has somewhere to link to as the source of the story.
Promotion
Outreach is where SEO professionals become better at PR than PR people. Many people believe PR is all about your little black book of contacts. Ignore them. PR is about giving the right journalists the right story at the right time. It doesn’t matter if they’ve never heard from you and don’t know you from Adam. If you give them a great story, they will cover it. So how do you find those people if they’re not in your little black book? You use link tools of course! Remember when you were scouring your target publications for story ideas? Well if you take those story examples and put the source into your favorite link tool then it will tell you exactly where the story was covered (and who covered it). Do this for a variety of different stories with the same theme and you’ll end up with a long list of extremely targeted writers who have written about something similar so are highly likely to write about you.The Results
Once you’ve been through and sent your story to journalists, it’s time to sit back and watch the coverage roll in. But be realistic. Every one won’t hit the mark. You might only get a few bits of coverage, or even none at all. You can’t control the news cycle and even the best researched and planned out pieces don’t land. However, if you stick with it and carry out this process multiple times I would bet my house on it bringing in great results for you. Some examples to give you an idea of what you can achieve: This shows you the process works. There are many more like this. All you have to do is follow it.Summary
- Scour your target publications and identify what works.
- Come up with an innovate take on the themes you see getting coverage.
- Create a page on your site that houses key information.
- Run the successful examples you found through a link tool and make a list of outreach targets where they got coverage.
- Contact those journalists and tell them about your story.
Image Credits Featured Image: Created by author, August 2019
Fines-and-fees system that helps fund court budget is unconstitutional, 5th Circuit rules
Constitutional Law
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A federal appeals panel has ruled that a system of criminal fines and fees in the New Orleans criminal court was unconstitutional because the money is used to support a general fund overseen by the court’s judges.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Aug. 23 on behalf of six criminal defendants who were jailed because they were unable to pay fines and fees. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law noted the decision in a press release.
The court said the temptation is too great when judges decide on ability to pay and then oversee the money that is collected.
Judge James Graves Jr., an appointee of President Barack Obama, wrote the panel opinion. Joining him were Judge James Ho, an appointee of President Donald Trump, and Judge Catharina Haynes, an appointee of President George W. Bush.
The general fund wasn’t used to pay the judges’ salaries, but it was used for staff salaries, conferences, office supplies, jury expenses, building and equipment maintenance, transcripts, insurance and other costs.
U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance ruled in August 2018 that it is unconstitutional to imprison people for failing to pay fines and fees without inquiring into their ability to pay. Vance also ruled it is unconstitutional for judges to determine ability to pay when court debts help pay court budgets. Vance said the practices violated the 14th Amendment.
The defendant judges appealed only the portion of Vance’s ruling that said judges couldn’t determine ability to pay while having spending authority over the fines and fees generated. Vance had found the conflict violated the 14th Amendment’s due process clause.
On appeal, the judges argued the district court applied the wrong standard when interpreting decisions on institutional biases. “Essentially, the judges argue that an average man might be swayed by the institutional interest at play here, but not an average judge,” the appeals court said. “The case law simply does not support such a distinction.”
The court emphasized that it was making its decision based on the particular facts of the case, and there was no evidence the defendant judges actually succumbed to the “temptation” to keep funds flowing through their decisions.
The judges said in a statement Tuesday that they are considering an appeal, NOLA.com reports.
A lawyer for Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe argued the case for the criminal defendants who challenged the practice. Other groups working with Orrick on the appeal were the Lawyers’ Committee, the Stuart H. Smith Law Clinic at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and the Louisiana Community Law Office.
August 30, 2019, 10:32 am CDT
Shutterstock.com.
How to Avoid SEO Misinformation via @martinibuster
John Mueller recently tweeted: “There’s no such thing as LSI keywords — anyone who’s telling you otherwise is mistaken, sorry.”
But Google subverts his message by ranking SEO misinformation at the top of the SERPs.
If you search for LSI Keywords on Google, the number one ranked web page asserts that LSI Keywords matter for SEO and the next two search results are LSI Keyword generators.
John Mueller and Google’s search engineers may scratch their heads about where SEO myths come from. As you see above, many times it is Google that is amplifying and reinforcing those SEO myths.
How is a search marketer to know what SEO information is correct when Google’s search results reinforces SEO misinformation?
Discern Between Opinion and Fact-Based Insight.
It’s important to verify if the writer is citing and linking to an authoritative source. Something like a Googler statement, a patent or research paper helps to elevate an opinion into a fact-based insight. Everything else is just an opinion and they don’t matter if there is zero basis to support it. That something “sounds reasonable” is not enough. Just because Google ranks something at the top of the search results does not make it true, either.Googler Statements Must be In Context
Some people have agendas. When that happens they tend to cite Googler statements out of context in order to push their agendas. The typical agenda consists of sowing fear and uncertainty for the purpose of creating more business. It’s not uncommon for search marketers to say that Googler’s contradict themselves. I find that Googler’s are remarkably consistent, especially John Mueller. What is inconsistent is how some people interpret what he says. Google’s John Mueller lamented in a podcast that “two thirds of what he is quoted as saying is misquoted or quoted out of context.”An Example of Fact-Based Insight
If your rankings dropped nowadays it could be because the algo decided that another page is more relevant to the search query and the users. We know this because Google has published official guidance on their updates. Among the many insights that Google’s official guidance says about the updates, it shares this:“…the changes are about improving how our systems assess content overall. These changes may cause some pages that were previously under-rewarded to do better.”That’s an official statement that one of the reasons a site may lose search positions is because another site was “under-rewarded.” Now here’s a reason that has not been confirmed. Another reason could be because the content is not factually correct. Nobody’s discussed the algorithms surrounding this. No Googler has confirmed that the algorithm is fact checking. The SEO community has a feeling that fact-checking is going on. Is there any basis for the idea that Google is fact-checking? Yes, there is. Nobody else (as far as I know) has discussed the following research paper. The Google research paper is called, Relevant Document Discovery for Fact-Checking Articles. That research paper describes a way to fact-check articles. It proposes a way to verify factual information. So the claim that Google might be fact-checking health related sites has some basis to it. We don’t know for sure. But the fact that there is this research paper (and others) elevates the opinion to a possibility. There is a basis for the idea. We don’t know for certain. But there is at least evidence that fact-checking is something that Google has been researching. The next best evidence is a statement from Google confirming that they are doing something.
Fact-check What You Read
In an article about what was said at a Webmaster Hangout, always watch the cited video clip yourself. By watching it you can determine for yourself if the article you read was correct or if it was omitting something in order to push an agenda.Correlation Studies are Not Reliable
Articles featuring correlation data attract a lot of attention. Data obtained from studying millions of search results will show patterns. It’s undeniable that patterns are revealed. But the patterns are meaningless because… correlation. For example, if we extract that the XX percentage of top three rankings are published on WordPress, does that mean publishing on WordPress helps rankings? No, it does not. Correlations tend to be meaningless. Meaningless correlations happen all the time and are the norm. Assigning meaning where there is no proven meaning is a mistake. A correlation study of SERPs that typically consists of multiple search intents will not reveal useful information about today’s AI/Machine Learning algorithms. Articles based on correlation are, in my opinion, great clickbait but generally have no usefulness for understanding ranking factors. Correlation-based SEO articles consistently reach the wrong conclusion of what caused an effect.1. Data is concrete and irrefutable. 2. Interpretation of the data is fluid and refutable.IF there is some research, patent or a Googler statement that shows that it’s been researched, then the test conclusion has a higher probability of being correct. I’ve been working in SEO for almost 20 years. I have seen all kinds of crackpot hypotheses and reasonable ideas floated to explain things. But they were just ideas. They had no basis in fact. They are essentially just guesses. Guessing is a poor basis for creating a business strategy. Proof via citation (research, patent or Googler statement) shows that an idea is at least possible or factual. Nobody can say with certainty that X caused Y because what happens between the X and the Y happens inside Google’s so-called black box in which nobody can see what is happening. And what happens in Google’s black box stays in Google’s black box.
Afternoon Briefs: Ex-law dean Norman Lefstein dies; inmate who got life for stealing $50 is released
August 30, 2019, 2:32 pm CDT
Former law dean Norman Lefstein dies at age 82 Norman Lefstein, a former dean of Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law, died Thursday at age 82. Lefstein has been described as one of the giants in the legal profession and the architect of the modern indigent defense reform movement. He was a former chair of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section, its Committee on Criminal Justice Standards and its Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants. He was also a reporter for the second edition of the ABA Criminal Justice Standards relating to the prosecution function, the defense function, providing defense services and guilty pleas. (IU McKinney School of Law, Public Defenders blog, the City-County Observer) Man who got a life sentence for stealing $50 wins release An Alabama judge has ordered the release of inmate Alvin Kennard, who served more than 35 years in prison for stealing $50 from a bakery. Kennard was sentenced under a three-strikes law. The state has since changed the law to give judges more discretion in sentencing. (The Washington Post, AL.com) Houston judges admonished for bail practices Eleven current and former judges in Harris County, Texas, have been admonished for barring personal release bonds in their courts. Texas’ State Commission on Judicial Conduct said the judges violated an agreement to reform bail practices to favor pretrial, personal recognizance bonds in low-risk cases. Three of the 11 judges are still on the bench. (Law360) New lawyer’s first clients are El Chapo and Jeffrey Epstein A recent law grad who responded to a job ad for a Spanish-speaking paralegal got the job. Mariel Colón Miró was surprised to learn that she had been hired to work on the case of drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera. When she passed the bar, Guzman asked her to stay on the case as a lawyer. Colón Miró impressed another defense lawyer so much that he hired her to work on Jeffrey Epstein’s case before his death. (New York Magazine) Paralegal accused of defrauding immigrants A California paralegal has been charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for allegedly pocketing payments for legal services and filing fees from clients of various immigration law firms. Tanya Garcia, 40, of Whittier, allegedly instructed clients to leave the “pay to” line blank on money orders and checks, then wrote in her own name. Prosecutors allege that Garcia took about $181,000 in all. (Law360, press release)Google Research: 55% of Consumers Use Videos for Purchase Decisions via @martinibuster
Google research shows that 55% of consumers use online videos for shopping research. Google suggests that video marketing is a good way to reach consumers.
According to Google’s article:
“For more and more shoppers, video is becoming indispensable when they’re ready to buy. In fact, more than 55% of shoppers globally say they use online video while actually shopping in-store.”Google listed three ways online video influences shoppers 1. Video as a Shopping List People will refer to a video to be reminded of items they need to purchase, such as ingredients or tools they need to complete a project. 2. Gives People Confidence & Feel Informed This is a reference to research on technical issues related to Your Money or Your Life, such as learning about automobile repairs and being able to approach a situation with more insight and knowledge. 3. Video Reviews Influence Purchase Decisions Video reviews are product reviews. Do you use YouTube to watch product reviews? I certainly do.
Google Subtly Recommends YouTube Advertising
Somewhat predictably, Google’s article suggests using advertising to reach consumers:“While shoppers love to watch authentic reviews from creators, there’s an important role for marketers to play as well. Think of ways your brand can show up to meet these in-the-moment needs, whether it’s through ads that spark ideas and inspiration or through more in-depth content to answer questions and help people along their path to purchase. Research-hungry shoppers may reward you with their business and their loyalty.”
YouTube Influencer Marketing
However there may be more Proactive ways to influence shoppers. I’m an angler who watches YouTube fishing videos. So it was with great interest that in May 2019 I noticed two YouTube reviews of a relatively new kayak by Old Town, the Topwater PDL 120, a pedal drive kayak. It was introduced the previous summer in 2018.Unboxing Video
The first video was produced by a YouTube creator named EliasVFishing. His YouTube channel has over 60,000 subscribers. EliasV is a highly trusted and authoritative voice in the angling community. His influence extends beyond fishing videos as his videos and product endorsements are referenced on fishing forums. After watching that video, published in the last week of May 2019, the kayak went to the top of my fishing kayak wish list. Apparently I wasn’t the only one whose interest in the Old Town kayak increased in May 2019. The product was introduced in July 2018. The USA keyword volumes were boom and bust all the way up to the last week of May 2019 at which point in time the keyword search volume grew dramatically by 300%. Here is a Google Trends view of the keyword searches for Old Town Topwater PDL 120. In it you can see cyclical bumps corresponding to three month intervals beginning with the introduction in July 2018, the week of September 30, 2018, the week of January 6, 2019 and so on.
Of course, video was not the only way Old Town got the message out. Kayak Angler Magazine published a review of that kayak at a similar time period.
Elias is a trusted voice in the angling world, one that I also respect. So in my opinion it was a good strategy on the part of Old Town to send him a kayak to review.
I don’t know for certain if the YouTube reviews affected the keyword volume. However, according to Google, YouTube is used by over 55% of consumers as part of their shopping decision making. If that is true, then marketing on YouTube makes sense.
Honesty and Authenticity
I believe that in anything you do online, honesty and authenticity is important. My conversion rates whether from affiliate links to link building outreach consistently rise whenever honesty and authenticity are a part of the process. It may be that similar concepts of authenticity also plays a role in the success of a YouTube product review. EliasV was careful to be honest about having received the kayak as part of a promotion in the unboxing video.“They sent this over to me to try out. Part of the deal was I was going to have to do a basic unboxing review and it doesn’t have to be me saying “buy this kayak” “it’s great” “here’s the latest and greatest.” I’m just gonna tell you the facts about the boat.”EliasV recorded that three minute unboxing. Later he followed up with a more in depth 25 minute kayak review. Old Town also sent a Topwater 120 kayak to another popular fishing blogger called Sea-Money, a young man who apparently earns a living video blogging about fishing. His YouTube channel has over 120,000 subscribers. Sea-Money uploaded a video of himself unboxing the kayak, reaching 14,000 views. Old Town recently sent Sea-Money another kayak, their new Predator PDL kayak. He uploaded the video on August 29th and within the last 24 hours it has experienced over 3,000 views.
Online Videos Influence Shopping Decisions
That videos can influence shopping is something to think about. According to Google’s research:“People reference video in-store when they need to make that final call on which brand or product best suits their needs. The quantitative research showed us that more than half of shoppers say online video has helped them decide which specific brand or product to buy…”Read the Think With Google article: 3 Unexpected Ways Shoppers Turn to Video in the Store Aisle
Florida Supreme Court posts court closures for Hurricane Dorian
Natural Disasters
Image from Shutterstock.com.
The Florida Supreme Court is gathering information on court closures in advance of Hurricane Dorian hitting the state.
The court’s website indicates that courts in some counties were closing early Friday, along with the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach. Many courts were already announcing closures for Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, and some were also planning to be closed Wednesday.
The supreme court issues retroactive orders extending deadlines on a county-by-county basis for periods of time when state courts are closed due to a storm. Any orders extending legal deadlines due to the hurricane will be posted here.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida announced on its website that the courts’ weather-closure policy is tied to the public-school closing schedule. “Thus, if Miami-Dade County Public Schools close, so will the federal courthouses in Miami,” the website explains. Courthouses elsewhere in the district will follow the same policy based on local school closings in their areas.
August 30, 2019, 2:59 pm CDT
Image from Shutterstock.com.
https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/florida-supreme-court-posts-court-closures-for-hurricane-dorian/
Friday, August 30, 2019
Why Leveraging Technology is Key for Converting Law Firm Leads
Technology has become an integral part of doing business, and the legal industry poses no exception. Law firms have historically advertised and marketed themselves to potential clients successfully. However, new data shows that money invested in traditional methods does not necessarily improve their bottom line.
It’s important to pursue modern solutions in the digital age. By leveraging technology and incorporating a variety of digital solutions, law firms are better able to capture leads and convert them into valuable clients.
The Importance of Technology in Law Firms
Lawyers only have so much time to devote to their existing clients and cases and this can lead to negative experiences for prospective clients. A study conducted by the American Bar Association’s Law Practice Division’s Social Media, Legal Blogs, and Websites Committee found that one out of every three people calling a law firm doesn’t get to speak to a person. Callers are often being sent to voicemail or simply giving up before the phone is answered. This is likely out of frustration about their inability to get a live response. The study also found that 42% of the time law firms take three or more days to reply to a voicemail or web-generated firm filled by prospective clients. These statistics demonstrate a noticeable gap in communication giving a negative first impression and inhibits converting law firm leads.How to Leverage Technology
Law firms can supplement their efforts to interact with prospective clients by incorporating a variety of technological solutions to respond to personal injury leads or other inquiries from interested individuals. It’s important to first have an exemplary website that is easy to use across multiple devices and allows people to get the information they need. Your website is often how they begin researching law firms to handle their case. You should include calls to action and web forms but have a process in place for responding to these inquiries promptly. Another way to leverage technology is to team up with a legal call center staffed by knowledgeable and qualified professionals. Legal call centers provide online lead responses and 24/7 intake services so you know every potential client who calls will be connected with an actual person to answer their questions. Not only does this provide prospective clients with a positive first impression of your law firm, but the legal specialists at the call center can filter out unqualified leads before passing them along to your attorneys. Finally, you can use data management software and a client management system to track leads which is another challenge faced by law firms. According to research by Martindale, about 26% of law firms do not track their leads at all which leads to missed opportunities. Martindale’s recommended best practices include tracking follow-up efforts to help you identify and resurrect dormant leads. If you don’t receive a response after three to five attempts you should set a deadline for checking back with leads in the future. Since only one out of every four law firms is tracking leads, adopting these simple solutions can give you a leg-up over the competition.Mastering Technology for Your Law Firm
You can improve your law firm’s ability to more effectively capture and convert qualified leads by leveraging technology. Now is the time for law firms to take advantage of technological solutions such as call services to get ahead of the competition and to access new opportunities for converting law firm leads.
https://www.forlawfirmsonly.com/why-leveraging-technology-is-key-for-converting-law-firm-leads/
Facebook Rolls Out Automated Lead Generation in Messenger via @MattGSouthern
Facebook is launching automated lead generation, which lets businesses qualify leads in Messenger and continue the conversation in their preferred channel.
This feature is designed to be used in conjunction with click-to-Messenger ads, which triggers conversations between businesses and Facebook users.
After tapping on a click-to-Messenger ad, users go through an automated series of questions that can be answered with pre-filled or free form responses.
The automated system is also designed to follow-up by sending reminders to users if they don’t complete the questions.
Businesses can integrate Messenger with their CRM provider in order to capture information provided by customers and identify qualified leads. Then, Pages can manually continue the conversation through Pages Inbox, Pages Manager App, or a third-party live chat provider.
Facebook says businesses are seeing results from nurturing leads in Messenger and continuing the conversation with potential leads in their preferred channel.
“RIFT Tax, a UK-based financial services company, used lead generation in Messenger to increase its customer base of Armed Forces members—increasing qualified leads by 42%. By following up with leads in Messenger, RIFT Tax was able to respond in less than 10 minutes and achieved an 18% higher lead resolve rate versus phone.”Lead generation in Messenger presents an opportunity for businesses to connect with customers in a way that’s easy and convenient for both parties. Facebook cites a study which shows over 61% of people surveyed across the US, UK, Brazil, and India agree messaging is the easiest, most convenient way to contact a business.
83-year-old Houston lawyer is accused of slapping the attorney who is suing him
August 29, 2019, 11:08 am CDT
Security camera video posted to YouTube by Greg Enos.
An 83-year-old Houston lawyer was charged with misdemeanor assault last week for allegedly slapping an attorney who is suing him on behalf of a woman contesting attorney fees.
Retired personal injury lawyer Ronald “Ronny” Krist is accused of slapping lawyer Greg Enos at Enos’ Webster, Texas, office on Aug. 21 before a scheduled deposition, the Texas Lawyer reports.
Security cameras recorded the encounter. Krist shakes his finger and swings his arm at Enos. Enos says Krist’s swing made contact, and it was a slap.
Krist’s son Scott, who represents his father in the attorney fee litigation, doesn’t contest that his father slapped Enos.
Ronny Krist “slapped the shit out of him, and deservedly so,” Scott Krist told the Texas Lawyer.
According to Scott Krist, his father was angry because Enos was disrespectful at the beginning of the litigation. Before the slap, Ronny Krist warned Enos not to be disrespectful again or he would “slap the shit” out of him, Scott Krist said. Enos replied that he would like to see Ronny Krist try.
Enos told the Texas Lawyer he doesn’t recall being disrespectful at the beginning of the case. He says that, before the slap, Ronny Krist said he would “kick my ass,” spurring Enos to reply, “I would like to see that happen.”
Enos canceled the deposition of the plaintiff, who claims she isn’t required to pay Krist and two other lawyers a contingent attorney fee of 45% on annuity payments she inherited from her late mother.
The mother was paying the fee for an annuity she was awarded in litigation related to her divorce. The mother had already paid $6.5 million in attorney fees before her death, and the plaintiff contends the amount was excessive and unreasonable, according to prior Texas Lawyer coverage.
Enos says the deposition location will be moved to a courthouse where security guards are available.
Afternoon Briefs: Client convicted of tax attorney’s murder; 4th Circuit says Sessions was wrong
News Roundup
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Mark Reinstein/Shutterstock.com.
Client convicted of murdering his tax attorney
A former city council member in Cedar Lake, Indiana, was convicted of murder Wednesday for the fatal shooting of his tax attorney. Jurors convicted William “Bill” Landske, 84, for the 2018 shooting death of Hobart, Indiana, lawyer T. Edward Page. Landske shot Page when he went to his home to retrieve tax documents after concluding the lawyer was procrastinating. Landske’s defense lawyer had argued unsuccessfully that the crime was committed in a sudden heat that made the offense voluntary manslaughter. (The Post-Tribune, NWI.com)
4th Circuit says immigration judges have power to grant administrative closures
Federal law gives immigration judges the power to indefinitely pause cases using administrative closures, and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions erred when he reached a contrary decision, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. Even if the regulations are ambiguous, Sessions’ interpretation isn’t entitled to deference because it amounted to an “unfair surprise” that disrupted the parties’ expectations, the appeals court said. The appeals court vacated a Board of Immigration Appeals decision that denied an administrative closure to Jesus Zuniga Romero. (4th Circuit decision)
Judge rules lifer’s solitary confinement is cruel and unusual
A federal judge in Connecticut has ruled that it is cruel and unusual punishment to hold an inmate for long periods in solitary confinement. U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill ruled for convicted cop killer Richard Reynolds, who was resentenced to life in prison after the state supreme court ruled capital punishment was unconstitutional. “The fact that people commit inhumane crimes does not give the state the right to treat them inhumanely,” Underhill wrote. (The Connecticut Post, the Hartford Courant)
Gender pay gap grows for general counsel
The gender pay gap is growing for general counsel at the country’s top-earning public companies, according to a study by Equilar. Male general counsel earned 18.6% more than females, the biggest difference since Equilar began conducting its wage studies in 2014. The median pay for male general counsel was $2.63 million in 2018, compared with $2.21 million for female general counsel. (Corporate Counsel)
Lawyer pleads guilty to stealing $1.4M from charity
Litchfield, Connecticut, lawyer Kevin Creed pleaded guilty to wire fraud Wednesday for stealing $1.4 million from a charity he founded to provide no-cost accommodations for veterans receiving care at VA medical centers and their family members who accompanied them. Prosecutors said Creed used the money for his law firm and for personal expenses. (The Hartford Courant, press release)
August 29, 2019, 4:38 pm CDT
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Mark Reinstein/Shutterstock.com.
Pain doc is accused of discussing plot to drug or kill opposing counsel whose lawsuit cost him $60K
Criminal Justice
Shutterstock
A pain doctor who works in Ohio and Michigan was arrested on a federal drug charge last Friday after discussing with a patient various plans to kill or drug a lawyer with fentanyl, according to an FBI criminal complaint.
The doctor, 56-year-old Daniel Schwarz, is charged with conspiracy and attempted possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance. The Washington Post, WXYZ and the Toledo Blade (here and here) have coverage.
The patient said Schwarz wanted to kill Madison Heights, Michigan, lawyer Michael David McCulloch because he represented a condo association in a civil suit that cost him $60,000, according to an affidavit supporting the criminal complaint.
Schwarz also allegedly said he wanted to frame his own lawyer in the condo suit, Robert Meisner, by planting fentanyl in his vehicle.
McCulloch told the Washington Post he is nearing retirement and feels fortunate he wasn’t harmed.
“Believe it or not, this was one of the last cases I’m handling,” he told the newspaper. “What a way to go out.”
Allegations in the affidavit indicate Schwarz’s discussions with the patient changed over time.
At first, Schwarz asked the patient if she could obtain a gun silencer to kill McCulloch, the affidavit says. Then he allegedly said he wanted to secretly inject McCulloch with a fatal mix of fentanyl and Xanax in a “brush pass” in which an individual would inject McCulloch while bumping into him.
The patient initially thought Schwarz was just venting, but she began to think he was serious as he became more adamant about the plan, the affidavit says. The patient went to police in Lima, Ohio, and later talked to the FBI.
According to the affidavit, Schwarz agreed to pay the patient $2,000 for her help, and instructed her to buy a burner phone and download an encrypted messaging app. He told the patient his alias was “Dirk McBride,” the affidavit says.
During a subsequent conversation, Schwarz allegedly said he had enough fentanyl for one of the victims but not for both. The patient said she could help obtain more of the drug.
On Aug. 22, the patient went to Schwarz’s office with a substance that appeared to be fentanyl. Schwarz allegedly discussed sprinkling a heroin and fentanyl mixture on Schwarz’s neck, or sprinkling the mixture in McCulloch’s coffee at a coffee shop.
At the patient’s vehicle, Schwarz said he had just received a call and had learned an associate was willing to kill McCulloch for $10,000, the affidavit alleged. The associate also had a vendetta against McCulloch because the attorney had filed a suit against the associate’s father, Schwarz allegedly said.
Schwarz said the patient wouldn’t need to participate in the plot, but he accepted the sham fentanyl, the affidavit claims.
After his arrest, Schwarz allegedly told investigators he fantasized about killing McCulloch and Meisner, and he often discussed those fantasies with his patients. He allegedly said he had thoughts and discussions about kidnapping the lawyers and taking them to a secluded location, where he would burn them or inject them with fentanyl.
He described his thoughts as akin to scenes from the movie Reservoir Dogs, the affidavit says.
Schwarz told investigators he never actually intended to harm McCulloch. Instead he wanted to introduce the narcotics into his system or have the drugs planted in his vehicles, he allegedly said.
Schwarz’s lawyer, Michael Harrison, told the Toledo Blade he disagrees with a recommendation to jail his client pending trial. “Dr. Schwarz, my client, is not a dangerous individual,” Harrison said. “He’s a wonderful, gentle guy.”
August 29, 2019, 2:43 pm CDT
Shutterstock
IG says Comey violated policies in handling of memos, but DOJ didn’t prosecute
Attorney General
James Comey. Shutterstock.com.
The Justice Department’s inspector general said Thursday that FBI Director James Comey violated agency policies and his employment agreement in his handling of memos he wrote summarizing seven of his interactions with President Donald Trump.
The Justice Department did not prosecute after receiving the inspector general’s factual conclusions, according to a press release and report. The New York Times, Politico and the Washington Post have coverage.
Comey’s memos said Trump asked Comey for loyalty and said he hoped Comey could let go of the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with Russia.
The inspector general concluded that the memos were official FBI records, and Comey should not have given the Flynn memo to a friend so its contents could be released to the New York Times. Also, Comey should not have kept four of the memos in a safe in his home, and should not have given them to his three personal lawyers without FBI authorization, the inspector general said.
After Comey’s firing, the FBI determined that one of the memos Comey forwarded to his lawyers contained the names of foreign countries that were classified at the confidential level. Another memo at Comey’s home also had confidential information, but Comey redacted it before sending it to the lawyers.
Comey should have immediately alerted the FBI about giving the memos to the lawyers after learning of the FBI determination, the report said.
Comey told a Senate committee in June 2017 that he wrote the memos because he feared Trump would lie about their interactions. He said he wanted to get the contents of one of the memos to the news media because it might trigger a special counsel investigation. The New York Times subsequently published a story.
Comey responded on Twitter, saying the report found no evidence that any classified information was released to the news media. “I don’t need a public apology from those who defamed me, but a quick message with a ‘sorry we lied about you’ would be nice,” he wrote.
August 29, 2019, 12:26 pm CDT
James Comey. Shutterstock.com.
DOJ IG "found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media." I don’t need a public apology from those who defamed me, but a quick message with a “sorry we lied about you” would be nice.
— James Comey (@Comey) August 29, 2019
And to all those who’ve spent two years talking about me “going to jail” or being a “liar and a leaker”—ask yourselves why you still trust people who gave you bad info for so long, including the president.
— James Comey (@Comey) August 29, 2019
Thursday, August 29, 2019
AG Barr books annual family holiday party at Trump hotel; expected price tag is about $30K
Attorney General
Image from Shutterstock.com.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr is expected to invite about 200 people to his annual family holiday party and spend about $30,000 on the affair.
Barr booked the December event at President Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington, D.C., the Washington Post reports.
Barr is picking up the tab, according to a Department of Justice official who spoke with the Washington Post. The official didn’t want to be named because the party is not a DOJ event.
Barr chose Trump’s hotel after learning that other possible locations were already booked.
“Career ethics officials were consulted, and they determined that ethics rules did not prohibit him from hosting his annual party at the Trump hotel,” the official told the Washington Post.
Liz Hempowicz, director of public policy at the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, is criticizing Barr’s decision. “It creates the appearance that high-level political appointees or allies of the president may feel like they need to spend money at the president’s businesses as a show of loyalty,” she told the Washington Post.
The party will feature a buffet and a four-hour open bar. The annual party features a ceilidh, defined as a social event that includes Scottish or Irish folk music.
Barr plays the bagpipes, according to a story from the New Yorker. He demonstrated his skills in June before delivering remarks to a national conference of U.S. attorneys.
August 28, 2019, 3:06 pm CDT
Image from Shutterstock.com.
Same-sex couples aren’t afforded equal abuse protections in this state
LGBTQ Legal issues
File image.
If the woman known as M.E. had lived with her girlfriend in North Carolina, she could have gotten significant legal protection once their relationship turned abusive. She would also have been eligible for that help—a domestic violence protective order—if her ex had been a man.
But because she did not share a home with her same-sex partner, a judge said she could not use the threat of jail to try to keep her alleged abuser away.
This story was published in collaboration with them.
That decision—and the state statute behind it—are now being challenged in the state’s Court of Appeals by the American Civil Liberties Union, with the support of the state’s attorney general.
It’s unclear how many people would be affected if the court rules in favor of M.E., who is identified in court documents only by her initials. But social workers and legal experts say that a favorable ruling would encourage people who are being abused to seek help.
“There are huge barriers for people coming forward, generally,” said Todd Brower, a law professor who trains judges and court personnel about LGBT issues through the Williams Institute at UCLA’s law school.
The situation is particularly acute in North Carolina, he said, because of the state’s historic antipathy to queer people. Just last month, the state agreed to stop banning people from using the public bathrooms that match their gender identities; in February, state legislators introduced a bill that would redefine same-sex unions as “parody marriages.”
Under current law, if people in North Carolina are in abusive relationships—so long as their partners are “of the opposite sex”—a judge can issue a 50B protective order. It allows a judge to take away guns from accused abusers or order them to attend violence counseling. It also opens up opportunities for the victim to get relocation services. If an order is violated, police can arrest the offender.
Same-sex couples who live together are also covered by 50B orders.
But for those who don’t live together, the only option is a 50C, a no-contact order that doesn’t carry the same legal repercussions or safety measures.
August 28, 2019, 1:00 pm CDT
File image.
Just a piece of paper?
No central database tracks or maintains records on the sexual orientation of those who request protective orders, so it’s unclear how many people fail to get a 50B and opt for the lower-level protection instead. A handful of studies question the efficacy of protective orders, which critics say are not always enforced by police officers. But civil rights lawyers generally agree that while they may not be a silver bullet to stop violence, protective orders give judges more power to help the abused. “Though protective orders alone cannot guarantee the safety of a victim, they are much more than ‘just a piece of paper,’ ” said Sherry Everett, legal policy analyst for the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence. When there’s a protective order, she said, even a text message can result in a misdemeanor charge against the offender. The 50B orders also give victims the opportunity to get court-offered services, such as relocation or trauma therapies, said Amily McCool, the lead attorney in the case of M.E. (Her client declined to comment.) According to a brief filed in January, when M.E. tried to leave her girlfriend last year, she was threatened and had to call the police for help. She tried to get a 50B protective order against the girlfriend, but the judge denied the request and issued a 50C instead. But when the girlfriend violated that order—and allegedly had access to guns—the plaintiff went back to court to try again for a 50B. The judge in that decision ruled against her but said that had the two been in a straight relationship, the case would’ve easily triggered a 50B protective order. Most states that excluded same-sex couples from getting protective orders in domestic violence cases changed their laws after the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legally established same-sex marriage. North Carolina has not.‘untenable and unconstitutional’
But some local judges—and even the state’s attorney general—disagree with the law. District Judge Shamieka Rhinehart, who was elected to the bench in Durham last year, said she’s presided over multiple requests for protective orders from gay and lesbian victims and rarely turns one away. “When people are in front of me asking for help, it’s my job to help them,” Rhinehart said. North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein argued in a brief that “it is now clear that this discriminatory treatment of same-sex couples is untenable and unconstitutional.” The defendant, who is representing herself, did not respond to a letter or voicemail message requesting comment. Sam Watson, the LGBT services coordinator at the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said that if the lawsuit changes the state’s position to include same-sex couples, that could have a ripple effect and encourage more people in abusive relationships to seek help. Last year, a similar lawsuit forced South Carolina’s judges to issue protective orders for same-sex couples. The state’s Supreme Court ruled that the statute that limited protective orders—which was almost identical to North Carolina’s—was unconstitutional. A 2010 study by the Centers for Disease Control shows that intimate partner violence is underreported in the LGBT community and estimates that lesbians and bisexual women face the highest prevalence of abuse over their lifetime, at 44 and 61 percent, respectively. A quarter of gay men also experience domestic violence in their lifetime, according to the CDC study. “There is still the myth and stigma around being involved in domestic violence,” said Ruth Glenn, the chief executive officer at the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, adding that the prevailing image of domestic violence is a woman battered by a male partner. “People think they just won’t be believed.” This article was originally published by the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for the newsletter, or follow the Marshall Project on Facebook or Twitter.Google on Mobile-First Indexing: Be Patient, It Will Happen Eventually via @MattGSouthern
Google’s message to site owners, with respect to mobile-first indexing, is to be patient because it will happen to your site eventually.
This topic came up multiple times throughout the course of the past week. Most recently it was discussed during a Google Webmaster Central hangout where the following question was asked:
“My site is still being crawled with a desktop crawler. How much time will it take to switch to mobile Googlebot?”Google’s Martin Splitt, accompanied by John Mueller, took the reigns on this question saying it can take a while. There’s no way to determine exactly when a site will be moved over to mobile-first indexing. There’s also no way of making it happen any faster. Splitt reiterated what Mueller said in a video published a few days ago, which is site owners cannot opt in or out of mobile-first indexing. So it cannot be avoided, nor can it be expedited. Assuming your site is ready for mobile-first indexing, the only thing you can do is be patient and wait it out. There’s nothing to worry about if your site has not been moved to mobile-first indexing yet. As Splitt says: “It’ll be fine.” Hear the full response in the video below, starting at the 25:08 mark:
“It can take a while. There’s another question that asks how can I switch to mobile Googlebot. There’s no way to opt in or out, we’re just progressively changing or moving sites to mobile-first indexing but there’s no way to tell you “oh yeah, next week it’s going to be you.” Be patient. It’ll happen. It’ll be fine.”
ABA urges Supreme Court to follow Miller standard for juvenile punishments
U.S. Supreme Court
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In an amicus brief filed Tuesday, the ABA urged the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize that juveniles’ “diminished culpability and greater prospects for reform” separate them from adults and that those whose crimes “reflect transient immaturity, rather than irreparable corruption” should not face life in prison.
The Supreme Court is considering in Mathena v. Malvo whether its decision banning mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles can be used to upend earlier discretionary life-without-parole sentences imposed on teenagers.
Lee Boyd Malvo was 17 when he and John Allen Muhammad—known as the “D.C. snipers”—killed 10 people in a series of shootings in the Washington, D.C., area in 2002. He was convicted of two counts of capital murder for shootings that occurred in Fairfax County in Virginia and given two life sentences.
Malvo was given additional sentences of life in prison in other proceedings.
The Supreme Court has since held that the Eighth Amendment limits juvenile punishments, ruling in Miller v. Alabama in 2012 that juveniles cannot receive sentences of life without parole even in homicide cases and in Montgomery v. Louisiana in 2016 that its decision in Miller applies retroactively.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Richmond, Virginia, heard Malvo’s challenge to the life sentence imposed by Virginia and decided in 2018 that “even though Malvo’s life-without-parole sentences were fully legal when imposed, they must now be vacated because the retroactive constitutional rules for sentencing juveniles adopted subsequent to Malvo’s sentencings were not satisfied during his sentencings.”
The 4th Circuit vacated Malvo’s terms of life without parole and remanded for resentencing to determine whether he qualified as a juvenile offender who may be sentenced to life in prison because his “crimes reflect permanent incorrigibility” or whether his crimes instead “reflect the transient immaturity of youth.”
The ABA said in its brief that a ruling by the Supreme Court that weakens Miller would “undermine the rule of law” and threaten the juvenile justice reforms state legislatures and courts have adopted since the 2012 decision. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia do not sentence juveniles to life without parole or have since banned the practice.
“A ruling affirming the court of appeals decision below, however, would be consistent not only with the rule of law, but also with the ABA policy of supporting juvenile justice,” according to the brief. “For over 40 years, the ABA has worked to ensure appropriate protections for juvenile defendants when transferred to the adult criminal justice system and has taken positions against imposing capital punishment and life without the possibility of parole on juvenile offenders.”
After promulgating comprehensive standards for juvenile justice in 1980, the ABA adopted policies that opposed capital punishment for anyone under the age of 18 who committed a crime and affirmed its position that “children are different,” the brief says.
The ABA also filed amicus briefs in several cases concerning the juvenile justice system, including Miller and Montgomery.
Randall Mathena, the warden of Virginia’s high-security Red Onion State Prison, appealed the 4th Circuit decision in Malvo’s case to the Supreme Court. He said in the cert petition that the Supreme Court of Virginia has “adopted a diametrically opposed interpretation of Montgomery.”
“The Supreme Court of Virginia acknowledged that prohibiting discretionary life sentences for juvenile homicide offenders may be the next step in this Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, but it concluded that both Montgomery and Miller ‘addressed mandatory life sentences without possibility of parole,’” he wrote.
Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for Oct. 16.
See also:
ABA Journal: “Supreme Court to consider life-without-parole sentence for teen DC sniper”
August 28, 2019, 12:55 pm CDT
Shutterstock
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Pro bono hotline for immigrants says ICE retaliated after portrayal on ‘Orange Is the New Black’
Law in Popular Culture
Natasha Lyonne (center) as Nicky Nichols and Jackie Cruz as Marisol “Flaca” Gonzales (far left) in Orange Is the New Black. Netflix
Leaders of a hotline that provides pro bono lawyers for poor immigrants claim immigration officials retaliated after a fictional television portrayal of its services.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement banned free calls to the hotline run in Florida by Freedom for Immigrants on Aug. 7, less than two weeks after the hotline became part of the story line in the final season of Orange Is the New Black, report the Washington Post, the Huffington Post and the Hollywood Reporter.
The Netflix series addressed immigration when its fictional private prison got into the business of immigration detention.
In one episode of the show, an immigrant detainee who fears deportation is advised by incarcerated friends to call the Freedom for Immigrants hotline. “But you have to be careful, though,” one of the friends advises. “Apparently, if they figure out that you’re using the hotline, Big Brother shuts it down.”
Freedom for Immigrants sent a cease-and-desist letter on Aug. 22 that calls for restoration of the free telephone extension for the hotline. It also sent a letter of support signed by more than 100 advocacy groups as well as the executive producer of Orange Is the New Black and six actors on the show.
“Being featured in OITNB brought massive attention to the organization’s work regarding abusive and neglectful conditions in immigration detention centers,” the cease-and-desist letter says. “And for this, we are being punished by our government.”
ICE spokesman Bryan Cox denied the allegation. “The claim this has anything to do with a TV show is pure fiction,” he told the Washington Post.
Cox said the hotline was “removed from the platform” because it engaged in three-way calls and call forwarding, which is prohibited conduct.
Freedom for Immigrants said in its letter that ICE cited another reason for blocking the free calls to the hotline—it was not on an approved list. “It is clear that these post hoc rationalizations from ICE are a pretext for violating our First Amendment rights,” its cease-and-desist letter says.
The Freedom for Immigrants hotline was operating only in Florida after ICE shut down the free calls in other jurisdictions last year. The cease-and-desist letter says ICE had restricted the hotline to Florida as a result of prior advocacy.
August 27, 2019, 2:28 pm CDT
Natasha Lyonne (center) as Nicky Nichols and Jackie Cruz as Marisol “Flaca” Gonzales (far left) in Orange Is the New Black. Netflix
$572M verdict against Johnson & Johnson in opioid suit is based on Oklahoma’s unusual public nuisance law
Health Law
Image from Shutterstock.com.
An Oklahoma judge ruled Monday that Johnson & Johnson is liable for $572 million for the public nuisance it created when it engaged in a marketing campaign that promoted opioid use.
The decision by Judge Thad Balkman of Cleveland County was the first to hold a drugmaker responsible for the opioid epidemic after a trial, report the New York Times, Law.com, Courthouse News Service, the Oklahoman and the Washington Post.
Balkman, who ruled after a bench trial, limited damages to the amount needed to fight the crisis for one year. Oklahoma had sought $17 billion. The Oklahoman reports “confusion” over whether the state can seek additional funding if the drug crisis persists.
In his ruling, Balkman said Johnson & Johnson had joined in a marketing campaign to spread the message that pain was being undertreated and prescription opioids carried a low risk of abuse.
Johnson & Johnson was sued because its subsidiaries made a fentanyl patch and sold pharmaceutical ingredients for opioids to other manufacturers. Two other defendants in the case settled before trial. Purdue Pharma agreed to pay $270 million and Teva agreed to pay $85 million.
Balkman based his decision on Oklahoma’s unusual public nuisance law, which does not require interference with property. The law is expected to be a key issue in Johnson & Johnson’s appeal, the Oklahoman reports.
Oklahoma’s public nuisance law partly defines a nuisance as “unlawfully doing an act, or omitting to perform a duty” that injures or endangers the comfort, health or safety as others. A public nuisance is defined as an act or omission that affects an entire community or neighborhood.
Johnson & Johnson had argued that there cannot be a nuisance because property wasn’t affected. That appears to be the case in other states, Balkman said, but not in Oklahoma.
“There is nothing in this text that suggests an actionable nuisance requires the use of or a connection to real or personal property,” Balkman wrote.
Even if the Oklahoma law did require the use of property, there is evidence that Johnson & Johnson used public roads, buildings and land in Oklahoma to create the nuisance, Balkman said.
Sales representatives were trained in Oklahoma homes on how to disseminate misleading materials, the judge said. Speakers delivered messages to doctors in Oklahoma offices. Marketing messages were electronically disseminated into Oklahoma homes.
Johnson & Johnson lawyer Sabrina Strong told reporters that Balkman’s decision is “a radical departure” from case law. “For over 100 years, public nuisance law has been limited to property disputes, where one misuses their property and causes harm to another. That is not what this case is about,” Strong said.
Strong contends Balkman’s interpretation of nuisance law deprived Johnson & Johnson of due process. Her client will appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court and will go to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary, she said.
Johnson & Johnson said in the statement that the Oklahoma verdict will have little impact in pending multistate litigation in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio, against 22 defendants. Public nuisance is just one of several claims in that litigation.
But lawyers for the 2,000 cities, counties and other jurisdictions with pending federal cases were buoyed by the decision. “While public nuisance laws differ in every state, this decision is a critical step forward,” they said in a statement.
American Tort Reform Association President Tiger Joyce called the decision a “major expansion” of public nuisance law. “We fear that other industries, including Oklahoma’s oil and gas producers, may now be vulnerable to public nuisance law’s applicability to them with regard to issues like climate change as the state looks for additional funding sources to manage public crises,” Joyce said in a statement.
August 27, 2019, 10:37 am CDT
Image from Shutterstock.com.
Google Rankings and Nofollow Anchor Text via @martinibuster
Anchor Text Without Links
There are two theories floating around about how nofollow links help a site rank. The first theory states that a nofollow link will get republished by a spammer and that the spammer might make it a dofollow link. That’s correct. But that argument assumes that a few spam links will make a meaningful impact on rankings. For ranking keywords that matter, keywords that make money, no, absolutely no. A few spam links will not help a site rank. The second theory suggests that search engines will pick up the anchor text and use that for ranking. There are many problems with that guess about what Google does. And let’s make it clear, that theory is purely just a guess. There is nothing to support that idea.- There is no research.
- There are no patents.
- There are no statements from Google that anchor text from nofollow links are used.
Links and the Link Graph
Nofollow links are dropped from the link graph. The Link Graph is the map of the Internet. The nofollow removes the link from existence. It does not exist for Google. This has always been the case. John Mueller is on record stating this as far back as 2012: “We take these links out of our PageRank calculations, and out of our algorithms when they use links.”
Google’s John Mueller confirms that nofollow links are removed from the algorithm. That means nofollow links have ZERO ranking benefit.
Nofollow Anchor Text are Just Words
Google takes it out of the PageRank calculation. And that includes the anchor text and this is why: Because the link that the anchor points to does not exist for Google, the anchor text becomes words, just words.Words are Not Links
Nofollow anchor text like “click here” and “Best SEO” become words when Google removes the links from them. They are no longer anchor text. They are just words, disconnected from any site since there is no link associated with it. So how could Google use words as anchor text when there is no link associated with them? Setting aside the fact that there are no patents and no research papers about using nofollow anchor text for ranking, the whole idea of using words (without links) as anchor text does not make logical sense. Those words are disconnected from the link (because there is no link) and because of that they are disconnected to the website that the link points to… because there are no links. Google has even made a video dedicated to explaining that nofollow links do not help rank a site in any way. The idea that nofollow anchor text can influence rankings makes zero sense in at least three different ways. It’s on the same level as a belief in fairy tales. Watch the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZwv8R64x2Ehttps://www.businesscreatorplus.com/google-rankings-and-nofollow-anchor-text-via-martinibuster/
Afternoon Briefs: Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers speak; judge gives assignment for veteran lies
News Roundup
Jeffrey Epstein in 2006. Photo from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office via Wikimedia Commons.
Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers speak at unusual hearing
For more than an hour on Tuesday, women who accused financier Jeffrey Epstein of sexually abusing them when they were young spoke about the impact in an unusual federal court hearing. Many of the women urged prosecutors to continue investigating Epstein’s associates after his Aug. 10 suicide in federal custody. The hearing was held to consider prosecutors’ request to drop sex-trafficking charges. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman said he invited the women to speak to ensure they “are treated fairly and with dignity.” (The New York Times, the Washington Post)
Midlevel associates are satisfied but worried about burnout, survey says
Midlevel associates surveyed by the American Lawyer appear more satisfied than ever. The average satisfaction level for associates from 96 law firms was 4.29 on a 5-point scale, an increase from 4.27 last year. Despite their apparent happiness, some associates warned of the risk of billable-hour burnout. (The American Lawyer)
Judge orders assignment for offenders who lied about being veterans
Two Montana men who lied about being veterans to get favorable treatment in court were given an unusual assignment. Judge Greg Pinski of Cascade County said the men aren’t eligible for parole until they handwrite the names of the 6,756 Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and handwrite obituaries for the 40 Montana service members killed in those countries. Letters of apology to veterans groups will also be required. During the suspended portion of their sentences, the men will have to stand at the Montana Veterans Memorial for eight hours each Memorial and Veterans Day wearing a sign that reads, “I am a liar. I am not a veteran. I stole valor. I have dishonored all veterans.” (The Great Falls Tribune, the Washington Post)
Town dominated by polygamous sect violated nonbelievers’ rights, 9th Circuit affirms
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a decision finding that an Arizona town dominated by a polygamous sect was liable for violating the constitutional rights of nonmembers. The court ruled against the town of Colorado City, which was targeted in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. government. The leader of the sect was Warren Jeffs, who is in prison for child sexual abuse. (Courthouse News Service, the Arizona Capitol Times, 9th Circuit opinion)
20 states sue over rule allowing prolonged detention of immigrant children
Nineteen states and Washington, D.C., have filed a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration rule that would allow prolonged detention of immigrant children with their families. The rule would override the so-called Flores settlement that caps the detention of immigrant children at 20 days before their release or transfer to a licensed facility. (The Sacramento Bee, press releases here and here, the federal lawsuit)
August 27, 2019, 4:06 pm CDT
Jeffrey Epstein in 2006. Photo from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office via Wikimedia Commons.
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