Despite entrenched opposition from the Department of Justice and other prosecutorial organizations the United States Sentencing Commission's new changes for federal economic crimes (also known as white collar crimes) will take effect on November 1, 2015. Because federal sentencing for these crimes is driven almost entirely by dollar amounts of victim loss, many years of inflation made it far easier for federal prosecutors to demand hefty sentences in these cases with many federal judges lacking the courage to go under the sentencing guideline ranges.Inflation Adjusted Victim Loss but no Common SenseThe new inflation adjusted victim loss amounts will reduce guideline ranges for most federal defendants facing these economic crimes that include scheme to defraud, fraud, embezzlement, theft and tax evasion. Yet the underlying problem in federal sentencing for these Section 2B1.1 economic crime cases has not changed in that the…
WHY FEDERAL ECONOMIC CRIMES UNDER SECTION 2B1.1 SHOULD NOT BE DRIVEN BY VICTIM LOSS CALCULATIONS
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The Biden Effect
Looking at the polling in the Dem primary, it's clear that there is a "Biden Effect." What is Biden's impact? Where would his supporters go if he decides not to run? A few polls ask the question. In the Fox poll, including Biden yields a... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Khanna & Mahajan on Anticipatory Bail in India
Vikramaditya S. Khanna and Kartikey Mahajan (University of Michigan Law School and National Law University Jodhpur (NLUJ) ) have posted Anticipatory Bail in India: Addressing Misuse of the Criminal Justice Process? (Research Handbook on Comparative Criminal Procedure 2016 (Jacqueline Ross...
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Wisconsin appeals court urges state's top court to review use of risk-assessment software at sentencing
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The Five Best Ways for Your Client’s Employees to Get Indicted
A glass of ice water, please. The nice folks at the Birmingham Bar Association (and white-collar criminal defense lawyer Steve Shaw in particular) invited me to deliver a lunchtime CLE on a white-collar subject of my choice. The topic ended up being “The Five Best Ways for Your Client’s Employees to Get Indicted.” One could come up with more ways your client’s employees could get indicted, but life is short. Hunting for 18 U.S.C. Section 1001. Here is the handout: The Five Best Ways for Your Client’s Employees to Get Indicted. Download it. It’s not legal advice, but it has some fairly useful material about bribery, obstruction and honest-services fraud in the Eleventh Circuit, as well as quotes from Men In Black (1997). We spent a fair amount of time on practical considerations in working with businesspeople involved in white-collar investigations, including this piece: Stalking Horses, Pitchfork Crowds,…
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Arrests and Convictions Are Not the Same Thing
Not everyone can know all there is to understand about the law. There's so much out there to understand, that even attorneys focus on a small area of the law to practice in, like wills, or corporate law, or criminal defense. However, there are some, basic legal ideas that at least most Americans should be aware of, because if they're not, it can really impact how the legal system works. One of these things that people should understand is that there's a huge difference between an arrest and a conviction for a crime. Here's how they're different. Arrests People get arrested all the time. Police officers are supposed to make arrests whenever they have the remotest suspicion that someone has committed a crime. Sometimes, police officers will even make an arrest when they know that no crime has been committed, but they just want to incapacitate someone, like in the heat of a protest. Oftentimes, the number of arrests an officer makes is used to determine…
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"European Advocate General: transfer of EU user data violates privacy laws"
The story is at Jurist: The advocate general of the European Court of Justice [official website] proclaimed [opinion; press release, PDF] on Wednesday that the copious amount of EU user data transferred to the US by various technology companies violates...
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"Daily Fantasy Sports and the Hidden Cost of America’s Weird Gambling Laws"
From The New York Times: What I found is the strange hypocrisy and inconsistency around gambling that is embedded in United States law. The rules actively work against the interests of casual sports fans and low-stakes gamblers like me who...
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A Man Who is His Own Lawyer Has a Fool For a Client
In 1814 British scholar and writer Henry Kett wrote “A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client”, a truism if there ever was one, and later adopted by the Supreme Court of the United States who wrote “the adage that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client” is the product of years of experience by seasoned litigators. (Kay v. Ehrler, 499 US 432, 437 (1991) A classic example of the danger of acting “pro se” or for one’s self is illustrated by Anthony Zappin, a 30-year-old New York lawyer who made the disastrous mistake of acting for himself in his own divorce. Married to lawyer Claire Comfort in 2013, the couple separated shortly after their son was born. Zappin’s path to self-destruction began after he entered into a consent order dated November 2013 where he agreed to have no contact with his wife and supervised access to his son. In April 2014 Superior Court Judge Anthony Epstein found that a motion…
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"Fifth Amendment protects passcode on smartphones, court holds"
Orin Kerr has this post at The Volokh Conspiracy. In part: I think the Huang court is wrong because the government did not seek an order forcing the defendants to hand over records of insider trading. If that had been...
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Loan Officer Pleads Guilty and Appraiser Identity Theft Charged
Mortgage Fraud Blog. Franchesco Franco, 34, a former mortgage loan originator, Providence, Rhode Island, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit bank fraud for his participation with a local real estate attorney and others in a scheme to defraud Flagstar Bank, by filing a fraudulent mortgage loan application and supporting documentation in the name of a […] The post Loan Officer Pleads Guilty and Appraiser Identity Theft Charged appeared first on Mortgage Fraud Blog.
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Can Poetry Bring Back the Disappeared?
On August 30, the International Day of the Disappeared, Amnesty launched “Silent Shadows” – a poetry competition in Sri Lanka to mark the decades of enforced disappearances experienced there. That sentence raises at least four questions: Why enforced disappearances? Enforced disappearances are a particularly heinous form of human rights violation. Government agents detain a person and the government later denies any knowledge or responsibility for his or her whereabouts or status. The victims are often tortured and in fear for their lives, while their relatives live with the agony of uncertainty over their loved ones’ fate. Why Sri Lanka? Over the past 30 years, at least 80,000 disappearances have been reported in Sri Lanka. It is second only to Iraq in the number of disappearance cases submitted by relatives to the UN. In the overwhelming majority of these cases, the fate of the disappeared person is still unknown…
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Tampering with the Evidence - Forensic Labs Are Dropping Like Flies
You may recall the St. Paul crime lab debacle in 2013: An independent review of the St. Paul crime lab found major errors in almost every area of the lab's work, including the fingerprint and crime scene evidence processing that has continued after the lab's drug testing was stopped in July. The failures include sloppy documentation, dirty equipment, faulty techniques and ignorance of basic scientific procedures ... Lab employees even used Wikipedia as a 'technical reference' in at least one drug case ... The lab lacked any clean area designated for the review and collection of DNA evidence. The lab stored crime-scene photos on a computer that anyone could access without a password. Minnesota isn't alone. Last Thursday, September 17, 2015, the news came out that a forensic analyst at an Oregon State Police lab was placed on leave after "improprieties" found in one case led to further investigation into stolen evidence…
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I got caught shoplifting and got a letter to pay hundreds of dollars. Now what?
Caught shoplifting and now you get a letter from a lawyer demanding hundreds of dollars. Does that mean that you’re facing criminal charges? If you pay their demand, does it stop charges from being filed? What about if you ignore the letter? Does that mean they will then file criminal charges or call the police? A “Civil Demand” letter means nothing. Here’s an overview of what “normally” happens. First, you’re caught by the store personnel. They then have a choice – document this and let you go or call the police. Although it can happen later – they could call the police to report the incident days, weeks or even months later, typically if they don’t call the police on the day that they apprehend you, then there will not be any criminal case. Next – the civil demand letter…. Whether or not the loss prevention officer called the police at the time, they can make a “demand”…
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Jones & Ginther on Law and Neuroscience
Owen D. Jones and Matthew R. Ginther (Vanderbilt University - Law School & Dept. of Biological Sciences and Vanderbilt University - Law School) have published Law and Neuroscience (International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (2nd Edition, 2015)) on SSRN....
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Washington Appeals Court Examines Jury Award in Car Accident Case, Affirms Judge’s Grant of Additur
In a newly issued opinion, the Washington Court of Appeals discussed the issue of jury awards in personal injury claims and under what circumstances they may be overturned or altered. In Nelson v. Erickson, the plaintiff brought a negligence claim against a driver who rear-ended him. The case was initially transferred to mandatory arbitration pursuant to Chapter 7.06 RCW. The arbitrator awarded the plaintiff medical damages, out-of-pocket expenses, general damages for pain and suffering, and attorney’s fees and costs. The defendant then requested a Mandatory Arbitration Rule trial de novo, and a jury trial was held. Before the trial, the defendant admitted liability for the car accident, and the parties stipulated that the plaintiff incurred $9,361 in medical expenses. During the three-day trial, the plaintiff put forth evidence of the medical treatments and expenses he had incurred and would continue to require as a result of the chronic pain suffered from the accident.…
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Avoiding the Stress of the Trifecta
Avoiding the Stress of the Trifecta It's hard to believe that summer is over, the kids are back in school and fall is upon us. Actually it's my favorite time of year because Halloween is approaching and shortly after that we have what is known in my business as the "Trifecta". No, it's not a horse race; it's the three big holidays in a row, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. I think the name came from someone in AA or NA or some such program who realized that the family pressures of the holidays are often cause for substance abuse, spousal abuse and general family strife. It's no wonder then that this time of year is when my business thrives. I also like the holiday season because traffic is lighter for me to drive to court and judges and prosecutors are often in a better mood during holiday time. This can mean better results for my clients. So how do we avoid suffering from the problems of the Trifecta? First, if you're like…
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2015.81: Campaign to Eliminate Air Hand Dryers
Hot air dryers have the potential for depositing pathogenic bacteria onto the hands and body of users. Bacteria can also be inhaled and distributed into the general environment whenever dryers are running. It is recommended therefore that the use of hot air dryers should be carefully considered on health grounds, especially in sensitive locations such as hospitals, catering establishments and food preparation areas. Hot air hand dryers do not dry as well as paper towels (leaving hands damp and welcoming to pathogens). When a toilet flushes it sprays a mist of shit-laden water droplets into the air. An air dryer sucks in this air, warms it up (bacteria love that), and blows it out again onto your damp hands. Several studies have found that paper towels do a better job of reducing bacteria on hands than do hot air driers; some find that air dryers increase bacteria on hands. “From a hygiene standpoint, paper towels are superior to air dryers; therefore, paper towels should…
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Court Rules that Irrevocable Trust is a Marital Asset
This week the discussion will follow up from last week, when we discussed that a wife that had given real estate property to family members so it wouldn’t be considered part of a marital estate. This week we are going to talk about an irrevocable trust and whether or not the trust is a part of their marital estate. This is a case from the Massachusetts Appellate Court, in the case held in Pfannenstiehl, in which the husband was ordered to pay 60% of his share of his trust to his ex-wife. In August, 2015, The Massachusetts appeals court held that the husband’s interest in a irrevocable trust was considered an asset. The court concluded that the husband and wife had a vested interest. This case could have a significant impact on the way in which estate planning is done by lawyers in Massachusetts and other states related to inherited property and asset protection. The trust was set up by the father for the benefit of the of the husband…
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Discovery Channel Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed by Family of Deceased Cast Member
In 2013, during the filming of the Discovery Channel show, “Lone Operator,” a helicopter crash killed three people in Acton, California. The show was about the military, and the deceased cast member, Michael Donatelli, was a decorated Iraq veteran. He …The post Discovery Channel Settles Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed by Family of Deceased Cast Member appeared first on Colorado Springs Accident Attorney | Quality Legal.
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