News: 8th June 2010
Posted on 08. Jun, 2010 by BennettGreen in News
There was no news last week because absolutely nothing happened anywhere in The World. Not because I got lazy. Nope.
The news this week -
The ACCC launched a booklet entitled Australian Consumer Law: A guide to unfair contract terms. I’ve had a quick flick through it and while it’s not exciting enough to qualify for recreational reading, students might want to bookmark it for the next time they need to beef up a research paper or something.
Peter Turner wrote about the need to stop and appreciate the people around you or else risk feeling isolated and depressed. I can’t help but query though whether there would be less risk of depression if he’d stop surrounding himself with such troubled people.
A court in Illinois has ordered that the publisher of a newspaper reveal the identity of an internet commentator. This is another reminder to to be wary of the information you’re putting out onto the internet. Even though you think you might be anonymous, you almost certainly are not.
And there’s absolutely no excuses for thinking you’re anonymous with social networking sites like Facebook. The whole point with those sites is to establish your identity in order to interact with others. So when you use Facebook to bitch about your workplace, chances are your message is going to get connected to you and your employer.
There really isn’t a better example of this whole how-internet-privacy-can-ruin-your-life thing than the Star Wars Kid. Well, just to show you how truly screwed up things can get, that kid went on to become a lawyer.
An American public defender (allegedly) flipped out and attacked a prosecutor inside a courthouse. Supposedly the defence lawyer was simply fed up of being repeatedly mocked by the prosecutor. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if a person makes a living in a courtroom defending others against criminal charges, then attacks a prosecutor in the cafeteria of a courthouse, well, life may continue to be difficult for them. I’m not sure, do you expect to be mocked more or less after that kind of thing?
In a similar story, a Portland Lawyer and an Administrative Law Judge actually started wrestling over which old-dude would get into the first lift.
A discussion that has been thrashed to death in international law classes the World over is about to be re-thrashed again, as President Bush admits to waterboarding terrorists.
Law Technology News and The New Lawyer considered whether the iPad is the next Jesus device to the legal industry (PS. The answer, in my opinion, is yes – it really is).
Finally Daniel M. Mills has written an excellent article on Remembering What We Truly Do as Lawyers.
