Good Idea - Bad Idea: St. Patrick's Day Edition

Posted by wlansden | Filed under

Good Idea: Dressing in Green on St. Patrick’s Day

Bad Idea: Pinching Your Classmate Because He Didn’t
Wear Green (It could get you suspended!)

Even Worse:  Hoping the Leprechaun Costume Will Help in
the Bank Robbery

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Permalink | Comments (0) | March 19, 2010 11:40

Good Idea - Bad Idea: Just Fake It?

Posted by wlansden | Filed under
Good Idea:    Doing the things you were hired to do.

Bad Idea:      Fabricating court orders and court documents in order to trick your client into believing you're doing the work you've been retained to do.  State bars frown on that.

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Permalink | Comments (1) | March 5, 2010 07:39

Good Idea - Bad Idea: The Reality of the Housing Market

Posted by wlansden | Filed under

Good Idea:  Using Snooki and The Situation to increase the value of your real estate. 

Bad Idea:  Hoping Jon and Kate will do the same.

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Permalink | Comments (1) | February 19, 2010 09:10

Good Idea - Bad Idea: "I think the record should reflect that the witness is vomiting."

Posted by wlansden | Filed under
Good Idea:  Effectively managing a witness under cross examination through incisive questioning, thereby advancing the interests of your client.

Bad Idea:  Frightening a witness under cross examination to the point that the witness barfs. Right there. In the courtroom. Over and over again.

This actually happened during a murder trial in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  It should be pointed out that the witness (a) was testifying against his own cousin and (b) has irritable bowl syndrome AND acid reflux, which is a gastroenterologist’s way of saying “game over.”  The judge [mercifully] allowed the jury to go home early.

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Permalink | Comments (1) | January 18, 2010 12:15

Good Idea - Bad Idea: To Spite His Face?

Posted by wlansden | Filed under
Good Idea:  Discussing Disagreements Which Arise with Strangers Like Adults

Bad Idea:  Fighting in a Bathroom and [Allegedly] Biting Your Opponents Nose

A Memphis attorney was allegedly involved in such an altercation. 

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Permalink | Comments (0) | December 18, 2009 13:52

Good Idea - Bad Idea: A Southpaw Perhaps?

Posted by wlansden | Filed under

Good Idea:   Buying New Shoes for Black Friday Shopping

Bad Idea:  Stealing Shoes

Even Worse:  Showing up at the Next Day at the Store From Which You Stole

Forget It:  Explaining Yourself after Absconding with Incomplete Pairs of Stolen Shoes—the right ones were on display!   

Happy Thanksgiving from the Young Lawyers Blog!


 

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Permalink | Comments (0) | November 25, 2009 11:24

Good Idea - Bad Idea: Communication

Posted by wlansden | Filed under

Good Idea:  Communicating with your client.

Bad Idea:  Ignoring your client's repeated attempts to contact you, the court, and opposing counsel.  Not defending your client and failing to inform the client of a judgment against him is also frowned upon.

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Permalink | Comments (0) | November 20, 2009 09:07

Good Idea - Bad Idea: Social Networking

Posted by wlansden | Filed under
By Seema KanwarKanwar, Seema

Good idea: Starting a successful social networking site.

Bad idea: Starting a social networking site that sends out deceptive and misleading invitations, resulting in a $750,000 penalty.

Tagged.com, a San Francisco-based social networking site was sued by the Attorneys General of New York and Texas for its deceptive and misleading invitations. The invitations stated that a friend had tagged a photo of the invitation recipient and that the recipient should sign up to see the photo.  After the recipient entered his/her email address, the site would send invitation emails to everyone in the recipient’s address book, a practice known as “contact scraping.”

As per the terms of the settlement, Tagged.com will pay $500,000 in New York and $250,000 in Texas and institute reforms to its invitation process.

See the New York settlement agreement here. 

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Permalink | Comments (1) | November 11, 2009 10:48

Good Idea - Bad Idea: Law License

Posted by wlansden | Filed under ,
Good Idea: Using your law license to help your family with minor estate planning issues.

Bad Idea: Using your law license to allegedly rob your disabled 95-year-old grandmother of a cold half-mils' worth of inheritance.

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Permalink | Comments (2) | October 15, 2009 14:15

Good Idea - Bad Idea: Taxes

Posted by wlansden | Filed under ,

Good Idea: Tax Deductions

Bad Idea: Trying to deduct $100,000 in payments for prostitutes and pornography, especially when you are a New York tax lawyer.

U.S. Tax Court Opinion attached:  Halby Tax Court Opinion.pdf (12.91 kb)

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Permalink | Comments (0) | September 16, 2009 13:01