Oakland County's "Virtual" Work Release is Ready

This post is copied from and is the original content of the DUI Blog of drunk driving Attorney Patrick Barone.The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office is scheduled to implement a new “virtual” work release program by early February, 2010. Virtual work release will consist of an ankle tether using a satellite and radio global positioning system (GPS) monitored by the Oakland County Sheriff. It will give the Sheriff’s Office the ability to carefully track an inmate’s location twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The radio technology will even allow a defendant to be tracked inside a home or workplace.In preparing for the upcoming start date the Sheriff’s Office is meeting with the Oakland County judges to orient them to the virtual work release...

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Posted in: GPS tether,Michael McCabe,Oakland County Sheriff,Patrick Barone,work release

What's In A Name? Detroit Injury Lawyer Sues His Own Firm

Detroit personal injury lawyer Lawrence Charfoos has sued his former law firm, Charfoos & Christensen PC, in the Oakland County Circuit Court. In his complaint against the firm he helped build, Charfoos seeks injunctive relief to prevent the continued use of his well-known name, as well as money damages for fees he claims are owed.  The case was filed on Friday and assigned to Judge Wendy Potts.Since 1991, the personal injury firm has owned and occupied the historic Hecker-Smiley Mansion on Woodward Avenue, pictured above.  The law firm has represented personal injury clients since 1929, when Charfoos' father hung a shingle in Detroit. In the 1970s, Charfoos, having followed his father's footsteps, gained prominence for winning...

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Posted in: Crain's Detroit Business,David Christensen,Dennis Archer,Lawrence Charfoos,Michigan Bar Journal,Michigan Supreme Court,personal injury lawyer,Robert Birach,Wendy Potts,William Giovan

Supreme Court and the NFL: Court Examines the Business of Football

With play-offs now underway, the National Football League also is involved in litigation over how it can license NFL team logos. The case, American Needle v NFL, is in federal court and has gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.Following oral argument last week, it was painfully clear that the nine justices on the high court do not spend much time watching football; not necessarily a bad thing. High court observers believe the Supreme Court may remand the case back to the federal district court in Chicago to clarify the issues in the suit.The dispute arose in 2004 when the league switched companies, from American Needle to Reebok, granting the latter a non- exclusive apparel license to sell hats, jerseys and other apparel. The NFL has...

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Posted in: Indianapolis Colts,New Orleans Saints,NFL,Reebok,Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals,Sherman Anti-Trust Act,United States Supreme Court

What are they Smoking?

This post is the original content of The Michigan Lawyer which is the official blog of Michigan Lawyers Weekly: What are they smoking?  That’s what Detroit-based Cannabis Counsel lawyer Matthew Abel is asking of the Michigan Senate Judiciary Committee, who is meeting next week to discuss a package of bills which would amend the public health code so that medical marijuana must be dispensed by pharmacists, and to classify medical marijuana as a schedule 2 controlled substance.“It seems that if the legislature ever passed these bills, they would be in conflict with the medical marijuana statute,” Abel said. “So they’d need a 3/4 vote to supercede the law, and you know that they can’t even get 3/4 of the legislature to agree on lunch,...

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Posted in: electronic criminal lawyer,Matthew Abel,medical marijuana,Michael Komorn,Michigan Lawyers Weekly,Michigan Medical Marihuana Act,MMMA,Senate Judiciaray Committee

2009 Michigan Child Custody Update

This post summarizes some of the more interesting 2009 family law decisions from the Michigan Court of Appeals dealing with child custody.In 2009, the Court of Appeals looked at the interplay between the juvenile code and the child custody act in two important cases.  The first case discussed was published and thus binding precedent; the second case is unpublished and does not bind subsequent courts in Michigan.In a case from Wayne County, In the Matter of A.P., Mother had sole custody of her child from a paternity action.  She was accused of abusing the child.  The resulting juvenile proceedings re-introduced the child’s biological father into the child’s life.  In the lengthily proceedings, the juvenile court’s rulings...

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Posted in: child custody,Child Custody Act,established custodial environment,family court,family law,juvenile code,juvenile court,Michigan Court of Appeals