Saved by the Gun

Ben WallaceWhat a difference one-year makes.  Last year, our law firm's web site carried a tweet in our news feed about Big Ben attending law school. Last weekend, any plans the big fella had of convincing a state bar to issue a law license in his name just became more complicated.  Wallace, recently retired from the Detroit Pistons, and a former Chicago Bull and Cleveland Cavalier, was arrested in Bloomfield Township on Saturday night.News reports have Wallace failing field sobriety tests and submitting to a breath test allegedly resulting in a .14 blood alcohol content.  The legal limit in Michigan is .08; the year-old "SuperDrunk" threshold is .17.An unloaded pistol allegedly was found in Wallace's Cadillac.  This...

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Posted in: 48th District Court,Ben Wallace,drunk driving,Judge Kim Small,Oakland County Circuit Court,Oakland County Jail,Super Drunk

New Apps Flood Lawyers With Information

Attorneys, perhaps more than any other professionals, are awash with information; information about their cases, information about changing laws, a constantly shifting schedule.  The pace with which the information now flows can only be described as instantaneous. The manner in which a lawyer collects, stores and utilizes this information is a good indicator of that lawyer's professional skill.  In this era of a 24/7 stream of digitized information, mobile devices are beginning to offer specialized apps for lawyers.Here are some examples:SCOTUS App.  The Oyez Project has just launched an app that will download U.S. Supreme Court activity to your mobile device.  This will include digitally recorded oral arguments, text of...

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Posted in: apps,attorney,divorce,family law,Gotham,information,lawyer,mobile device,SCOTUS,technology

Post-Divorce Nesting

Brown Bird Design for TimeThis week in Time Magazine, there is a story in the "Society" section about a mode of parenting known as, "Nesting".  This is where divorced parents each secure a residence beyond the former marital home; the couple's children remain in the marital home, to "nest".The theory behind nesting is that it seeks to minimize the sense of upheaval that children of school age often experience during and after their parent's divorce.Time's Belinda Luscombe speculates that the nesting mode of post-divorce parenting has emerged over the past decade as an innovative version of co-parenting.  It remains rare, however, to get both parents on the same page be able to pull it off.In the past decade, I have completed nearly...

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Posted in: Belinda Luscombe,child custody,co-parenting,divorce,divorce lawyer,family court,family law,Time Magazine

Oakland County Re-Visits Medical Marijuana Drama

The Oakland County Sheriff's interpretation of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act (MMA) and the Controlled Substances Act has forced two local marijuana facilities to lock their doors.  One of the pot-growing operations, Big Daddy's Hydro, in Oak Park, closed voluntarily; the other facility, right here in Commerce Township where this blog post is being composed, was the subject of a task-force raid.The Oakland Press ran a front-page story on Saturday about Big Daddy's Hydro.  The facility was on the receiving end of an Oakland County Sheriff's raid back in January.  Since then, the owners were resolved to carry on their operation; an operation they insisted was legal under the MMA.  Sounds like a movie might be in there...

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Posted in: Big Daddys Hydro,Brandon McQueen,criminal defense lawyer,medical marijuana,Medical Marijuana Act,Michigan Court of Appeals,Neil Rockind,Oakland County Prosecutor,Oakland County Sheriff

Large Man Suing White Castle Over Booth Size

Satisfying my (very) occasional cravings for White Castle sliders, I've never stepped foot into the tiny fast food chain's shoe box stores; I always blow through the drive-through window instead.  I cannot imagine the size of their booths as anything but cramped.A New York man weighing nearly 300 pounds has filed a lawsuit against the Colombus, Ohio based company in federal court alleging violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Hungry, humiliated and hurting when he slammed his knee into the metal pole beneath the, er, table, this Plaintiff is now seeking unspecified money damages.In-house counsel ought to have a good time with this litigation.  A spokesman for the company said the store in Nanuet, NY is being replaced...

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Posted in: Americans with Disabilities Act,lawsuit,lawyer,White Castle

Remembering September 11th, 2001

I remember driving to Detroit for a child support hearing the morning of Tuesday, 09/11/2001.  I was just about downtown on I-75, when the "Imus in the Morning" show reported an odd story about a "commuter" plane that had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.The matter was being reported in those early moments as an errant plane.  The discussion was about near misses that happen more than we realize.As Don Imus described what he was seeing on the video monitors, his entire radio show crew erupted when the second jet struck the South Tower.  I slammed my fist into the empty passenger seat of my car, shouting in disbelief.  Along with the rest of the...

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Posted in: Capitol Rotunda,child support,Detroit,Don Imus,Flight 93,Friend of the Court,Penobscot Building,Pentagon,September 11,Wayne County

Medical Marijuana Lawyer Seeks Further Appeal on Dispensary Case

This blog has covered the recent Michigan Court of Appeals decision in Michigan v McQueen which outlawed medical marijuana dispensaries as well as patient-to-patient pot sales.  This appeal is the latest chapter in the pot drama that has gripped our state since the passage of the referendum that legalized medicinal marijuana by a convincing 3/4 popular vote in the 2008 election. Our readers may recall that the oral arguments in this appeal were the subject of some fanfare when journalist Eric Van Dussen sought to record the arguments, as he did in the People v Anderson medical marijuana case.  Jurisprudence in the making is certainly newsworthy; particularly when it concerns our fledgling yet tortured medical marijuana law.Now this...

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Posted in: Brandon McQueen,criminal defense lawyer,Matthew R. Newburg,medical marijuana,Medical Marijuana Act,Michigan Court of Appeals