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Practicing law occupies your mind. Being a lawyer has been described as a thinking job and not just a doing job. Lately the news around us has been horrible, and the decisions we face about tasks as simple as buying groceries have been daunting. In these times, I have found my law practice to be a welcome respite from the world around me.
“Field of Dreams” (1989) captures the essence of baseball. The immortal line, “If you build it, he will come,” will always reminds me of my late father. As kids, he played catch with me and my brothers in a field near our house, and I still see him waving at me when I drive by that location in Batesville. As baseball tries to play a short season, I am reminded of my love of the game.
I’m a lawyer, so I’m a good communicator, right? Or at least I have been conditioned to believe that. In my own practice, I listen and respond to arguments all the time. Reflecting on my personal interactions, I would like to think that I take the time to look and listen to the person I am speaking with. So what more could I do? Doesn’t this mean I’m a good listener? If attorneys are supposedly so good at communicating, do I know what am I actually communicating when I interact with colleagues, coworkers and clients?
Read Indiana appellate court decisions from the most recent reporting period.
Now more than ever, it’s important to remember what makes us unique and support one another. Each year, the Indianapolis Bar Association Women and the Law Division is proud to celebrate Antoinette Dakin Leach, who was the first woman admitted to the Indiana State Bar Association in 1909, by presenting an honor in her name to a trailblazing female attorney.
As of June 16, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has implemented a new examination program to expedite trademark applications related to COVID-19 in light of the current economic circumstances caused by the global pandemic.
As of July 1, 2020, all instruments which are to be recorded in the State of Indiana (deeds, mortgages, etc.) will need to comply with a modification to Indiana Code 32-21-2-3(a). Specifically, the Indiana General Assembly passed Senate Enrolled Act 340 during its 2020 session, which included a provision changing an “or” to an “and” in Indiana Code 32-21-2-3(a). The change invoked a requirement of common law “proof”, which is the requirement of a disinterested party to the transaction serving as a witness to the execution of an instrument.
A woman who learned years after she had been told that a hepatitis test was negative that in fact the test had come back positive had her case reinstated June 26 by the majority of an Indiana Court of Appeals panel. Two of three judges found a clinic fraudulently concealed the woman’s positive test result.
Dean Andrew Klein routinely tells us that he isn’t going anywhere after his one-year sabbatical. He intends to return to the classroom at IU McKinney. Law students will be better off for it. He intends to continue to support the IndyBar and the IBF and, in turn, the Indianapolis legal community. Our profession will be better off for it.
The IndyBar E-Discovery, Cybersecurity and Information Governance Section leaders Jennifer Tudor Wright and Katrina Gossett Kelly recently presented another successful and informative CLE entitled “Practical Tips to Bolster your Legal Hold Notice.” Jennifer and Katrina drew on their e-discovery experience and reviewed key elements of a legal hold notice, case law updates, confidentiality/privilege issues and additional considerations for attorneys and their clients.
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Monwell Douglas v. Faith Reeves
18‐2588
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Terre Haute Division.
Chief Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson.
Civil. Affirms the Indiana Southern District Court’s grant of summary judgment to Faith Reeves against Monwell Douglas, an Indiana prisoner who claimed Reeves retaliated against him for activity protected by the First Amendment. Finds no reasonable jury could conclude that Reeves inflicted deprivations on Douglas likely to deter a person of ordinary firmness from engaging in First Amendment activity.
An Indiana prisoner whose discipline conviction was overturned for lack of evidence did not persuade the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that his case manager later retaliated against him for activity protected by the First Amendment.
A man convicted in a drug conspiracy could not convince the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that he pleaded guilty to a lesser amount than what the government indicted him for.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has affirmed a northern Indiana woman’s felony conviction for assisting her godson after he murdered his teenage girlfriend, finding she did so with the intent to hinder his punishment.
A divided Indiana Supreme Court has sided with an appellate judge’s dissent in a drug dealing case, lowering a woman’s decades-long sentence pursuant to Appellate Rule 7(B).
The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a 1991 law that bars robocalls to cellphones. Six justices agreed that by allowing debt collection calls to cellphones, Congress “impermissibly favored debt-collection speech over political and other speech, in violation of the First Amendment.”
Muncie police officers fatally shot a man who pointed a BB gun resembling a handgun at them, Indiana State Police said. The confrontation happened about 2 a.m. Sunday after the officers responded to a call to check on a possibly suicidal man on the city’s south side.
Indiana’s Republican delegates are casting ballots as the time nears to select who will run for state attorney general in November.
Supporters of an Indiana minister who was suspended for calling organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement “maggots and parasites” walked out of a service and shouted at a bishop who ended his remarks with the words, “Black lives matter.”