Dropbox Use

I have been using Dropbox a lot here lately.  They have upped the personal storage amounts to 2tb which helps in the amount of stuff I have to store.  The feature I have been using a lot is to create links to discovery documents.  You can create links to the documents with passwords and also set them to expire in a set number of days.  This increases security but also makes it where I can have a phone conference with a client to go over discovery without having to wait on them to get a CD of a thousand pages of documents to review.

Every Other Weekend

Last week I talked about schedule conflicts in visitation orders located here.  I have had the issue come up in another context.  I reviewed an order from a case that is currently up on appeal.  The trial counsel drafted the order to read that the noncustodial parent gets visitation every other weekend.  Two issues:  (1)  does this apply during the summer and holidays; (2) whose weekend is it after the holidays are over?  Even though the case is on appeal, we are attempting to get the court to issue a clarification on that because issues are already arising as a result.  Personally, I feel the preferred method is to have the order say every 1st, 3rd, and 5th weekend with the holiday visitation overriding the weekend visitation.  It is also helpful to say the first Friday of the month counts as the first weekend.  (i.e. some creative difficult parents will try to say it is the first full week of the month instead of the weekend).  This also makes it where if the parties ever get off schedule, it can easily be determined whose weekend it is.

Trial Notebook

I have been a fan of trial notebooks for years.  During the holidays, I found an old book I bought several years ago called Building Trial Notebooks by Leonard Bucklin.  A link to it is located here.  Frankly, I bought it several years ago and ended up putting it aside after getting a few points from it.  I rediscovered it and realized how many good ideas it had that I am planning on trying to implement. The book is geared toward personal injury litigation but is easily adaptable to any case.  

Interesting Article

I came across and interesting article on vacating guilty pleas in Mississippi located here.  This is a topic attorney's routinely get asked about so it is worth filing away. 

Cheat Sheet

Merry Christmas to everyone!!  Yes, I am up early on Christmas morning taking care of items around the house and as usual working a little.  While doing some stuff this morning, found a Mississippi Worker's Compensation cheat sheet that looked pretty good located here.  Hope the readers find it useful.  It can be useful in calculating benefits without having to go through each statute.

Book Review

This morning I finished reading Changing Laws, Saving Lives by Randi McGinn.  It was an excellent read that really pulls you in.  It goes through her discussing her case against Allsup convenience stores for negligent security practices.  It also provides lots of practical tips on trial preparation and ideas that can be used.  It is fairly short at a little over 200 pages but time really flies when you are reading it.  Highly recommended.  A copy can be purchased here. 

Schedule Conflict on Visitation

Schedule conflicts on visitation orders is something that I keep seeing in orders.  I currently have an appeal issue pending on one and trial set on another.  The issue is that prior attorneys drafted orders where it is unclear if weekend visitation supersedes the holiday visitation.  As such, I am defending a contempt case where one party said weekend visitation continues into the summer along with summer visitation, while one party says the four weeks is the only visitation provided.  I have a similar issue in a case to address whether weekend visitation is part of Christmas visitation.  A lot of time, attorney's fees, and angry clients could have been saved by the simple adding of a sentence that the holiday visitation supersedes the weekend visitation.