Just What is This Requirements Management Thing?

OK, this has nothing to do with law or the legal profession, at least not overtly so, but I learned a new term this week - requirements management - and just had to write about it.

A little background.

Several of us meet after work every couple of weeks or so for a few drinks and dinner, and last week Barry (don't-use-my-real-name) Boston brought along a new face to join the group. The newbie, whose name escapes me (hate when that happens) so I'll just call him Johnny for now, is a project manager for the product development division, and to make him feel more comfortable we all started peppering him with questions about his work.

Someone asked him what the toughest part of his job was and he told us that until two months ago it was requirements management. Say what?

Seems that whenever someone comes up with a new project there have specific things they want the product to accomplish, or requirements. Now it was making sense.

A big part of Johnny's job is keeping track of the project and making sure it is progressing and requirements are are on track. He was using a spreadsheet to keep track of everything, but it was a cumbersome process. He had to enter everything himself and it was eating up all his time, so he started looking around for a tool that could free up his time by streamlining the process and give responsibility to the designers and engineers.

What he found was on-demand requirements management software - now there's a mouthful. The on-demand part means that it is web-based, so it can be accessed by anyone working on the project from any computer. And since several of the designers liked to take work home with them, Johnny thought this was perfect.

The software is fully customizable so if the client wanted to add a requirement it was easy and everyone could instantly know about the addition. Tracking of all requirements was a breeze, he said, as was the prioritization.

In fact, using the Accompa software saved so much time he had just received a pretty good-sized bonus and picked up the tab for all of us.

Not only did we learn something new, we also got a free meal! Not a bad deal, hun?

We're hoping Johnny comes back next time, and I promised to remember his name.

Lindsay Lohan To Work Off Sentence In Morgue

As part of her agreement on a misdemeanor drunk driving charge, actress Lindsay Lohan will work two four-hour shifts in a morgue, said her attorney.

She must also spend two days working in a hospital emergency room.

Lohan was arrested twice last year on DUI charges and pleaded guilty in August to misdemeanor drunken driving and cocaine charges. She has already served 84 minutes in jail as part of the plea deal.

Merck to settle Vioxx Lawsuits

After winning most of the Vioxx lawsuits, Merck decides to settle the rest for a cool $4.85 billion.

Three years after withdrawing its pain medication Vioxx from the market, Merck has agreed to pay $4.85 billion to settle 27,000 lawsuits by people who claim they or their family members suffered injury or died after taking the drug, according to two lawyers with direct knowledge of the matter.

The settlement, one of the largest ever in civil litigation, comes after nearly 20 Vioxx civil trials over the last two years from New Jersey to California. After losing a $253 million verdict in the first case, Merck has won most of the rest of the cases that reached juries, giving plaintiffs little choice but to settle.

The settlement will help put Vioxx behind Merck, as well as sharply reduce its Vioxx-related legal defense fees, which are now running at more than $600 million annually.

Judges in Louisiana, New Jersey and California, who oversee nearly all the lawsuits, had pressed for a deal before a new wave of trials was scheduled to begin in January.

Actor Keanu Reeves Faces Photographer's Law Suit

A paparazzo gets bumped by a car driven by Keanu Reeves last May and is now suing the actor.

LOS ANGELES - A photographer sued Keanu Reeves, accusing the actor of hitting him with his Porsche in a not-so-excellent encounter in March. The lawsuit said Reeves struck Alison Silva on March 19 and alleges that Silva suffered shock and serious injuries. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages.

According to reports at the time of the accident, Reeves was leaving a parking space in a residential area near Los Verdes County Golf Course, about 30 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

If you stand in the street be careful. This case needs to be tossed.

Merck cleared in Florida Vioxx trial

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - A Florida jury on Friday found Merck & Co's withdrawn painkiller Vioxx did not cause a former professional soccer player's heart attack and that the company did not conceal safety risks associated with the medicine.

After a three-week trial in the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County, the six-member jury took just two hours to hand Merck a victory on all counts.

The jury also found that Merck was not negligent and did not fail to provide adequate warnings about Vioxx heart risks.

The plaintiff, 56-year-old Refic Kozic, blamed Vioxx for his 2001 heart attack at the age of 50. He had used the drug for nine weeks for knee pain.

"We believe the evidence showed that Merck acted responsibly and that Vioxx was not the cause of Mr. Kozic's heart attack," said Mike Brock, one of Merck's attorneys.

Virtual Reality Tours Increase Real Estate Sales

We have two friends in the real estate business, and they couldn't be more different. Neither one wanted us to mention them by name (go figure) so we'll call them Marcia and Larry.

Marcia has been a real estate agent for 30 years and has a well-established business relying primarily on word-of-mouth and the occasional direct mail piece. Her idea of virtual reality tours is a few quality photos of each property on her Web site.

She told us her methods work well for her, and we can't argue with her success over the years through good times and bad.

Larry, on the other hand, is relatively new to the real estate game. He's young, eager, ambitious and very tech savvy. As expected he has quite a different view on the use of virtual reality tours in his quest to sell more homes.

He believes the use of video in virtual reality real estate tours is getting ready to revolutionize the home selling market and he plans to be in the vanguard.

Larry has statistic on his side, too.

Here's a couple of tidbits from Real Networks:

• Visitors stayed at websites that used video 78% longer than websites that did not have video.
• 86 percent of website visitors stay to listen to and/or watch a streaming media presentation.

Larry is as convinced of the benefits of using video virtual tours in his real estate practice as Marcia is on her tried and true methods.

Who's right? Our money is on Larry.

War on the Freedom of Information Act

From TomDispatch.com:

We live with an administration whose concept of domestic "freedom" went out with those "freedom fries," briefly sold at the cafeterias of the House of Representatives. The Bush team has quite literally been a force for darkness. For those who remember the "memory hole" down which the bureaucrats of the Ministry of Truth dumped all uncomfortable or inconvenient documents in Orwell's famed dystopian novel 1984, this administration has created its functional equivalent. Just since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the government has removed from open shelves and sequestered from public view more than one million pages of "historical government documents -- a stack taller than the U.S. Capitol." According to the Associated Press, "some of these documents are more than a century old." What we are seeing in many cases is "declassification in reverse." For example, the CIA and other federal agencies "have secretly reclassified over 55,000 pages of records taken from the open shelves at the National Archives and Records Administration." These have even included half-century-old documents already published in a State Department historical series. In many cases, there is simply no way of knowing what has been removed, because the removals have largely not been catalogued.

Even the Pentagon phone book, on sale at the Government Printing Office bookstore until 2001, is gone. There's little way for a citizen to know who occupy offices that may determine the course of his or her life. In a sense, there are no longer "public servants," only private ones, beholden to the President, not Americans. This is what "national security," Bush-style, really means. Similarly, as Robert Dreyfuss discovered when he tried to chart out who was working in Vice President Cheney's office while researching a piece, no information could be revealed to a curious reporter, not even the names and positions of those who worked for the Vice President, those who, theoretically, were working for us. Cheney's office would not even publicly acknowledge its own employees, no less let them be interviewed.

Anti-gay Lawmaker: 'I am not gay'

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, known for consistent votes against gay rights, says he is not gay after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge on Aug. 8, with the court dismissing a charge of gross misdemeanor interference to privacy.

BOISE, Idaho - Under fire from leaders of his own party, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig on Tuesday the only thing he had done wrong was to plead guilty after a police complaint of lewd conduct in a men's room. He declared, "I am not gay. I never have been gay."

"I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport," he said at a news conference with his wife, Suzanne, at his side.

Craig's defiant stance came as Senate Republican leaders in Washington called for an ethics committee review into his involvement in a police sting operation this summer in the airport men's room.

"In the meantime, the leadership is examining other aspects of the case to see if additional action is required," Sen. Mitch McConnell and other top GOP lawmakers said in a written statement.

A private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, also filed a complaint with the ethics committee seeking an investigation into whether Craig violated Senate rules by engaging in disorderly conduct.

Craig entered his plea several weeks after an undercover police officer in the airport arrested him and issued a complaint that said the three-term senator had engaged in actions "often used by persons communicating a desire to engage in sexual conduct."

Craig said he has hired a lawyer and will ask him to review the case.

The airport incident occurred June 11. Craig signed his plea papers on Aug. 1, and word of the events surfaced Monday. The senator issued a statement Monday night that said, "In hindsight, I should have pled not guilty."

He repeated that assertion at the Idaho news conference. "In June, I overreacted and made a poor decision," he said. "I chose to plead guilty to a lesser charge in hopes of making it go away."

Outsourcing That Makes Sense

If you are running a web-based business on a budget there's a new service you need to know about - SEO Outsourcing.

While the site is new, they have more than 11 years experience in making sure web site place well in the search engines. Oh, they don't guarantee a No. 1 Google ranking, but they do guarantee quick results.

Here's what they have to say:

Our goal is to generate an ever increasing number of visitors to your site that convert to actual paying customers. To get customers to your site we need superior placement in major engines so that people who are looking for your services can find you. It’s all about ROI!

Their rates are very affordable, too. Even for the Mom and Pop businesses.

In addition to SEO, they offer:

• Professional Web Design and Layout
• Graphic and animated logo and ad creation
• Custom scripting
• Database Driven Solutions
• Enterprise solutions
• Directory submissions
• Link Acquisition Services
• PPC management
• Server Maintenance and Security
• Content Management Systems
• Systems integration
• Complete Web 2.0 solutions

Give them a try. You won't be disappointed.

Filing a Personal Head Injury Claim in Spain

After each holiday weekend or fiesta there is always a large accident rate and a high death toll on Spanish roads. Authorities in Spain are clamping down on drunken drivers and reckless driving but enforcement of the traffic laws is not yet having a direct impact on reducing the high number of deaths and injuries on Spanish roads.

One of the most prevalent types of injury from these accidents involves head trauma and resultant brain injury. In fact, one recent study involving Spanish coastal property indicated 61 percent of traffic accidents resulted in some type of brain injury. These accidents included autos, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians hit by vehicles.

With more and more British citizens expected to retire in Spain and other European countries it is important for these expatriots to understand the local laws involving injury. Here is a summary of what you should know about

Similar to the UK there is an obligation on the drivers to remain at the site of the accident until the police arrive. If the injuries suffered and damage to the car is minor then the other driver may ask you to sign a form accepting who was responsible for the accident. This is known as a "declaracion amistosa" and should not be signed unless you are absolutely certain of what you are signing and accepting. If the other driver wishes to leave the scene try and obtain, as far as possible, his insurance details, full name, identity card number and details of the vehicle before he does so. If the injuries suffered require hospitalisation then on leaving the hospital ensure that you obtain a discharge certificate, which will set out the injuries that you have suffered, the amount of days in hospital and the treatment prescribed.

Usually after a road accident the Police will visit the scene, prepare a report and then send it to the local Court. The report will contain details of the drivers insurance companies, names of the drivers, witnesses, if any, statement from the parties involved and an objective assessment of how the accident occurred.

Once you have been discharged or in the event of a death after the funeral, the relatives or victim should seek legal advice as the claim has to be brought within 1 year of the accident. If you have a valid motor or other insurance policy then read the policy carefully to see if you have legal expenses cover. If you do then contact the insurance company, notify them of the claim (if they have not already been notified) and ask them how much cover you have and whether or not you are permitted under the terms of the policy to use your own lawyer rather than their huge claims department, which may not offer the personalised service.

When instructing a lawyer ask him for details of his charges and an explanation of the action that he will take on your behalf.

The first steps a lawyer will take is to contact the Court and obtain a copy of the Police report which will contain some important information. He will also notify the Court if proceedings are ongoing that his Firm is instructed and appoint a Procurador. A Procurador is a Court Official employed by the lawyer to present documents to the Court and notify the lawyer of progress of the claim in the Court.

Following these instructions should make it easier to make a personal injury claim following an accident in Spain.

Data Mining Triggered Flap Between Gonzales, Congress

Fresh from The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, July 28 — A 2004 dispute over the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance program that led top Justice Department officials to threaten resignation involved computer searches through massive electronic databases, according to current and former officials briefed on the program.

It is not known precisely why searching the databases, or data mining, raised such a furious legal debate. But such databases contain records of the phone calls and e-mail messages of millions of Americans, and their examination by the government would raise privacy issues.

The N.S.A.’s data mining has previously been reported. But the disclosure that concerns about it figured in the March 2004 debate helps to clarify the clash this week between Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senators who accused him of misleading Congress and called for a perjury investigation.

The confrontation in 2004 led to a showdown in the hospital room of then Attorney General John Ashcroft, where Mr. Gonzales, the White House counsel at the time, and Andrew H. Card Jr., then the White House chief of staff, tried to get the ailing Mr. Ashcroft to reauthorize the N.S.A. program.

Judge Dismisses Plame's Lawsuit

Federal Judge John D. Bates dismissed a lawsuit filed by former CIA undercover operative Valerie Plame against Vice President Dick Cheney and others in the administration because they were just doing their jobs.

The Washington Post reports:

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates said that Cheney and the others could not be held liable for the disclosures in the summer of 2003 in the midst of a White House effort to rebut criticism of the Iraq war by her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. The judge said that such efforts are a natural part of the officials' job duties, and, thus, they are immune from liability.

"The alleged means by which defendants chose to rebut Mr. Wilson's comments and attack his credibility may have been highly unsavory," Bates wrote. "But there can be no serious dispute that the act of rebutting public criticism, such as that levied by Mr. Wilson against the Bush administration's handling of prewar foreign intelligence, by speaking with members of the press is within the scope of defendants' duties as high-level Executive Branch officials."

An interesting point is the judge owes his position to President Bush.

Lawyer Sent to Jail For Testimony Leak

From AFP via Yahoo! News:

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Troy Ellerman, a defense lawyer in the BALCO steroid scandal, was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Thursday for leaking secret testimony from star athlete witnesses to the media.

Ellerman, 44, had pleaded guilty in February to contempt of court, obstruction of justice and making false statements after allowing a San Francisco Chronicle reporter access to transcripts of grand jury testimony by baseball star Barry Bonds and other athletes embroiled in the BALCO steroids investigation.

Ellerman, who at the time represented BALCO Vice President James Valente, then complained about the leaks in court.

US District Judge Jeffrey White said Ellerman's actions "infected every aspect of the judicial system."

BALCO, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, was accused of producing and supplying performance-enhancing substances to top athletes in one of the worst scandals in sporting history.

Supreme Court Rejects Use of Race in School Plans

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected school assignment plans that take account of students' race in two major public school districts.

The school rulings in cases affecting schools in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle leave public school systems with a limited arsenal to maintain racial diversity.

The court split, 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts announcing the court's judgment. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a dissent that was joined by the court's other three liberals.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote a concurring opinion in which he said race may be a component of school district plans designed to achieve diversity.

He agreed with Roberts that the plans in Louisville and Seattle went too far. He said, however, that to the extent that Roberts' opinion could be interpreted as foreclosing the use of race in any circumstance, "I disagree with that reasoning."

The two school systems in Thursday's decisions employ slightly different methods of taking students' race into account when determining which school they would attend.

Judge Suspends Duke D.A.

Already stripped of his law license over his mishandling of the Duke rape case, a judge ordered District Attorney Mike Nifong immediately suspended from office.

From USA Today:

DURHAM, N.C. — A judge suspended District Attorney Mike Nifong effective immediately Tuesday after learning the prosecutor disbarred for his handling of the Duke lacrosse rape case intended to stay in office for another month.
"There is probably cause to believe that the district attorney has engaged in willful misconduct in office and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, which brings the office into disrepute," Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson wrote in his order.

Later Tuesday, state lawmakers were scheduled to take up — and expected to pass — a bill that would allow Gov. Mike Easley to immediately remove Nifong from office.

Nifong, who was disbarred Saturday for breaking more than two dozen rules of professional conduct in his handling of the Duke case, said in a letter issued Monday that he would leave office July 13 — a date that could arrive before the legislation becomes law.

That departure date wasn't soon enough for Hudson, who decided late Monday that he would suspend Nifong from office. He said then that he would order the sheriff to prevent Nifong from carrying out any duties of the district attorney.

A lesson in innocence

The horrible miscarriage of justice in the cases of the Duke University lacrosse players falsely accused of rape is a prime example of why American justice insists that a person charged with a crime is considered innocent until proven guilty.

Unfortunately, that is not always the case with institutions and people.

Duke University has settled with the three players for undisclosed amounts because "it is in the best interests of the Duke community to eliminate the possibility of future litigation and move forward," according to a written statement released by the university.

After the rape charges first surfaced in the spring of 2006, Duke canceled the men's lacrosse season and forced the resignation of coach Mike Pressler. Dozens of Duke faculty members known as the "Group of 88" signed a statement criticizing the lacrosse team.

Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty were suspended from Duke after their indictments. David Evans graduated from Duke just before he was indicted.

"This has been an extraordinary year for Duke students David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann," Duke added in today's statement.

"We welcomed their exoneration and deeply regret the difficult year they and their families have had to endure. They conducted themselves with great dignity during their long ordeal."

Prosecutor Facing Own Hearing

The prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse case from last year is now facing a hearing of his own after charges of ethics violations were leveled at him.

RALEIGH, N.C. - More than a year after shocking allegations emerged about Duke University's lacrosse team, prosecutor Mike Nifong was back in court Tuesday — this time as the defendant.

The North Carolina State Bar charged the Durham County district attorney with several violations of the state's rules of professional conduct, all tied to his handling of the lacrosse case.

If convicted by a disciplinary commission hearing the case, he could be stripped of his license to practice law in the state.

Georgia Yo-yo Justice

A Georgia teen imprisoned for consensual sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17, was first told he was being released, but will stay in prison pending a bond hearing next month.

ATLANTA - Genarlow Wilson's joy was short-lived. One minute, a judge ordered him released from prison, saying the young man's 10-year sentence for consensual sex between teens was a "grave miscarriage of justice." Ninety minutes later, Georgia's attorney general said Wilson wasn't going anywhere — the state had appealed.

On Tuesday, Wilson's attorney was fighting to at least get him released on bond during the appeal process. He is now 21 and has been behind bars for more than 28 months.

"Yesterday, they did not consent to a bond," attorney B.J. Bernstein said Tuesday on CNN. "We are hopeful to hurry up and get in front of a judge — one, to get him out pending an appeal, but even more importantly, to get this madness over with."

Bernstein sought a hearing Tuesday in Douglas County court, where Wilson was convicted, even though the district attorney there opposes his release. Douglas County Superior Court Judge David Emerson set the bond hearing for July 5, another three weeks away.

Wilson became a symbol for extreme cases of getting tough on sex offenders when he was sentenced to the mandatory 10-year sentence for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl in 2003, when Wilson was 17.

If he had instead had sexual intercourse with the teen, he would have fallen under Georgia's "Romeo and Juliet" exception. But under the law in 2003, oral sex for teens still constituted aggravated child molestation and carried a mandatory sentence, plus listing on the sex offender registry.

Lawmakers last year voted to close that loophole, but the state's top court said the new law could not be applied retroactively to Wilson's case.

Libby Sentenced; Bush Feels Terrible

Former White House official Lewis "Scooter" Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his lying in the investigation of the outing of a covert CIA agent. His attorneys want him to remain free while his case is on appeal. The judge is not so inclined.

Meanwhile, President George Bush is said to feel "terrible" for Libby's family.

Court Limits Suits Over Pay-Bias

Does big business rule the courts? You be the judge after reading about their ruling on pay-bias suits.

The Supreme Court has ruled 5-4 that the deadline for workers to file a pay-bias complaint under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is 180 days from the date the decision on their pay is made and communicated to them.

In general, an individual wishing to bring a discrimination lawsuit must first file a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within 180 days "after the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred."

The question before the Supreme Court was whether the clock on that 180 days restarts each time an employee receives a paycheck that reflects past discrimination.

Lilly Ledbetter was a supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber's plant in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1979 until her retirement in 1998. At first, her pay was in line with the salaries of men, but over time a gap developed between her salary and the pay of male area managers with equal or less seniority. By the end of 1997, Ledbetter was the only woman working as an area manager and was paid $3,727 per month. By comparison, the pay of the lowest paid male area manager was $4,286 per month.

Ledbetter sued in 1998, alleging disparate treatment. The company argued that the suit should be dismissed because Ledbetter failed to file a complaint with the EEOC within 180 days of the previous pay decisions that Ledbetter alleges were discriminatory.

However, Ledbetter argued that the clock on the 180-day deadline restarted after each paycheck that reflected past discrimination. She claimed that each time the company issued her a paycheck, the company demonstrated an intent to discriminate and violated Title VII.

However, the majority rejected her arguments, saying Ledbetter should have filed a complaint after each pay decision.

"Ledbetter should have filed an EEOC charge within 180 days after each allegedly discriminatory pay decision was made and communicated to her," Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. "She did not do so, and the paychecks that were issued to her during the 180 days prior to the filing of her EEOC charge do not provide a basis for overcoming that prior failure."