Here are some recent articles of interest that I found this week related to law practice management, law technology, and legal marketing. Enjoy!
Florida Legal News: South Florida Title Agent Arrested for Embezzling Consumer Funds
The Florida Department of Financial Services’ Division of Insurance Fraud today announced the arrest of Bernard Feldman, owner of Hollywood Title Services, LLC in Hollywood, on multiple felony counts including transacting insurance without a license and grand theft of more than $20,000. Feldman was also permanently barred from the insurance industry and ordered to cease and desist from acting as a title agent without a license.
Read more here…
Florida Legal News: Florida Civil Jury Instructions are amended
The Supreme Court Committee on Standard Jury Instructions in Civil Cases submits these amendments to the following Florida Standard Jury Instructions in Civil Cases: Instructions 401.21, 401.23, 402.13, 402.15, 409.12, 412.8, 412.9, 501.4, 502.5, Model Instruction No. 1, Model Instruction No. 2, Model Instruction No. 3, Model Instruction No. 4, Model Instruction No. 5, Model Verdict Form 1, and Form 5(c). These amendments revise the jury instructions and verdict forms on apportionment of fault that are inconsistent with the jury instructions on legal causation and comparative fault. The amendment to instruction 502.5, on damages in wrongful death cases, clarifies that the fault of a survivor reduces the recovery of that survivor and does not reduce the awards of other survivors or the estate. The committee anticipates submitting these instructions to the Florida Supreme Court after reviewing all comments. Interested parties have until July 15, to submit comments electronically or by mail to the Civil Committee.
Read more here…
Florida Legal News: Florida lawyers must strip metadata from e-file pleadings
You’re representing a client in a divorce. As part of the routine process, the client emails you a required financial disclosure. It has bank account numbers, credit card numbers, the client’s Social Security number, and other sensitive financial information.
You take the electronic document and in accordance with R. Jud. Admin. 2.420 and 2.425 you electronically edit it, removing account numbers and other information to protect the client. Then you send the financial disclosure through the statewide portal that handles electronic filing for the Florida court system, including, if necessary, the form in Rule 2.420 alerting the receiving clerk for any additional sensitive information that must be redacted from the public court file.
A short time later, your client’s bank accounts are raided by thieves, his or her credit cards are used for a plethora of unauthorized purchases, and he or she is victimized by someone using the Social Security number. All because the fraudsters got the relevant information from a public document in the court file — the document you filed.
Read more here…
Thank you for reading (and sharing). Stay tuned for next week’s weekly review for Law Practice Tips and Florida Insurance Law!
