Out of Left Field

January 04, 2011 by

We all use email everyday, much more often than we use the U.S. Mail, faxes or even telephones. And we have all read horror stories about email evidence in civil and criminal cases. But most of us haven’t given a lot of thought to whether the Fourth Amendment protects emails from seizure by the government without a warrant supported by probable cause. The issue, of course, is whether we have a reasonable expectation of privacy in our email exchanges, despite the fact that our internet service providers (ISP’s) can access those emails on their servers. The Sixth Circuit, in its […] More...
 

Following the Money Sometimes Misses the Point

September 24, 2015 by

My partners, David Rudolf and Chris Fialko, recently settled a civil rights suit that resulted in an impressive financial outcome for their client.  But beneath the flashy lights of money is a story that is rarely discussed in the aftermath of settlement:  the heartache, the uncertainty and ultimately, the massive relief at the end of a long and painful journey. We are almost numb to this narrative:  our civil rights plaintiff served 11 years in prison for a crime – murder – that he did not commit.  Incarcerated after several codefendants were coerced into falsely confessing to the crime and […] More...
 

Cat-and-Mouse Games Close to My Heart

December 28, 2012 by

Since any statute of limitations has clearly expired, sharing the following information does not concern me: the scene is South Boston in the mid-fifties. Almost daily, my then-eight-year-old mom stopped in at Jennie’s local grocery store with my nana – but not for milk or eggs or bread. While my nana slipped into a back room with Jennie to lay a wager, my mom importantly took Jennie’s place at the check-out register, armed with instructions to let the ladies in the back know if anybody came into the store looking for Jennie. My mom was aiding and abetting a numbers […] More...