The January issue of Vanity Fair has a long, important article about the dangers of the birth control device, NuvaRing, manufactured by Merck. The article tells the story of two women—one killed and one permanently injured—by NuvaRing. But, my best friend's sister died last year from pulmonary embolisms caused by NuvaRing, so I do not need this article to humanize this regulatory and personal disaster.

The article provides very useful information for consumers and non-lawyers about the regulatory and legal framework in which harmful drugs are introduced to market and in which attorneys struggle to seek justice for those who have been injured or killed by those drugs. If you are interested in understanding from a very real-world situation what "agency capture" or "mass tort" litigation looks like, this article is a must-read.

For the rest of you, please, ask every woman you know whether she is using Nuvaring and share this article with her. 

While it is hard to find an exemplary pull quote from this long and excellent article, this quote demonstrates the extent to which drug companies will go to obscure science in search of ever-expanding profits. 

In September 2001, as the F.D.A. was considering the approval of the completed application, court documents submitted by the plaintiffs claim, Organon scientists had become concerned with “the burst release” and what they called “out-of-spec results” in “large-scale NuvaRing batches.” One member of the regulatory-affairs team e-mailed a colleague, “This is a very serious issue, in that FDA is very sensitive to the ‘burst release’ phenomenon and release in general. Going to FDA to change these specifications is absolutely the LAST thing we should consider, i.e., that’s the worse possible scenario.”

I am angry all over again. 

Earlier this year, I asked Kentucky cyclists what their greatest fears were. In a totally unscientific tallying of the responses, here's my impression: The two most commonly cited fears were, unsurprisingly, getting hit by a moving car and getting doored. I can sympathize. I'm looking in the rear window of every single parked car I ride past  to see if there is a driver getting ready to exit the vehicle and throw me into traffic. 

I also asked what Kentucky cyclists fear that I had not considered. Boy, you all are creative bunch. Among the things you fear (and that I now have to consider) are:  

• Handle bars torque while at top speed going downhill.
• Vision impaired in both eyes due to cloud of gnats.
• Having your butt crack peek out of your pants as you bend forward to reduce wind resistance.
• Having a can thrown at you from a passing car window, looking down and then being smashed by a semi only to then have a bee sting you! 
• Being lasso'd in the middle of fricken nowhere and thrown in the back of a truck of a psycho woman and carted off to some hole in the ground.
• When in Kentucky... being bitten by dogs.
• Unexpected rain.
• River Road and people from the East end.
• I can't say that every single thing on this list is actionable in a court of law, but if you or a bicyclist you know are injured by a driver's carelessness, please, get a lawyer. If it's me, great. If not, that's fine, too. But, you need to get a lawyer so that the driver compensates you for all of your injuries. This includes your medical bills, lost time at work, property damage, and your physical pain and emotional suffering. 

For many reasons, The Big Lebowski is one of my favorite movies of all time. After many viewings, I know the movie basically verbatim (because I'm a lawyer, I'm required to use Latin instead of just saying "word-for-word" or "by heart"). So, I suppose it's not surprising that I often find myself quoting the movie during everyday conversation. What is surprising, though, is just how often I find myself wanting to use quotes from The Big Lebowski in my work as a lawyer: from trying to settle cases, to talking with clients, to negotiating discovery disputes with opposing counsel, to brainstorming with co-counsel.

But, on further reflection, the movie is filled with high-drama characters, multiple conflicts, arguments about money, a stoner, a money-grubbing hussy, a pompous rich guy, a severed toe, a lot of caucasians, and some nihilists, so it seems natural that situations in my life as a lawyer would be amenable to Lebowski allusions.

Here is a list of those quotes from The Big Lebowski that I either a) have used or b) aspire to use in my advocacy before I retire. I will leave it to you, the reader, to guess which ones I've already used and encourage you to use them, as well. 

• This aggression will not stand.
• Where's the fucking money, shithead?!?
• I'm throwing rocks tonight. 
• We all know who is at fault here. What the fuck are you talking about?
• We're talking about unchecked aggression.
• I'm talking about drawing a line in the sand. 
• They peed on your fucking rug.
• Are you employed, sir? 
• The Dude minds. This will not stand, man. This aggression will not stand.
• I cannot solve your problems, sir. Only you can.
• If you will it, it is no dream.
• Over the line!
• Mark it zero. 
• Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules. 
• Smokey, my friend, you're entering a world of pain.
• Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules?!?
• You're not wrong. You're just an asshole. 
• Just take it easy, man.
• Calmer than you are.
• Strong men also cry.
• Life does not start and stop at your convenience you miserable piece of shit.
• Those rich fucks.
• Are you ready to be fucked, man?
• Yeah, well, that's just like you're opinion, man. 
• Nobody fucks with the Jesus. 
• Her life is in your hands, Dude.
• "We?" What the fuck "we"?
• Why should we settle for a measly twenty grand when we can keep the whole million?  
• The Dude: "This isn't a fucking game." Walter: "Oh, but it is."
• Dude, are you fucking this up?
• Nothing is fucked here, dude. 
• They're a bunch of fucking amateurs.
• The beauty of this plan is its simplicity. 
• No, we can't do that, Dude. That fucks up the plan. 
• Sooner or later you're just going to have to face the fact that you're a goddamn moron.
• Well, I guess we can close the file on that one.
• We've been frantically trying to reach you, Dude.
• The goddamn plane has crashed into the mountain!
• I've got information...Certain shit has come to light...
• She's got to feed the monkey.
• That had not occurred to us, Dude.
• That's what you pay me for. 
• My concern is—and I've got to check with my accountant—that this may bump me into a higher tax bracket.
• By God, sir: I will not abide another toe.
• They send us a toe and we're supposed to shit ourselves. 
• That's just the stress talking, Dude.
• If you don't calm down, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. 
• This affects all of us—our basic freedoms!
• Enjoyin' my coffee.
• Where is the money, Lebowski? We want the money, Lebowski!
• We are sympathizing with you. 
• Okay, Dude. I can see you don't want to be cheered up here. 
• Sometimes you eat the bear. Sometimes, the bear, why, he eats you.
• There's just one thing, Dude. Do you have to use so many cuss words?
• Okay, Dude, have it your way. 
• I've got to tender my resignation or whatever.
• If you would listen occasionally, you might learn something.
• I'm telling you, I've got pretty definitive evidence.
• This is a very complicated case, Maude. Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous. Lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in Old Duder's head.
• He's a good man. And thorough. 
• Our fucking troubles are over, Dude.
• We're hoping it won't be necessary to call the police. 
• Son, this is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!
• You see what happens, Larry?
• I accept you apology. No, I just want to handle it by myself from now on. 
• You know, Walter, you're right. There is an unspoken message here. It's, "fuck you! Leave me the fuck alone!"
• You're not dealing with morons, here. 
• There are a lot of facets to this. A lot of interested parties. 
• I dig the way you do business, man. 
• I know my rights, man. 
• I want a fucking lawyer, man. 
• I don't like your jerk off name. I don't like your jerk off face. I don't like your jerk off behavior. And, I don't like you, jerk off. Do I make myself clear?
• This is a very complicated case, Maude. Lotta ins, lotta outs. Fortunately, I'm adhering to a pretty strict drug regimen to keep my mind, you know, limber. 
• Father's weakness is vanity. Hence, the slut. 
• My thinking about this case had become very uptight!
• Easy, man. Relax, man. No physical harm intended. 
• Let me tell you something, I dig your work. Playing one side against the other, in bed with everyone. 
• Maybe you and me could pool our resources. Share information. As a professional courtesy. 
• As if we would ever dream of taking your bullshit money!
• This is not a worthy fucking adversary. 
• It's bush league, psycho-out stuff. It's laughable. Ha ha!
• Without a hostage, there is no ransom. 
• It's not fair!
• Fair? Who's the fucking nihilist around here? 
• Donny: "Are these guys going to hurt us?" Walter: "No, Donny, these men are cowards." 
• We're ending this cheap. 
• We'll fucks you up, man. We takes the money!
• Take it easy, man! Take the four dollars!
• Just because we're bereaved doesn't make us saps!
• Fuck it, man. Let's go bowling. 
• Strikes and gutters, ups and downs. 
• The Dude abides. 

Of course, LebowskiFest began in Louisville. If you want a bumpersticker with one of these quotes, chances are you can find it at their shop.

Has the whole world gone crazy?!? Am I the only one who gives a shit about the rules???

Question for my lawyer friends: Have .gifs become widespread enough that we can start including reaction .gifs in emails to insurance adjusters and opposing counsels? Or, do I have to wait a few more years for the technology to become more commonplace before this is appropriate?

I feel like including .gifs would help me advocate for my client and communicate more clearly with others. 

For the last few months, I've been recording a podcast with my buddy, Annie O'Connell, about how to start a law firm. It's called "Let's Start a Law Firm" and it's been a lot of fun. One of the more consistent things that we hear from listeners is that they're not lawyers, but they're running small businesses and still find our thoughts on running a law firm useful in their own businesses. That's extremely gratifying to hear. 

If you are new to listening to podcasts, two thing: First, WELCOME! Second, you may want to consider getting a dedicated app on your iPhone or other mobile device to listen to podcasts. This class of apps is called "podcatchers" and you can buy them in the App Store. Ben uses Downcast. Instacast is very popular with the nerds, as well. Annie uses Stitcher and Ben is not judging her for that. 

You can subscribe to the podcast feed in iTunes  to get future episodes automatically. If you like the show, please rate the show in iTunes or leave a review. There's really nothing better you can do than rate and/or review the show on iTunes to help new people find this podcast. Of course, tweets and links on Facebook don't hurt, either. 

If you're not into iTunes, you can always listen online at Let's Start a Law Firm. You'll also find show notes for all our shows at Let's Start a Law Firm. 

I can't believe we used to have politicians who spoke like this.  

Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product, now, is over eight hundred billion dollars a year, but the GNP—if we should judge America by that—counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead...and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage...it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

If you're thinking about upgrading to Mavericks (or already have) you owe it to yourself to take a little time to learn about the under-the-hood features of Apple's newest (and free-est) operating system. As a solo attorney, I rely on Apple's products and software to get my work done every single day and divide my computing life to "before I bought a MacBook in 2004" and "after the switch". If you want to learn more about all that, listen to "Let's Start a Law Firm."

Non-nerds may not know that John Siracusa has been reviewing Mac operating systems for over a decade and his latest installment provides users not only an exhaustive review of the changes, but also places those changes in a historical context. This makes the review less of a operating system review and more a crash course in Apple's evolution.   

This post is really just to point non-nerds to Siracusa's review, but if you want more reading, here are two more useful links:  

Federico Viticci's Tips, Tricks, and Details 

Macworld's Installing Maverick's Guide

Here's a sneak preview of part of the show notes for an upcoming episode of Let's Start a Law Firm, a podcast I'm doing with my buddy Annie O'Connell. 

Oh no you did NOT just give me your fax number!

I tried to write this announcement in a way that might have captured the attention of me-circa-2003... I'm really grateful to UK's career services team for helping me set this up.  

Ben Carter is going to be talking about consumer law and solo practice on Friday at noon in Room 213. 

He will be buying your time and attention with Pizza Hut pizza. 

The lunch is sponsored by the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA). Ben will be talking about the work he does as a consumer attorney: prosecuting auto fraud, defending collections actions, helping homeowners facing foreclosure, consumer class actions, prosecuting insurance bad faith, and on and on and on. 

You might want to go if any of the following things are true: 

• You do not have a job. 
  
• You do not have any prospects of having a job. 
  
• You went to law school to do good. 
  
• You are angry—so angry—at the banks, servicers, and Wall Street bigwigs that ran our economy into the ground. 
  
• You went to law school to help people with heartbeats. 
  
• You cheer for underdogs. 
  
• You want to live your life as a friction to the machine. 
  
• You want to open your own firm someday. 
  
• You like pizza.

Ben is a solo practitioner at Ben Carter Law PLLC. Before starting his own firm, he worked for three very good trial attorneys in Louisville, the Legal Aid Society, the Public Defender's Office in the Republic of Palau, and for Judge Wingate of the Franklin Circuit Court. 

With Annie O'Connell, Ben hosts a podcast called Let's Start a Law Firm. It's about dog breeding. Just kidding. It's about starting a law firm. It's available for download in iTunes and show notes are at http://benarterlaw.com/letsstartalawfirm. 

We're going through a bit of a Queen phase here at Ben Carter Law. And by "we" I mean "me." 

If I know two things about America, it's these two things:

1. There are more young people than old people. 
2. The person with the most votes (usually) wins the election.  

Really starting to wonder when young people are going to begin to organize around the many injustices of student debt. 

Your Friday morning commute just got better. Episode Four of "Let's Start a Law Firm"—the podcast I'm doing with Annie O'Connell—dropped just in time. It's called "Finding and Choosing Clients" and it's a good one. (Let's be honest, they're all good ones.)

Please share with law students and friends dreaming of or actually in the process of starting their own firms.

The Network Center for Community Change's annual Chill 4 Change fundraiser is this Saturday at 7 p.m.

Friends,

Louisville's most righteous nonprofit, The Network Center for Community Change, is having its annual "Chill 4 Change" fundraiser this Saturday night. Read more about NC3 and Chill 4 Change. 

If I were to follow convention, I would exhort you to attend or donate by referencing the awesome work NC3 does in Louisville around educational equity, workforce development, and family financial stability. I would explain that NC3 is a client of mine. They pay me to continue encouraging our elected officials to adopt policies to remedy the fallout from the ongoing foreclosure crisis.

But, I'm not conventional and neither is NC3. In an era defined by the contradiction—enormous wealth going to very few, unemployed college graduates, electronic connectedness supplanting connection IRL—NC3 combines an old-school commitment to bringing diverse communities of people together with a new-school approach to community organizing. I don't know of another organization doing work as interesting as NC3.

Am I biased? You bet. Am I wrong? Come to Chill 4 Change and find out for yourself. 

At Chill 4 Change, you'll meet the people behind Louisville's most daring nonprofit. They're not bad dancers, either, so wear comfortable shoes.

If you're ready to buy tickets, this is the link for you. 

Westlaw is, in my opinion, the best legal research software available. That's why I chose to buy a subscription from them. That's why I agreed to pay them $350 a month for the service. 

A few months ago, I moved offices to a place that offers Lexis to its tenants. That service is included in the price of my rent.  

I no longer needed Westlaw and would be content to use Lexis, which is a slightly less great product and save $350 a month. I asked Westlaw how much it would cost me to buy out the rest of my contract and they quoted me a figure that was more than $9,000. In other words, I could stop using Westlaw if I just paid for the rest of my three year contract up front. Instead of charging customers a reasonable early termination fee, they think that "every agreement made with West should be honored by both parties".

You know what I think? I think things change. And, I think companies ought to account for the fact that things change.  

I understand that the contract says what it says. I'm not disputing my obligation to pay under the contract. But, I also understand that I will only do business in the future with companies that understand that circumstances change and customers should be allowed to end contracts early for a reasonable early termination fee. So, I won't be renewing with Westlaw even though they offer the best legal research software because the terms under which they offer that software are unreasonable. And, because the tone of this letter is intolerably self-righteous.

So, attorneys who listen to my podcast or who read this blog, remember: just because a service may be the best, when it's combined with onerous or unreasonable terms and conditions, it can quickly become a poor option. It is an expensive lesson for me to learn. West could allow me to pay a reasonable early termination fee, but instead has insisted on continuing to provide me with a service I don't need. This short-sighted and greedy position will make them $9,000 over the next three years but won't make them a dime more.

Fortunately for me, in 2016 I expect the market for legal research options to be extremely competitive with Lexis, Fastcase, and CaseMaker all improving quickly. In my opinion, West should be concentrating not only on continuing to create a great service, but improve their product by pairing that product with humane terms and conditions that would foster customer loyalty. With the market of legal research options only getting more competitive, customer loyalty is going to matter a lot more than West currently appreciates.

Perhaps West's willingness to forgo customer satisfaction in favor of short-term profits reveals just how competitive the market has become for a company that used to enjoy a monopoly on the legal research world...

In a new law journal article, foreclosure expert Elizabeth Renuart surveys recent court decisions from across the nation that address bank's and servicer's rights to foreclose on homeowners and the intersection of foreclosure and the Uniform Commercial Code. 

Important reading for anyone defending homeowners facing foreclosure.  

Great infographic from ChangeLab Solutions about the trajectory of transportation policy in America and the effort to reclaim the bicycles' rightful place on our roadways. Plus, great quote from Susan B. Anthony:   

“I think [bicycling] has done more to emancipate women than any one thing in the world. I rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat.”

— Susan B. Anthony

Still reading the Order granting the Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment myself.  

Definitely in awe of Bill Sharp, Dale Ho, and Laughlin McDonald. 

“For the reasons set forth below, this three-judge district court shall GRANT Plaintiffs’ Joint Motion for Summary Judgment, DECLARE that the 2002 state legislative electoral districts are presently unconstitutional, and permanently ENJOIN any future election from being conducted pursuant to these districts. Importantly, this Order does nothing to prevent the Kentucky General Assembly from crafting redistricting legislation during the August 19, 2013 special legislative session. What it does do is prevent the General Assembly
from falling back on lines that will be over a decade old if they fail.”

My client comes into my office after having been served by the Sheriff with a Complaint. Or, I file a Complaint for a client and then get an Answer back from the Defendant's attorney. The first thing I do in either situation is try to learn a little bit about the attorney representing the other side. I go to Google. I type in the attorney's name and the city and state in which they practice.  

Many times (and all-too-often), I get a page of results from sites like yellowpages.com, manta.com, topix.com, merchantcircle.com, and switchboard.com. That is to say, I get a bunch of garbage. 

I am consistently shocked at how little Kentucky attorneys seem to care about how they look online. I understand some established attorneys don't need  a website to get clients. But, even if you're not looking to find clients online, people (other attorneys) are still searching for you online. And, we're judging you. We're sizing you up.

I use the care you put into your website as a rough analog for how much care you're going to put into your client's case. If you don't care enough to have at least a homepage to present to the world, how hard are you going to research that response to my Motion for Summary Judgment? How hard are you going to think about the discovery requests you send? 

Is it a perfect test to use for sizing up my opposition? Nope. There are certainly some attorneys who have whipped me pretty hard who have abysmal or nonexistent websites. But, it works more often than not.  

Look, if your litigation strategy is inspired by Muhammad Ali's Rope-a-Dope, well congratulations: it's working. When you don't have a website, I'm totally underestimating your devotion to your craft and the care you bring to it. 

I'm guessing that judging attorneys by their websites didn't used to be as useful or accurate as it is today. But, that's because it used to be hard to have a website. Now, it couldn't be easier (or less expensive). The fact that it's 2013 and you still don't have a website is inexcusable. My site is hosted on Squarespace.com. I pay Squarespace $8 a month for this site.

EIGHT DOLLARS. 

If you want help getting set up on Squarespace, let me know. I have helped other attorneys and can help you individually. Or, if enough people express interest, would consider doing like a half-day workshop to help lawyers launch their websites in a single morning. Individual help costs $1,500. The workshop would, I expect, cost around $400 and would happen on a Saturday morning.

I heard a harrowing story last night of a young man who lost 38 weeks of photos and video from a cross-country road trip because his car was broken into in Fargo, North Dakota. All his data was on his computer, backed up to thumb drives that were also in his car (and also stolen).  

Can you feel that pain? He was making a film . 

Gone.  

I think there are two lessons here. First, don't go to Fargo. Second, while you are busy backing that azz up, include your data in that backup.  

When I get the dough, I'm going to use File Transporter. For now, I backup on external drives that I store off-site and Dropbox.  

Sidebar: I really love this excerpt from the Wikipedia article about "Back that Thang Up", the non-explicit version of "Back that Azz Up": 

"The song, an explicit exploration of the same themes as Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back..."

And, for your Thursday pleasure (and because this is how my brain works): an extremely white version of "Baby Got Back":

With three years left in office, I really only want the Obama Administration to do two things: 1) Fill judicial vacancies and 2) solve the student loan crisis.  

I know, I know. There are lots of other important things the country needs (immigration reform, arbitration reform, election reform, etc., etc.) 

I know, I know. The Obama Administration can't do these things alone, but it can  use its bully pulpit more effectively in these areas. 

If this chart (more charts on student debt available at Mother Jones)  doesn't make you soil your red, white, and blue undies, then you're not wearing red, white, and blue undies. 

This is appalling. 

If you need an attorney in Kentucky to help you resolve a financial crisis involving student debt, give me a call.  

What are your priorities for the Obama Administration for the next three years?