Across the Bar

The Veterans Treatment Court of San Joaquin County is looking for veterans of the Armed Services to serve as volunteer mentors for veterans who are in Veterans Treatment Court. A major component of this treatment program is for veterans to be paired with their volunteer mentors, meet during the once-a-month court session, and have one or more contacts via telephone or e-mail during the week. The goal is for the mentor to help support the veteran in his or her treatment toward the goal of successful completion and graduation from the program at the end of the 12- to 18-month term.

On September 18, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill No. 5 (AB 5) into law. The law provides clarification as to when California workers can by classified independent contractors rather than employees of the hiring company.

MEMBER SURVEY AND CONTEST

Current members of the SJCBA received a brief survey earlier this month. Please take a few minutes to complete it and provide the SJCBA with your opinions. This association belongs to you. The survey is anonymous and won’t take long to complete. After you complete it, you can enter a drawing to win your next year’s SJCBA membership for free!

It's amazing to me to think that I have now been with the San Joaquin County Bar Association as interim executive director for over six months! Originally, we talked about it taking perhaps 90-120 days to evaluate processes, fill some openings, and help the Board of Governors with their selection of a permanent director. However, what has occurred since, and the challenges we have faced and overcome, are also things to really reflect upon and appreciate. We also need to recognize and appreciate ...

Ever since the 1998 decision of the Federal Circuit in State Street Bank,1 the question of whether business methods and related software are eligible for patent protection has bedeviled the courts. Although the United States Patent Office has granted thousands of patents in the field since then and the courts have issued numerous decisions on the validity of those patents, clear guidance remains elusive.  Section 101 of the Patent Act provides that a patent may be issued for any "new and us...

Once upon a time, if you wanted to market your law firm, you put an ad in the yellow pages, maybe bought a few billboards, and waited for the phone to ring. Things are different today; consumers find their information online and unless you're running a well-established firm with no need for new clients (or keeping your existing ones), you need to make sure you're visible on the web. In our experience with helping hundreds of businesses from small one-person law firms to large statewide and natio...

For most real property transactions, at least one party will care about the status of the title to be conveyed or affected and will want a detailed review of the title's current status and advice about what title insurance policy will be appropriate to protect their interests. Attorneys assist with this work by examining recorded liens and easements, resolving issues with insuring title, determining which title risks are acceptable to the client, and advising on what types of affirmative co...

​Used with permission from the April 2016 Tennessee Bar Journal, a publication of the Tennessee Bar Association First you forget names; then you forget faces; then you forget to zip up your fly; and then you forget to unzip your fly. — Attributed to Branch Rickey Death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart. — Ecclesiastes 7:2 No one here gets out alive. — The Doors An Uncomfortable Truth I think the paradigm shift started the time I realized that my teenage son le...