Charles Carnell fancied himself a television star after he appeared on a Discovery Channel program that featured an attraction called Terminal Velocity located at a place called Extreme World in the heart of the Wisconsin Dells, WI tourism area.  Terminal Velocity is a thrill attraction known as a suspended catch air device (SCAD for short) in which the customer or “diver” ascends about 150 feet in the air either by stairs or a special elevator system.  The diver is fitted into the CFF “Controlled Free Fall” system that guarantees a secure free fall position for a comfortable landing. The operator (a “dive master”) assists the diver into a proper position and releases the cable that suspends the diver.  The diver then drops in an unattached controlled freefall for about 100 feet before being caught in a suspended net attached to airtubes and break suspensions for a soft landing so that the diver feels no impact at all.  A secondary safety system is in place in the form of an inflated air bag onto which the net is lowered.  The air is then released from the bag allowing the diver to return back to the ground.  Carnell was the dive master for Terminal Velocity during the taping of the television program.

 This same television program so captured the imagination of a young Florida girl, Teagan Marti, that she begged her parents to allow her to try a dive from Terminal Velocity the next time they visited relatives in the Chicago area.  Soon the big day came.  According to news reports, on July 30, 2010, Teagan got the opportunity to try the attraction and hoped on the elevator platform with 2 men along with their dive master, Charles Carnell.  The platform began the ascent but slowed down, presumably to let the air bag fill up.  The elevator stopped again about 100 feet in the air and Carnell assumed he was ready for the dives.  From his vantage point, he could see the net and the air bag below and was to wait for a signal to be given by the ground operator who ensures the net is raised properly and that the air bag is inflated.  Carnell then “blanked out” and placed Teagan in the dive position and released her cable.  Unfortunately, the ground operator never provided the signal and the net and air bag both remained on the ground.  With a thud, Teagan landed on the ground below.  She was alive and subsequently taken to a hospital with serious medical conditions include swelling of the brain, several fractures of the cervical and lumbar segments of her spine, multiple fractures of her pelvis and lacerations to her liver, spleen, intestines and duodenum.

 On August 17, the County Attorney for Sauk County filed a criminal complaint against Charles Carnell charging him with first degree reckless injury in violation of 940.23(a)(1) and 939.50(d).  I found it interesting that the charge is called first-degree reckless injury, yet the statute itself only refers to the class of felony but not to the degrees of reckless injury.  The case file number is 2010CF000201 and the case’s progress can be followed using Westlaw Dockets database identifier of DOCK-WI-STCTS to see if the court thinks the attraction operator is a criminal.

For related  cases and an overview of the substantive law, see section 12 of 16 COA 2d 1, Causes of Action Against Operator of Amusement Park for Inury on Ride. Section 12 is dedicated to criminal liability. //

The Reference Attorneys are still receiving a number of calls about the ECO-Gift Card Act, Public Law 111-209, the Amendment to the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (“CCARD”).  This new Public Law strikes out Section 403 in Title IV of CCARD, found in Public Law 111-24, and replaces it with new language.  Procedurally, this Act works differently than what most attorneys who do legislative research are accustomed.

Unlike a number of laws that passed by Congress amending existing statutes, this Act amends the Public Law itself – not the codified statute.  The only statutory reference you will see about the ECO-Gift Card Act will be in the KeyCite History for 15 U.S.C.A. 1693L-1.  

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The 9th Circuit recently considered the Stolen Valor Act, and struck it down as a facially invalid intrusion upon the 1st Amendment.  The act (18 USCA 704(b)) criminalizes a person falsely representing themselves as having received an award or medal for the Armed Forces.

The Defendant, Xavier Alvarez, had stated in front of a Water District Board of Directors (of which he was a member) the following:

“I’m a retired marine of 25 years. I retired in the year 2001. Back in 1987, I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. I got wounded many times by the same guy. I’m still around.”

As the court stated, this was all a lie. The defendant never served in the military.  For reasons the 9thCircuit did not go into, the FBI was tasked with investigating Mr. Alvarez’s statements.  Mr. Alvarez subsequently was charged and pled guilty to violating the Stolen Valor Act.  He then appealed to the 9th Circuit. 

The 9th Circuit determined that false statements of fact in most circumstances do enjoy 1st amendment protection.  The court then went on to apply strict scrutiny to 18 USCA 704(b) and (somewhat predictably) found that the provision failed the strict scrutiny test and was facially invalid.

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Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria

In a study published on Monday, researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania found that an association with alcohol caused observers to “expect cognitive impairment” in a job seeker.  This research study was presented to the Academy of Management, an annual meeting of business and management researchers.

The study consisted of 610 managers who evaluated video recordings of an interview between actors playing a managers and a propsective hire.  All the scripts were the same but the actors ordered either a Coke or a Merlot.  Regardless of the choice of beverage for the manager, when the job seeker ordered Merlot he was perceived as less worthy of being hired and less “intelligent, scholarly and intellectual.”  You can imagine the study showed an extreme negative reaction when the manager ordered a Coke and the job seeker ordered a glass of wine. Tsk tsk tsk.

One thing to note, however, is that these were not attorneys.  The attorney culture is a little different, but this study is something to keep in mind.  My law school had an ettiquete seminar available for 1L’s.  They always stressed the importance of image at casual dinner or lunch interviews.  You want to be on your A-game and make the best impression.  With or without alcohol, that is your choice, but be mindfull of the possible impression you are making. 

All of this being said, I was  once chastised at a dinner interview by the hiring manager for not ordering a beer (or any other alcohol for that matter).  I’m not sure there is a clear answer one way or the other, but it’s something to think about.  What do you think? I’d love to hear any comments on this below. Also, feel free to check out our attorney jobs website at AttorneyJobs.com. It has been awhile since I have been on the job market but it seems like a decent place to start.

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A frequent task Summer Associates have been faced with is trying to determine what precisely has happened with federal statutes over time.  On Westlaw we have the United States Code Annotated back through 1990 (USCAXX, XX= 2 digit year), but it is important to note that we also have United States Public Laws (US-PL) , and The United States Statutes at Large (STATLRG)back to the creation of the United States.  Many of the Acts in the Public Laws and Statutes at Large are not codified, of course.

The Statutes at Large can be interesting from a historical perspective as well. A couple of interesting acts I have run across include:

• Mary Todd Lincoln was granted the Franking Privilege –  14 Stat. 3  (the Franking Privilege entitles you to free postage). 
•  Original pay rates of Congress – 1 Stat. 70  were $6 per day, but only days that they attended!
• The President’s pay rate –  1 Stat 72 ( 25,000 which would be $628,000 in 2009 dollars using the Consumer Price Index Method). 
• As well as the first secret society incorporated by an Act of Congress in 1893 28 Stat. 96, the Knights of Pythias.

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We have had many Summer Associates contact the Reference Attorneys asking how to limit their searches to a particular court.  Westlaw does has very granular case law databases — meaning that you can always get to a particular state, or US District Courts within a state.  If you need to isolate your results to a particular court within that state, you will need to add a court restrictor to your search. 

The Reference Attorneys are always available to help you put together a court restrictor, but if you are the kind of person who wants to have the information yourself, you can print out a free user guide.  It is entitled “Research Tips for Case Law“, and will teach you how to create a court restrictor for almost any particular court.

We have hundreds of User Guides, all of which can be downloaded for free, and sometimes you can get a free copy shipped to you as well.  You can find those user guides here.

One last note regarding court restrictors.  On WestlawNext they are entirely unnecessary!  When searching on WestlawNext you can limit your search to any court you would like simply by checking appropriate boxes.  If you are interested in learning more about WestlawNext, you can take a tour here.

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Summer Associates are some of the most devoted employees one could ever find.  Ready, willing and able to work long hours until the wee hours of the morning on difficult issues.  

While from time to time you might take a coffee break, longer lunch break, or perhaps even an internet break, rest assured that no matter how you may choose to recharge at work it cannot end as poorly as it did for one Donald R. McClendon.  

Mr. McClendon was employed upon a ship in dry dock when he sustained injuries to his lungs.  The injuries stemmed from inhalation of mercury vapors.  The mercury was not a byproduct of his job but rather his hobby, namely alchemy. 

You see while on break Mr. McClendon felt compelled to use his free time to perform an experiment whereby he combined a potato, mercury and an oven in an ill conceived, and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to transmute the concoction into gold.  

Although the ship was in dry-docking at the time, Mr. McClendon attempted to recover under the Jones act.  His Jones act claim was perhaps unsurprisingly as unsuccessful as his alchemical experiment. 

The decision linked and described above was found through West’s Headnote of the Day.  West’s Headnote of the Day is a daily email you can sign up for (it is free), and each day you will get a headnote from a case that is always interesting and sometimes hilarious.  You can sign up for the Headnote of the Day here.

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The Supreme Court on Monday, June 29th 2010 in McDonald v. City of Chicago, Ill., — S.Ct. —-, 2010 WL 2555188 determined that the recently recognized 2nd Amendment individual right to own firearms would be incorporated against the states under the 14th Amendment.

This individual right to own firearms was very recently recognized by the Supreme Court in 2008 in District of Columbia v. Heller, 128 S.Ct. 2783.  Heller has been criticized in some circles for not laying out a test regarding this right, the Supreme Court did not indicate whether it was strict or intermediate scrutiny for example, and in McDonald the court refrained from deciding a test once again. 

McDonald is a quite straight forward decision, and the majority opinion at least is concerned almost exclusively with whether the 2nd Amendment is incorporated to the states under the 14th Amendment.  The Supreme Court held that it would be incorporated against the states, and reversed and remanded the Court of Appeals decision that Chicago and Oak Parks gun control ordinances were constitutional.

Given that the court declined once again to delineate a test, yet extended the newly recognized 2ndAmendment individual rights  to the states, now might be a good time to set up a Keycite Alert on Heller, 128 S.Ct. 2783. 

If you set up a Keycite Alert, you will get any new decision that cites to Heller emailed to you.  Since state laws and regulations are now subject to a 2nd Amendment challenge without any very meaningful guidance, there should be some interesting new arguments on the horizon challenging state firearms laws.

Additionally, West has a fantastic treatise on Westlaw dealing with all firearms issues, the Firearms Law Deskbook (FALDB), this is a peerless resource for practically any legal issue regarding a firearm.  Although it is not current enough of course to have this decision within it, it does have an extensive write-up on Heller to get you up to speed if this is a new area of interest, or if you just need a refresher.

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As a Summer Associate you’re working with (and competing against) a group of peers that’s more or less as smart, ambitious and hard-working as you—that’s why they’re down the hall from you.  This is no great revelation, but as with so many other situations one needs to cultivate something to help stand out from the herd.  You might be the Associate that writes the most erudite or unassailable memo, you might have life or work experience that gives you an edge over others in a certain practice group, or you might simply be more charismatic than the other grinds.  A lot of times, what can make you a bright light is to be the person who knows about useful trends, tools, intelligence, etc. first. 

What’s new in the legal research world?  In case you haven’t heard, there’s an all-new-revolutionary-completely-redesigned-really-great new Westlaw platform called WestlawNext.  Now you’ve heard.  But to be even more on the cutting edge, there’s a link in the upper right-hand part of the page appropriately labeled “Next.”  There you’ll be clued in to recent changes and improvements and changes scheduled for release in the near future. 

Here’s one you could’ve found out about, below.  Imagine sitting in a meeting and finding a document that the partner is talking about—right there from your Blackberry or iPhone, when no one else knew you could do this.  Then maybe you could help the partner install the golf course yardage app to her device.  Now that would really make you stand out.

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Recently, a lawyer in Philadelphia has made the headlines for his famous name. Justin Bieber, a personal injury attorney, has received emails and Facebook messages from fans who mistook him for the Canadian, tween singing sensation, Justin Bieber

One way Westlaw allows you to make sure you have the right person is with our Profiler databases. “U” can access them by clicking on the “Site Map” link. We have Profiler information for lawyers, judges, experts, and arbitrators.

The template search is one of the benefits of our Profiler databases. It allows you to input a name if you are looking for someone specific or to search by area of law or expertise if you are not. Once you make your selection the database gives you all of the current professional information we have for them on Westlaw and also will link to other materials they may be involved in, like appellate briefs or cases. So the next time you’re searching for someone on Westlaw use one of the Profiler databases to ensure you find the right Justin Bieber!