Topics: The Internet & The Law - 210 results

A hitchhiker who gained nationwide fame earlier this year for using a hatchet to break up a bizarre attack is back in the headlines. But this time, instead of being heralded as a hero, he’s being charged with murder. Caleb Lawrence McGillvary, known as “Kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker” ever since his television news interview became a viral video sensation, was arrested at a Philadelphia bus station Thursday and charged with the murder of 73-year-old Joseph Galfy, Jr. Authorities say McGillvary …

Do you always know what the recipients of your text messages are doing when you text them? An appellate court in New Jersey is considering whether text senders can be held liable when a driver reads a message and gets into an accident with a third party.   Duty Debate In Shannon Colonna’s case, the riders of a motorcycle reportedly sued both her and Kyle Best after Best crashed his pickup into them in Mine Hill, N.J., in September 2009. …

  New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance indicted 63 gang members involved in murders, shootings, assaults, firearms possessions and gun trafficking. Lawyers.com videojournalist Ed Alpern reports that police busted members in some of the city’s most violent street gangs by monitoring Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. New York City veteran criminal defense attorney, H. Hershel Katz, pointed out that the defendants were from low income projects. He described them as “kids whose life expectancies to them is …

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday vetoed a law passed by the legislature that would ban employers from asking for the social media passwords of workers and applicants. Christie said that he would sign the bill if it were amended to exclude some of its more restrictive components. New Jersey would have been the eighth state to stop businesses from snooping into their current or prospective employees’ Facebook and Twitter accounts, although the Jersey law would have gone several …

  During a divorce, no good can come from bad-mouthing your spouse on Twitter or Facebook. Lawyers.com journalist Ed Alpern reports on how the tools of discovery in matrimonial cases have evolved. In the past, divorce attorneys gathered information using subpoenas for witnesses and documents. But now attorneys do a lot of investigation online. Divorce attorney Jacqueline Newman, a partner at Berkman, Bottger, Newman & Rodd in New York City, advises clients not to post anything on Facebook that they …