Indiana Supreme Court decsion on eminent domain and local utlities

From the Indiana Lawyer, an article on the recent Indiana Supreme Court decision:

The state's eminent domain statute allows Indiana municipalities to acquire operations of privately owned water and sewer utilities that serve recently annexed portions of that community, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled today.

The split 3-2 decision came in Utility Center, Inc., d/b/a Aquasource v. City of Fort Wayne, Indiana , 02S04-0706-CV-248.

This case from Allen Circuit Judge Thomas Felts involves Fort Wayne's initiation of condemnation proceedings against a company operating a competing public water utility in and around the city, which also owns its own water and sewer utility. The trial court granted the city's motion for relief and denied Utility Center's, though the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded in 2005.

Practice managment- the future?

I like reading Adam Smith, Esq.. Yes, it caters mostly to big firms but not everything for the big firms does not apply also to small firms like myself. Today, I get an update on article where I got to say that little firms can learn from and possibly teach the big firms.

"IT Commoditizes Everything." Discuss deals with a lot of issues that might seem to apply only to the mega-firms, but I suggest reading it. I caught myself thinking back to when I ran a consumer bankruptcy practice. Computer programs for preparing the bankruptcy petition commoditized consumer bankruptcies. The same applies to all areas of the law where the routine, document preparation areas can be subjected to computer preparation. I see this changing our fee structures, how we deal with clients, and how we provide our services.

I suggest reading the whole post, but I found this part particularly interesting:

The increasing embrace of IT, and its true embedding within the essence of what firms do, comes, I hasten to add, with one enormous challenge which no one to my knowledge has yet answered in a satisfactory way that might yield a long-term equilibrium solution: That challenge is commoditization.

Its sources are various, but primary among them:

• In the online world, we increasingly expect information to be free; why should clients expect otherwise from their law firm?
• Technology fuels arms races: If it is true that "among UK firms, however, there are a number of examples where firms have generated revenue through subscription-based, lawyer-light projects," then how long will it be before those services begin to invade practices higher up the value chain?

My view is more sanguine, primarily because I believe the phrase "commoditization" is flung around far too loosely and generates free-floating fear divorced from real-world implications. I'm closer to the position articulated by David Jabbari, Allen & Overy's head of knowledge management, who believes that “Clearly, any information that can be commoditised is going to be, and will be free,” but who also pointed out that we've known for a hundred years, since Henry Ford introduced the assembly line, how to efficiently build a car, and yet the auto industry is one of the most hotly competitive and least "commoditized" around.

What are you doing about financial planning?

The following comes from an article in the Scottish newspaper, The Sunday Herald:

Public savings agency National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has just produced its quarterly report which seems to suggest that many of us live in some Walter Mitty world, crossing our fingers in the hope that we can deal with any future financial problems we may face by begging, stealing or borrowing.

Well, most of us may not resort to breaking the law, but when asked if they had any money worries, more than a third of respondents claimed that they didn't - predicting that they will earn more, borrow more, or benefit from a windfall in the future.

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More worryingly, in excess of half those questioned admitted that they did not have a financial plan to speak of, while one in six said that they did not even bother to think about their finances at all.

Now, what is the difference between here and there? I do not think there is much. How many have even considered the basics for estate planning - a Will, a Living Will, a Power of Attorney and a Healthcare of Power of Attorney? Those who have thought about it - have you done more than think?

Do read the rest of the article and ask yourself does this not apply to the United States, too?

OSHA - changes in federal regulations for construction employers

From the Jackson Lewis legal updates newsletter came this link to their article Federal OSHA Review Commission Overturns Enforcement Policy for Multi-Employer Construction Job Sites.

By a 2 to 1 vote, the federal Occupational Health and Safety Review Commission has dramatically altered the ability of the Occupation Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) to cite general construction contractors for safety violations committed by its subcontractors. The Review Commission has uprooted OSHA enforcement policy that goes back 30 years. Secretary of Labor v. Summit Contractors, Inc., OSHRC Docket No. 03-1622 (decided April 26, 2007).

***

Summit signals a major change of direction for OSHA’s inspections of jobsite construction that can affect employer responsibilities on jobsites. General contractors who feel less constrained to assure the safety of their subcontractors, may cause the latter to become more self-reliant. They may not be able to depend on the general contractor for close safety monitoring unless this is made an express part of the subcontract. As a result, subcontractors may need to redouble their efforts to supervise workers carefully.

Read the entire article. I do not know how many readers might find themselves dealing with the federal OSHA, but I suppose this would be a good time to put in a good word for Indiana's OSHA (IOSHA). IOSHA has programs for helping businesses that would be worth checking into.

Business resources: 6-19-07

I will try to make up with quality the lack of quantity for this installment of business resources.

First, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. Getting away from the membership drive and the like, there is a page for Government Resources and Business Research. Ignore those pages. Go to the pages for publications and the page for seminars and the page for studies. Some things have a cost and there are no seminars at this time, but here is where you can find something useful.

Not every business has copyright issues. However, those that do should bookmark the Copyright and Fair Use page from Stanford University Libraries.

Want federal information?

I learned of a new search engine to get at information from the federal government. It is in beta but may be some use and interest to you. Here is how the site describes itself:

Welcome to the first phase of LOUIS - the Library Of Unified Information Sources, a project of the Sunlight Foundation, and an effort, to paraphrase Justice Louis Brandeis, to illuminate the workings of the federal government. Our ultimate goal is to create a comprehensive, completely indexed and cross-referenced depository of federal documents from the executive and legislative branches of government. We are not there yet, but we can now offer these documents organized in a user-friendly interface, with a powerful search engine.

I have had no time to really play with it but if you, please feel free to leave something in the comments section. Here is the link to the site.

Internet Privacy Concerns - Individuals and Businesses

Have you worried about the information out on the Internet or just gone blithely about your way? I know of a case where a young women got harassed through Myspace. Not the kind of problem with the most clear cut solution.

The Washington Post article, Teen Tests Internet's Lewd Track Record, from May 29 shows the problems of information getting onto the Internet and how it reproduces itself.

Today's Sunday Herald has an article that echoes and amplifies the Washington Post article.

Citing a litany of cases where people have found themselves surprised by the implications of what seemed like a harmless web posting, leading academic Dr Yaman Akdeniz has called for a massive public education programme aimed at combating what is set to become a key social issue.

"It may seem like harmless fun, but the social networking revolution is already becoming a major issue in real life. People are losing their jobs, relationships and in some extreme cases even their lives as a direct result of exposing so much of themselves to the world.

"They are leaving themselves wide-open to commercial, personal and physical harm without any apparent understanding of the potential results," said Akdeniz, founder of the watchdog organisation Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties UK.

"People must learn that once information has been released in digital format, it is impossible to get it back. We are living steadily more transparent lives, and the consequences of that could prove to be extremely dangerous."

Increasingly, the 21st-century citizen is defined by data. The conglomeration of personal records, certificates, applications and financial transactions that form the flurry of information following everyone about like a small cloud is the basis on which commercial and administrative judgements are made.

We think the real problem is some stalker or identity thief, but that may not be so. Self destruction may be more of a danger:

In the US, companies are already springing up that promise to check out job applicants' digital reputations on other firms' behalf. In addition to combing blog space, YouTube and an array of online forums for evidence, they also promise to track down potential recruits' Amazon reading lists in an effort to unearth any unwelcome political views.

"Practically the first thing everybody does when meeting someone new is to Google them. It's a great way of picking up extra information on a contact, but people don't seem to realise this when they're logging on to services like MySpace and Facebook, so they put everything online from their job title to their favourite sexual position," said Peter Cunningham, Viadeo's UK head of operations.

"A well-managed NetRep can work in your favour but nobody in business wants to take unnecessary risks, so if there's anything questionable about you online it will almost certainly have an impact upon your career prospects.

Yes, that does sound a bit too much like 1984 and Big Brother, but one major difference lies between Orwell's nightmare and our world: we put this stuff out there to be found rather than Big Brother having to dig up the dirt.

What does this have to do with businesses? The Sunday Herald doe smake the securityh threat point.

The wealth of digital information growing on the back of the web 2.0 boom has given rise to a new form of crime known as social engineering, where hackers manipulate online relationships in order to get access to valuable data about themselves or their place of work.

"It's a type of attack that is becoming ever more sophisticated: the hacker can now gain substantial information on your employees remotely because more and more data is held in the public domain. Take, for example, social networking sites such as Linked In, Ecademy and Ryze or jobs websites which house curriculum vitaes.

"Both provide ample opportunity for the hacker to use our credentials to impersonate us or to launch an attack on our employers," says Ken Munro of SecureTest, the company responsible for vetting the security of installations such as GCHQ.

Substitute business for individual in the above articles and I think you will see other places where the Internet can affect businesses. Think about it.

Business resources: 6-2-07

Why list a bunch of websites for and about businesses? Because they are for and about businesses! Hopefully, they will be of use to someone's business. I cannot think of any better reason for passing along information.

Searching the federal government at USASearch.gov. Once upon a time, federal information was hard to find. Here is a site that uses what looks like a version of the Google search engine for finding federal information. Why include it? Two reasons for including this: 1) too many federal actions affect business and now you can go directly to the source to find out what you want to know about the federal government, and 2) there are business opportunities with the federal government and why should Indiana business not have access to that kind of information?

California Small Business Blog says it is "designed for small business owners to provide insight into legal aspects, as well as other aspects, of their business." I say it has a great style presenting some useful information and ideas for small businesses - even those outside of California.

Public relations has come from the clouds to any size of business. Doing PR right is a difficult thing. The Bad Pitch Blog might give you some ideas of how not to do things for your business.

Workforce Development: what the Internet types call a portal. The website for the Workplace Development magazine. Good for employment news with more of a bent towards employers. News includes reporting on trends, legislation and forums to get new ideas and feedback on old ones. You can sign up for a weekly newsletter sent via e-mail. I have been doing this for years and it has been useful.

Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge. I hesitate putting this website on this list. Another you can get via e-mail for free and I do that. Sometimes the headlines lead to a quick delete and other times not. The articles are from research done at the Harvard Business School and the emphasis can be towards the policy side or the larger business side of things. However, the articles are spot on when they hit an interest of mine. Thankfully, it is not written for academics. The following is from the article Creating a Positive Professional Image:

As HBS professor Laura Morgan Roberts sees it, if you aren't managing your own professional image, others are.

"People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace," she says. "It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about who you are and what you can accomplish."

There are plenty of books telling you how to "dress for success" and control your body language. But keeping on top of your personal traits is only part of the story of managing your professional image, says Roberts. You also belong to a social identity group—African American male, working mother—that brings its own stereotyping from the people you work with, especially in today's diverse workplaces. You can put on a suit and cut your hair to improve your appearance, but how do you manage something like skin color?

I will have more next Saturday.