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Virtual Reality Creating Jury Reality
FEATURED
January 7, 2025
Virtual Reality Creating Jury Reality
By: James Trusty
A Florida Judge may have unwittingly ushered in a new age of criminal justice, where slickly made virtual reality (“VR”) presentations turn judges and jurors into witnesses, and VR headsets provide subjective “testimony” in a powerful and difficult to challenge manner. Broward County Judge Andrew Siegel agreed to don a virtual reality headset in a preliminary proceeding[1] where the defendant was accused of aggravated assault. Miguel Albisu, the defendant, was accused of waving a gun at wedding guests and he claims self-defense. The defense hired an artist to create a “defendant’s perspective,” and the result is a historical first—the judge took in a defense expert’s testimony about self-defense that included a guided tour of the reality contained on a VR…
How Thick is the Blanket? – Preemptive Pardons as a Presidential Power
December 6, 2024
How Thick is the Blanket? – Preemptive Pardons as a Presidential Power
By: James Trusty
As the presiding judge scolded Hunter Biden’s attorneys this week, “The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 1, but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.”[1] But what exactly is that history he claims is being re-written? Judge Scarsi was challenging…
Supremely Improbable
July 30, 2024
Supremely Improbable
By: James Trusty
President Biden’s pronounced objectives for Supreme Court “reform” are improbable, politically lifeless under a particularly lame duck presidency, and motivated by transparently November-driven calculations. But even if the proposed changes are doomed from the start, they push public discourse on a couple of issues that are red meat for the democrats. The stated reforms are superficially simple ones: 1) to “clarify” that “there is no…
$76 Million Distributed in Full Tilt Poker Restitution
March 1, 2014
$76 Million Distributed in Full Tilt Poker Restitution
By: Ifrah Law
We have previously reported on the arrangements being made by the Garden City Group for remittance of money to the former customers of Full Tilt Poker. Since that time, there has been a lengthy process for the submission of claims to the group for administration. It appears that players’ waiting has not been all for naught. The Garden City Group reports that, on February 28,…
Omnicare Decision Limits the Reach of False Claims Act
February 28, 2014
Omnicare Decision Limits the Reach of False Claims Act
By: Ifrah Law
A recent decision by the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit limiting the reach of the False Claims Act demonstrates how relators who pursue cases in which the government declines to intervene can end up making law that is unfavorable to the government’s enforcement of that statute. United States ex rel. Rostholder v. Omnicare, Inc., et al., No. 12-2431, a qui tam case alleging…
Jeff Ifrah Presents on the Future of Online Gaming at J.P. Morgan Global High Yield & Leveraged Finance Conference
February 26, 2014
Jeff Ifrah Presents on the Future of Online Gaming at J.P. Morgan Global High Yield & Leveraged Finance Conference
By: Michelle Cohen
Yesterday, at the annual J. P. Morgan Global High Yield & Leveraged Finance Conference in Miami Beach, Florida, Ifrah Law Founding Member Jeff Ifrah shared his predictions for the growing online gaming industry in the U.S. and in Europe. Susan Berliner, an analyst with J.P. Morgan who covers gaming and lodging, moderated the panel, which also included Marc Falcone, CFO of Fertitta Entertainment/Station Casinos, and…
Banks Shy Away From Processing Marijuana Transactions in Colorado – Will Anyone Step Up?
February 21, 2014
Banks Shy Away From Processing Marijuana Transactions in Colorado – Will Anyone Step Up?
By: Steven Eichorn
Last Friday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen), both published new guidance in connection with the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado. Because marijuana use remains illegal under federal law, the banking industry is prohibited from servicing any marijuana-related bank accounts. This forces the recreational marijuana industry to operate on an all-cash basis, which increases public…
Wild, Wild West: The Legalization of Marijuana Brings Lots Of Regulatory Concerns
February 12, 2014
Wild, Wild West: The Legalization of Marijuana Brings Lots Of Regulatory Concerns
By: Steven Eichorn
The beginning of 2014 has brought many new laws into effect and we have written on a number of them. But few laws have received more mainstream media exposure than Colorado’s legalization of recreational marijuana. Of more importance to us, the legalization of recreational marijuana has posed some interesting problems for regulators. The most obvious effect of the law was to allow the recreational use…