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The Paralegal Knowledge Institute is presenting a one hour webinar on The Use Of Facebook And Other Social Media in Litigation September 12, 2012.

Few people are unfamiliar with social media. To some people it means Facebook, to others it means Twitter or YouTube, and to still others, it’s everywhere they can post their thoughts freely. Yet, social media litigation is still in its infancy.

Social media can be used in employment cases, product liability, family law, workers compensation – just about anywhere. What do you need know and where do you begin?

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Internet expert witnesses may testify on issues involving cyber-squatting, spam, email, websites, and related matters. In the news this week, the Federal Trade Commission has fined Google $22.5M for violating an earlier privacy settlement with the federal agency. The FTC charged Google with misrepresenting to users of Apple Inc.’s Safari Internet browser that it would not place tracking “cookies” or serve targeted ads to those users. More information about the FTC case can be found at the Tech@FTC blog.

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Sydney Federal Court Judge Annabelle Claire Benne warned Samsung counsel Katrina Howard regarding the accusation that Apple inappropriately influenced patent expert witnesses. Technology expert Aruna Seneviratne, Director of the Australian Technology Park Laboratory of NICTA, said Apple lawyers pointed out a typographical error in his report and he was not pressured by Apple.

Apple claims that Samsung copied designs and features from the iPhone while Samsung accuses Apple of violating their wireless technology patents.

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Judge Alan Mann has allowed psychiatry expert witness Dr. James Merikangas, his assistant Adrienne Taylor, and Dr. John Matthew Fabian access to Amy Bishop-Anderson. Bishop-Anderson is charged in the 2010 shooting at The University of Alabama in Huntsville that killed three and injured six. The three witnesses will work to develop an insanity defense for the September trial.

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Accident reconstruction expert witness Amrit Toor has sued attorney Thomas Harding claiming defamation after Harding compared the expert to Johnny Carson’s fictional magician character Carnac. Toor is a forensic engineer specializing in accident reconstruction at Intech Engineering Ltd. He is also suing the Canadian news agency Postmedia seeking damages over an article published in the Vancouver Sun.

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Copyrights expert witnesses may testify on copyright infringement, copyright notice, and copyright limitations. In the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Electronic Arts sued Zynga this week for copyright infringement stating that Zynga copied the game The Sims Social in creating The Ville. EA is the second largest U.S. video-game maker. Packaged video game sales have decreased as users move to games like The Sims Social and The Ville which are played on social sites.

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Pediatrics expert witness Dr. Blaine Tolby testified in the Washington state child mistreatment case against Jeffery and Rebecca Trebilcock. The Treblicocks were charged with criminal mistreatment of their four adopted children and found guilty of of first-degree criminal mistreatment of their teenage son and third-degree criminal mistreatment of his sister. Tolby testified that the oldest boy suffered from psychosocial dwarfism brought on by a traumatic home situation.

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Real estate appraisal expert witness Ron Zitzow testified for Aurora County regarding the value of the South Dakota Thompson Farms dairy. Thompson Farms is seeking $2.6 million in damages saying that a county ordinance forced their business to close. Zitzow testified their were no damages as a result of the county ordinance.

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Cell phones expert witness Jeff Strohm testified in the murder trial against Preston Strong. Strohm is a custodian of records for Sprint Nextel Communications and explained how cell phones search for the strongest signal which is usually dependent upon distance to the tower. Defense attorney Kristi Riggins argued that Strong may not have been in the vicinity of victim Dr. Satinder Gill’s Yuma home.