CLE's
Movie Critics: "Good Night and Good Luck"
June 30th or July 8th: Noon - 2:45PM
Price: $30/hour
Come view the award-winning First Amendment-themed movie directed and co-written by George Clooney, which details Ed Morrow's role in the McCarthy era. Moderated by David Millstein and Jackie Knupp. Call the bar office at 724-6730 to register.
Act 32 - Municipal and School Law
Act 32 passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor on July 2, 2008 will enact the most sweeping changes in local tax collection history. The changes will have a significant impact on the tax collection process for employers in your jurisdiction.This is an important program for solicitors, municipal officials, and business managers. This program is open and free to the public.
Date: Thursday, July 23, 2009Time: 7 - 8:30 pm
Location: UPG at Campana Chapel Price:
Free for noncreditCLE
Price: $ 30 per hour for members
Optional CLE: One substantive creditCall the bar office to register or register online.
Committee Meetings
July 1 - WBF Scholarship Committee (4:30 pm)
July 3 - WBA offices closed for 4th of July holiday
July 8 - Municipal Law
July 9 - Membership Committee
July 16 - Planning Committee
July 16 - Elder/Orphans Court
July 20 - Civil Litigation
July 21 - Family Law
July 21 -WBA board of directors meeting
July 24 and 25 - Collaborative Law Training
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Friday, June 26, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
WBA Tech Tip of the Month: Website Certificates
When you visit what is known as a Secure website, perhaps the only indication you notice is that the web address at the top of your browser has changed from http:// to https://. In the background, however, a series of exchanges take place to ensure that the website is legitimate and the communication between your computer and the Internet is secure.
Prior to the website initially being published, the site owner contacts a third-party Certificate Authority (CA) such as Verisign, Equifax, or one of dozens of other trusted sources, whose job is to ensure that, when your browser points to http://www.microsoft.com/, you really are viewing http://www.microsoft.com/. The website publisher registers with the CA, verifying its identity and the identity of the website. In return the CA issues to the website a unique digital certificate.
When you now visit a secure page on a website, that site sends to your computer its digital certificate. Your browser next contacts the Certificate Authority to verify that the certificate you received is valid for the website you're visiting. This happens automatically, and in most cases your browser simply displays the secure web page. However, if there is a problem with the digital certificate, the browser displays a warning message advising not to proceed to the website.
Certificate errors happen if the information contained within the certificate doesn¹t match the website you¹re visiting: for example, you're visiting http://www.verizon.net/, but the digital certificate was issued to http://www.verizon.com/; or, the certificate has expired (they must be periodically renewed by the website publisher); or, if the certificate has been tampered with. The certificate error displayed by the browser indicates the nature of the problem.
You may also receive a certificate error when visiting your secured internal office website. Typically, this happens because publishers of strictly internal websites don¹t register the site with a Certificate Authority; instead, they create their own digital certificates. When your browser visits this site, it receives a certificate which it is unable to verify via a third party, and you see a warning advising you not to proceed. In this one exception, if you are absolutely certain you are at the correct website, you may click to proceed past the certificate error.
Whenever you visit a website requesting personal information (social security numbers, credit card information, etc.) be absolutely certain the site is legitimate. Only go to sites that you know and trust. Make sure the link at the top of your browser shows https and not http (this indicates that the communication is encrypted). Finally, verify that your site is secure and has a good digital certificate - look for the image of the closed lock (at the top of the window in Internet Explorer 7 and at the bottom in earlier versions; in Internet Explorer 8, click on Safety from the top menu and select Security Report).
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The Dangers of Downloading Music
Vivendi Wins $1.9 Million Award From Woman Who Swapped Songs
A Minnesota woman accused of swapping music over the Kazaa Internet service was ordered by a jury to pay Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group and other record labels $1.9 million after a retrial.
A federal jury in Minneapolis said Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, of Brainerd, Minnesota, should pay $80,000 for each of the 24 songs that were posted on the site so others could download them, including “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls and “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns ‘n Roses. The first time the case went to trial, in 2007, a jury awarded $9,250 per song, or $222,000.
Full article here: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a9y16Zokxk90
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A Minnesota woman accused of swapping music over the Kazaa Internet service was ordered by a jury to pay Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group and other record labels $1.9 million after a retrial.
A federal jury in Minneapolis said Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, of Brainerd, Minnesota, should pay $80,000 for each of the 24 songs that were posted on the site so others could download them, including “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls and “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns ‘n Roses. The first time the case went to trial, in 2007, a jury awarded $9,250 per song, or $222,000.
Full article here: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a9y16Zokxk90
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Monday, June 22, 2009
PA Bar Legislative Alert: Expansion of PA Medical Assistance Estate Recovery Program
The following is a legislative e-alert from the PA Bar Association:
On April 28, 2009, Representative Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia) introduced House Bill 1351 as part of the Governor’s proposed 2009-10 budget for Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Welfare (“DPW”). The bill is currently in the House Health and Human Services Committee. Section 1412 of HB 1351 expands Pennsylvania’s Medical Assistance Estate Recovery Program (“MAER”) to include the non-probate assets of a Medicaid recipient. This legislation will allow DPW to impose administrative liens against interests created by joint tenancy, tenancy by entireties, tenancy in common, survivorship, life estate, living trust or other arrangements.The Pennsylvania Bar Association adamantly opposes this section of HB 1351 and any similar legislation being negotiated as part of the 2009-10 state budget as bad public policy and harmful to the Commonwealth’s already vulnerable senior citizen population.The issues contained in HB 1351 will undoubtedly play a role in the 2009-10 state budget negotiations in the legislature. Any attempt to expand MAER will create significant complications for estate administration and cause major title and conveyancing problems, deter individuals from serving as executors and trustees and lawyers from representing these fiduciaries, discourage older Pennsylvanians from seeking needed long-term care support services out of fear of new liens asserted by the Commonwealth.
Please contact your legislators immediately and ask them to oppose section 1412 of HB 1351 and any similar attempts to expand estate recovery.The PBA Legislative Department has made it easy for you to do this - go to the PBA's Legislative Action Center (here) and click on “Read More” for talking points and additional information on the proposed expansion of MAER. Once there, you will find an easy step-by-step process to compose and send an email message to your legislators or download letters for mailing. For more information about your legislators, please visit the Pennsylvania General Assembly's web site www.legis.state.pa.us. If you have any questions or comments regarding this issue, we would like to hear from you. Please email us at legislative@pabar.org. Thank you.
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On April 28, 2009, Representative Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia) introduced House Bill 1351 as part of the Governor’s proposed 2009-10 budget for Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Welfare (“DPW”). The bill is currently in the House Health and Human Services Committee. Section 1412 of HB 1351 expands Pennsylvania’s Medical Assistance Estate Recovery Program (“MAER”) to include the non-probate assets of a Medicaid recipient. This legislation will allow DPW to impose administrative liens against interests created by joint tenancy, tenancy by entireties, tenancy in common, survivorship, life estate, living trust or other arrangements.The Pennsylvania Bar Association adamantly opposes this section of HB 1351 and any similar legislation being negotiated as part of the 2009-10 state budget as bad public policy and harmful to the Commonwealth’s already vulnerable senior citizen population.The issues contained in HB 1351 will undoubtedly play a role in the 2009-10 state budget negotiations in the legislature. Any attempt to expand MAER will create significant complications for estate administration and cause major title and conveyancing problems, deter individuals from serving as executors and trustees and lawyers from representing these fiduciaries, discourage older Pennsylvanians from seeking needed long-term care support services out of fear of new liens asserted by the Commonwealth.
Please contact your legislators immediately and ask them to oppose section 1412 of HB 1351 and any similar attempts to expand estate recovery.The PBA Legislative Department has made it easy for you to do this - go to the PBA's Legislative Action Center (here) and click on “Read More” for talking points and additional information on the proposed expansion of MAER. Once there, you will find an easy step-by-step process to compose and send an email message to your legislators or download letters for mailing. For more information about your legislators, please visit the Pennsylvania General Assembly's web site www.legis.state.pa.us. If you have any questions or comments regarding this issue, we would like to hear from you. Please email us at legislative@pabar.org. Thank you.
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Monday, June 8, 2009
WBA Tech Tip of the Month: Clean Up Email Folders to Improve Mail Performance
Whether you use Outlook, Outlook Express, or another email client program, performance is affected most by the emails contained in the main Inbox, Sent Items, and Deleted Items folders. Allowing these folders to reach thousands (for some users, tens of thousands) of emails can dramatically slow the processing of mail or cause the program to crash completely.
Empty your email Deleted Items folder frequently (deleted emails do not move to the Windows Recycle Bin). The Deleted Items folder IS NOT a storage location for your saved emails; if you want to hang onto your emails, create additional folders and save your mail there, not in the Deleted Items Folder.
Your Inbox should never have more than your most current emails. Whenever you access this folder, Windows regenerates the Œview¹; the more emails within the folder, the more memory needed to display the information and the longer the processing time required. Once you exceed a few thousand emails, processing time starts counting in minutes rather than seconds. The same is true of the Sent Items folder. Although people don¹t typically view this folder, every sent email gets copied here (assuming this feature is turned on). The greater the number of emails already in that folder, the longer it takes to add another one.
Create subfolders under Inbox and Sent Items and move older emails out of the main mail folders. In Outlook or Outlook Express, simply right-click on Inbox or Sent Items, create a New Folder, give it a name and click OK. Drag email(s) to the new folder. In Outlook, you can also us the email Archive feature, which automatically moves older emails from the Inbox and Sent Items folders to a separate Archive folder structure located below your normal folder list.
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Empty your email Deleted Items folder frequently (deleted emails do not move to the Windows Recycle Bin). The Deleted Items folder IS NOT a storage location for your saved emails; if you want to hang onto your emails, create additional folders and save your mail there, not in the Deleted Items Folder.
Your Inbox should never have more than your most current emails. Whenever you access this folder, Windows regenerates the Œview¹; the more emails within the folder, the more memory needed to display the information and the longer the processing time required. Once you exceed a few thousand emails, processing time starts counting in minutes rather than seconds. The same is true of the Sent Items folder. Although people don¹t typically view this folder, every sent email gets copied here (assuming this feature is turned on). The greater the number of emails already in that folder, the longer it takes to add another one.
Create subfolders under Inbox and Sent Items and move older emails out of the main mail folders. In Outlook or Outlook Express, simply right-click on Inbox or Sent Items, create a New Folder, give it a name and click OK. Drag email(s) to the new folder. In Outlook, you can also us the email Archive feature, which automatically moves older emails from the Inbox and Sent Items folders to a separate Archive folder structure located below your normal folder list.
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Thursday, June 4, 2009
Bench Bar - Not Too Late to Sign Up!
2009 Bench Bar Conference for Westmoreland Bar Association
Seven Springs Mountain Resort
Membership retreat for judges and lawyers with 4.5 CLE, entertainment, networking, activities
June 10th, 2009 8:00 AM through June 11th, 2009 5:00 PM
Call the Bar at 724.834.6730 to register
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Seven Springs Mountain Resort
Membership retreat for judges and lawyers with 4.5 CLE, entertainment, networking, activities
June 10th, 2009 8:00 AM through June 11th, 2009 5:00 PM
Call the Bar at 724.834.6730 to register
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Monday, June 1, 2009
PBA E-News: June 2009
Last Call: PBA Annual Meeting, Women's Conference and Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section Annual Meeting
Foundation to Honor Philadelphia Judge Annette Rizzo with Goffman Award at PBA Annual Meeting
Savannah Is Site of July 16 - 19 PBA Family Law Section 2009 Summer Meeting
PBA Young Lawyers Division Hosts First U.S. Supreme Court Admissions Ceremony
State Legislature Gets Back to Business
July/August Pennsylvania Lawyer Magazine Looks at Job Finding, Job Keeping Attention Writers: The Pennsylvania Lawyer Magazine's Short Story Fiction Contest
Now Available: June 15 Bar News 'Court Summaries' PBI Presents 'Advocacy for the Ages' PBA Future Meetings
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Foundation to Honor Philadelphia Judge Annette Rizzo with Goffman Award at PBA Annual Meeting
Savannah Is Site of July 16 - 19 PBA Family Law Section 2009 Summer Meeting
PBA Young Lawyers Division Hosts First U.S. Supreme Court Admissions Ceremony
State Legislature Gets Back to Business
July/August Pennsylvania Lawyer Magazine Looks at Job Finding, Job Keeping Attention Writers: The Pennsylvania Lawyer Magazine's Short Story Fiction Contest
Now Available: June 15 Bar News 'Court Summaries' PBI Presents 'Advocacy for the Ages' PBA Future Meetings
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