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by Daniel DeWoskin Trial Attorney atlantatrial.com There is no shortage of ways for attorneys to be active in their professional communities. Here in the Metropolitan Atlanta area, we have many county Bar Associations, such as our own Dekalb Bar, as…
by Daniel DeWoskin Trial Attorney atlantatrial.com Anybody who knows me knows that I love movies. I love good movies, bad movies, and all that is in-between. I enjoy the experience of being inside a movie theater and watching a film…
by Daniel DeWoskin
Trial Attorney
atlantatrial.com
The issue is settled and has been for quite some time now. There is no way to live completely off the grid. At least, there is no way for a rational person who encounters the day-to-day responsibilities and whatnot to live completely off the grid. You do not have to use Facebook. You do not have to tweet, or use a smartphone. All you have to do is be a consumer.
If you use a bankcard, a debit card, a credit card, purchase items online, use social media, market online, or even engage in the most mundane activities using the internet, there is a profile of you. As I do engage in social media, I get a sense sometimes of what my “profile” must be. I use the quotation marks, because I am not referring to how I hold myself out, what descriptions exist regarding my education or experience, or anything of that sort. I am referring to what information that is bought and sold regarding my behavior as a consumer tells others who wish to market to me.
For instance, my Amazon purchases, my credit card purchases and patterns, and what websites I visit once had my social media abuzz with a notion that I wanted to go back to school. Apparently, I wanted to go to some fairly terrible and expensive schools. Apparently, I did not actually want to go to these schools so much as attend them virtually, paying gobs of money for a degree in some rather silly areas. I have no idea what genius algorithms conspired to compile a profile of me that suggested this zeal for more education, but I am likely finished acquiring degrees for the time being.
by Daniel DeWoskin
Trial Attorney
atlantatrial.com
You may find this cynical, but does Santa really have a naughty list? I have been troubled by this ever since I was a child. Ironically, I was a Jewish child, so it may have been silly to be troubled by this. Then again, I was a Jewish child, so I suppose it was normal to always be troubled by something. Nevertheless, if the list was real, I could have used an address to the old man’s appeals division. Sure, it may sound like I am making things too complicated, but ever since I was a kid, I have never really known where I stood. What constitutes naughty? There is the kind of stuff that clearly fits the bill, such as stealing, hurting other people, and lying, but what about borrowing (without express permission), hurting a sibling (in self-defense, of course), and bending the truth to spare someone’s feelings (like my parents, who would be hurt to know what my real grades were).
by Daniel DeWoskin
Trial Attorney
atlantatrial.com
We survived another election. For some of my friends and colleagues, they might consider my statement more ominous and less humorous than I intend it to be. The vitriol and panic about what this election meant seemed higher than previous elections, although it probably just seems like that. In actuality, I remember my friends talking in 2000 about how, if the U.S. Supreme Court came back with this decision or that decision, it would mean the end of democracy. It did not.
by Daniel DeWoskin
Trial Attorney
atlantatrial.com
Dekalb County has an ethics crisis. Sure, the State of Georgia can be said to have an ethics crisis given recent trials, a jury verdict, and settlements that have cost taxpayers millions of dollars. However, former DeKalb Commissioner Elaine Boyer pleaded guilty in federal court on September 3, 2014, to two counts of fraud and depriving DeKalb constituents of $90,000. Another experienced politician, DeKalb Commissioner Stan Watson, had a website for which taxpayers paid almost $2,000 that solicited funds for Watson’s re-election campaign. Commissioner Watson has agreed to repay the taxpayers, according to WSB Channel 2, but an ethics complaint filed August 22, 2014, is pending. On August 27, 2014, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton paid more than $34,000 of taxpayer money to her boyfriend, “mostly for his advice on how to be a commissioner.” And, as of the date this article is published, suspended DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis is on trial defending against charges of corruption.
by Daniel DeWoskin
Trial Attorney
atlantatrial.com
In general, I am the type of person who can separate the views of others from who they are as people. This is important for everyone, but especially for lawyers. I engage in this exercise routinely with clients and opposing counsel, whose personal views on any given subject may be the opposite of my own. Even in the case when we are not able to see eye-to-eye, we can always respect one another’s right to have a different opinion.