Divorce Mediation
The lawyers at Stuart & Jabbar, PLC have founded Arizona Mediation Partners to provide professional mediation services for those going through divorce or custody proceedings. Mediation is a process whereby the parties work through their differences and reach a resolution outside of court. Mediation avoids the uncertainty of having a judge decide the issues and puts the power into the parties’ hands to craft an agreement that works for them. Arizona Mediation Partners provides both divorce mediation and mediation of other types of...
read morePreventing Academic Plagiarism
Education is the Key When colleges and universities adopt strict liability standards that punish all forms of plagiarism equally they are usually trying to deter conduct. In theory, such systems sound good. Punishing the plagiarist who tries passing off the ideas of another as his or her own should deter future would-be plagiarists. The problem is that strict liability systems cannot deter unintentional plagiarism caused by lack of proper education. While I cannot speak for every institution, most colleges and universities actively condemn...
read morePlagiarism at Colleges & Universities
Plagiarism at colleges and universities can take numerous forms. Many colleges, however, are still applying antiquated plagiarism policies that treat all forms of plagiarism equally. Such strict liability approaches favor punishment of students over education, often requiring severe sanctions be imposed without regard to whether the plagiarism is of a serious variety or not. When colleges abdicate their responsibility to teach students how to succeed, both the institution and the students suffer. ASU’s Academic Integrity Policy First,...
read moreGallery Representation Agreements
The importance of galleries in the financial success of artists cannot be understated. In the art world, galleries are the equivalent of record companies and movie studios–they bring art to the public. They are institutions lending context and credibility to the works they display. While the concert violinist on the street corner can command only small tips from passing pedestrians, that same violinist can command many thousands of dollars if she walks into the nearby concert hall and plays the exact same piece on a Friday night. So too...
read moreCopyright Infringement vs. Plagiarism
I’m sometimes asked to explain the differences between copyright infringement and plagiarism. The two related terms are sometimes used interchangeably by non-lawyers but they are separate and distinct offenses. Let’s start with some basic definitions. Copyright Infringement Copyright Infringement is a very specific offense–it involves copying the protected work of another author. Under the Copyright Act, ownership in a copyrighted work vests in the author automatically once that work is fixed in a tangible medium of...
read morePlagiarism and Government Research Grants
Although private industry conducts the majority of scientific and medical research in the United States, universities also conduct a significant share. Government research grants are the lifeblood of university research initiatives and the competition for scarce government funding is intense. In recent years, the competition has grown increasingly more complicated by the introduction of plagiarism detection software. Now, with the click of a mouse, research grant proposals and research papers can be analyzed electronically for instances of...
read more2011 ASU Sports & Entertainment Law Conference
Yours truly will be a panelist at the upcoming ASU Sports & Entertainment Law Conference to be held November 5, 2011, in Tempe. I will be on a panel of several other attorneys discussing the ever-changing topic of protecting intellectual property rights online. Lawyers may earn CLE credit and others may just find the topics interesting. Complete conference information is available online...
read moreFiling Bankruptcy When You Work for a Bank
What do you do if you need to file bankruptcy but you work for Bank of America or Chase, Wells Fargo, or any bank for that matter? Even worse, what if you owe your employer money? This question comes up rather often. I have represented a number of bank employees, everyone from tellers to loan officers. These employees are worried about adverse employment actions being taken against them based on filing a bankruptcy. It is also not so uncommon for me to represent employees of the major credit card companies–e.g. American Express,...
read moreArizona Advance Directives Registry
So you have listened to my advice and created your Living Wills and Healthcare Powers of Attorney. Wonderful! The question I always get next is: “But what do I do with the documents?” First, you should keep the originals in a safe place (or better yet have your lawyer keep them in a fireproof safety deposit box for you). Second, and most importantly, you should have them registered with the Arizona Secretary of State so that any medical provider can verify your wishes by consulting the registry. As you might imagine, if you are...
read moreLiving Wills, Durable Powers of Attorney, & Advanced Healthcare Directives
If the above legal terms do not sound familiar to you, it probably means that you don’t have these documents. Here is what they are and why you need them. Living Will A Living Will is a document intended to instruct future healthcare providers and your family about how you want to be cared for in the event you are ever incapacitated or in a persistent vegetative state. No one wants to think about this possibility, but we should all have one of these documents filled out. If you are ever in a car accident or suffer a debilitating...
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