Day: January 27, 2016

A useful tool to access police misconduct cases for defense lawyers

January 27, 2016 Joyce Varghese Leave a comment Lawyer Tools, Tech for Lawyers

Vidya Pappachan, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society in New York City did not have enough time to prepare for her client’s case on a drug felony charge. However, she had a tool that helped her look up information about the officers that arrested her client.

The database is called the Cop Accountability Project. Through this, she learned that the officers were involved in misconduct cases that involved false arrests and cost NYC more than half a million dollars in settlement payouts. Even more, this was much similar to the situation in which her client was arrested. There was no drug stash found and no other evidence besides the arresting officers’ account of the incident. Since Pappachan proved the three officers were involved in prior misconduct cases, she challenged the weight of the evidence against her client. The judge agreed with her proposition and the client was released without bail.

Beyond New York, similar projects are popping up. The Indianapolis Police department created a portal that tracks officer complaints, use of force, and shooting incidents. In Chicago, there are two separate but complementary tools that track police misconduct cases. Michelle Bonner, former chief counsel to the Legal Aid Society called the New York project “a great advance in the evolution for defender databases.”

The project stemmed from the grassroots of newspaper clippings and paper documents. After 1998, it evolved into a database in the form of a digital library catalog program called Inmagic and later into an Excel spreadsheet where documents were scanned or uploaded to a shared file.

This tool has brought mixed reaction from judges. Some are very open to hearing this information and some say it’s not relevant at this stage of the case. The New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association has a unanimous opinion. Patrick Lynch, the president of the city’s largest police union, said : “Compiling a list of police officers who are alleged to be ‘bad’ based upon newspaper stories, quick-buck lawsuits and baseless complaints … does nothing more than soil the reputation of the men and women who do the difficult and dangerous job of keeping this city and its citizens safe.”

This project will continue to morph as the Legal Aid Society trains its lawyers to better integrate this database into their practice.

Article via ABA Journal, February 2016 issue

Photo: Paris – Police via clement127 [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]

Tech salaries gain largest jump ever

January 27, 2016 Astrid Countee Leave a comment Business, Economy, Tech

It pays well to be a techie in the US. From 2014 to 2015 tech salaries experienced their largest annual jump ever, to nearly 8 percent. The average salary of $96,370 reflects the demand for highly skilled technical workers. “Opportunities await…for highly skilled tech professionals…”, stated Bob Melk, President of Dice.com, the site that conducted this annual survey. Dice surveyed 16,301 employed technology professionals between October and November 2015.

A person employed in the technology industry saw their salary rise 7.7 percent from 2014 to 2015.  Not only is this the biggest increase in salary every, according to the annual survey done by Dice.com, employees could also expect to bring home bigger bonuses as well.

Those most likely to receive bonuses were senior tech employees. The percentage of survey respondents that reported a bonus stayed steady at 37 percent. But, the amount of these bonuses last year enjoyed a 24 percent increase from where they were in 2009. The wage increase indicates a healthy job market, and an emphasis on valuing talented employees.

“The competition for tech talent today is undeniable,” Melk said in a statement. “Demand for skilled talent and low unemployment rates for tech professionals aren’t making the hiring landscape any easier. Employers realize offering competitive pay is a necessity.”

Many cities on the list boasted average salaries that passed the $100,000 annual mark. Although there were the usual suspects, such as San Francisco and New York, there were also unexpected cities like Minneapolis on list. While Minneapolis is not usually considered a tech hub, there has been a growing community of seasoned engineers gathering there. Other unexpected cities added to the $100,000 club include Washington, DC and Portland.

Tech jobs appear in every sector of our economy, and therefore high paying jobs are no longer relegated to traditional technology hubs like Silicon Valley. From those surveyed, the industries where experienced workers were most likely to receive bonuses included banking/financial, telecom, hardware, entertainment/media and utilities industries.

 

Article via Cnet: 26, January 2016

Photo: Money by Pictures of Money [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs]