Texas Supreme Court Okays Divorce Forms: Get a Texas Divorce Without Paying a Lawyer

Interesting thing happened recently here in Texas:  the Texas Supreme Court issued an Order that approves certain forms for use by individuals wanting a divorce -- no need for lawyers.

That's right.  In certain situations, married folk here in the Lone Star State can split their matrimonial blanket without the need to spend one dime on attorneys' fees.  The Texas Supreme Court has provided the forms for them to use, it's so easy peasy.

You can read the Texas Supreme Court Order here.  There's a majority opinion as well as some dissenting arguments if you want to delve into the rationale behind this new twist in Texas law.

This does take money out of some lawyer pockets.  It's my understanding that the intent behind this development is to help couples who cannot otherwise afford a family law attorney to get a divorce and move on with their lives.

Will savvy and sneaky couples try and find ways to use these forms and avoid a lawyer, even if they can afford one (and maybe need to have a lawyer check things over)?  Time will tell. (Of course they will!)

The Family Law Bar isn't pleased.   Surprise.

ABA's Latest Ethics Opinion on Contract Attorneys or Outsourcing Lawyers

The American Bar Association has issued a new ethics opinion dealing with outsourcing lawyers as well as freelancing lawyers aka contract attorneys (not the agency temps). To read the full document, you can see it as either html or pdf at the ABA site. To read what the talking heads are telling you that ABA Ethics Opinion 08-451 means, check out:

The Long View
Criminal Lawyer Library Blog
Legal Ethics Forum

Bottom Line: As shocking as it may be, the American Bar Association is giving its okey-dokey to outsourcing legal services (read that, INDIA) as well as giving a big thumbs-up to contract attorneys, or freelance lawyers. As someone who has been a freelance attorney for many years, it's about time. This outsourcing thing, though: scary stuff - on so many levels. Stupid, really.

Hollywood Sues Chinese Company For Pirated Films

Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Universal Studios have just sued a Chinese internet cafe and online service, Jaboo.com, for over $400K for offering pirated downloads of movies like "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Jaboo.com purportedly created software for the cafe that gave customers the ability to download the Hollywood movies. Then, the cafe offered the movies to folk interested in viewing films like "Pirates," "Hitch," and "Click."

I wonder ...

Has Jaboo contacted the folks over at The Pirate Bay yet? Shouldn't the same jurisdictional arguments advanced by Swedish The Pirate Bay apply equally as well to Chinese Jaboo?

Seems like they should, and I'd like to know if Chinese law is allowing a suit that Swedish law will not.

Are these Hollywood BigWigs going to use their new outsourcing lawyers over in India to handle things?

SDD offers litigation support .... Why wouldn't they -- they're already using them for transactional work.

Nikki Finke's Getting Scary: Now They're Outsourcing Lawyers

I think everyone agrees that Nikki Finke's blog at LA Weekly is the place to be for WGA Strike Coverage ... well, other than United Hollywood, or the guys from Letterman over at LateShowWritersOnStrike.Com.

However, who knew how downright skeery Nikki Finke could get? Today, she reveals something that should make lawyers cringe everywhere, not just in Hollywood:

"Because Hollywood is starting to outsource legal research, legal analysis, legal opinion and contract drafting services. Production houses like 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures and HBO have hired an India-headquartered company, SDD Global Solutions, to handle the legal biz of their movie and TV releases, according to The Times Of India in a recent article. The newspaper says the Mysore-based legal process outsourcing firm has 40 attorneys and is owned by Smith Dornan Dehn, a Manhattan-based international media and intellectual property firm funded by Cisco Systems, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Barclay's Capital."

For the full scoop, go read her complete post, "News to Make a Showbiz Lawyer Shudder," as well as the Times of India article she references.

For more on legal outsourcing, check out SDD's website as well as Indian Rahul Jindal's blog, which purportedly keeps track of the new trend of "LPO" (Legal Process Outsourcing) aka "LSO" (Legal Services Outsourcing).