Did He Really Tweet that? Careful With Social Media Evidence.

I don’t usually blog about politics or sports, but first I wanted to bring up a couple of things I found extremely newsworthy on twitter…

 

 

Pretty sweet, huh? Didn’t even see that in the mainstream media, did you?

 

I guess the end of the Heat’s huge win streak really took a toll on LeBron, eh?

Of course, that is only if either one of these tweets were real – which they aren’t (duh).

There’s a website that has been making the news lately called Lemmetweetthatforyou. It allows anyone to make a fake tweet under anyone else’s real twitter username. Of course, followers of President Obama and LeBron didn’t see my fake tweets, but these things can spread virally as they did recently with Heisman winner Johnny Football.

Now where does that come in for you lawyers? Obviously I know none of you are going to use this to make up fake tweets for parties in your cases “@johnnydefendant “boy, nothing better than drinking, driving, and running red lights!”. But don’t think that it can’t happen to your client. Don’t get duped by, say, your client bringing in fake social media stuff like this that they might have made in the bizarre hope that it would help their case. And if something like this happens to your client, make sure you understand it and can explain it.

Of course – and I don’t recommend this – this allows anyone to argue against any sort of twitter evidence… kinda like when R. Kelly’s lawyers used the “Little Man defense” to argue that technology has gotten to the point where someone can edit a video to put someone else’s head on someone else’s body, so therefore that sex tape wasn’t mine.

(Howard Zimmerle is a lawyer from the Quad Cities. He can be reached at 309-794-1660 or hzimmerle [at] mjwlaw.com. His twitter handle is @HowardZimmerle).

IRS Clarifies Taxability of Tort Damages

The Internal Revenue Service has shed some light on the taxability of tort damages. Attorneys typically have the kneejerk response that personal injury damages are not taxable. That is only true to a point.

The new regulation clarifies a few things, namely:

• Damages for personal injury or sickness are not taxable
• Damages for “emotional distress” are taxable unless they are attributable to a physical injury or sickness
• Punitive damages are taxable

The emotional distress language is important for people who handle employment law cases, false arrest, or other torts where emotional distress is recoverable but don’t typically involve physical injury or sickness.

(Howard Zimmerle is a trial lawyer from Illinois. He practices throughout western Illinois and Eastern Iowa. He can be reached at 309-794-1660 or at hzimmerle [at] mjwlaw.com.)

You know those New Medicare Reporting Requirements You Always Hear About? They Have Been Bumped Back to 2012

It’s crazy. Two posts in a row talking about new 2012 requirements that scare the heck out of attorneys. (See the last one here).

This time it’s the big, scary, “new Medicare reporting requirements” that have defense lawyers in a tizzy. As you may recall, as of 2011, liability insurers were supposed to start reporting certain settlements to Medicare – known as TPOC (total payment obligation to claimant) settlements. These reporting requirements have been postponed until 2012. Good!

(Howard Zimmerle is a personal injury, medical malpractice and workers compensation lawyer with offices in Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa. You can reach him at 309-794-1660 or hzimmerle [at] mjwlaw.com)