When I reopened this practice in 2010 as a solo practitioner, we rented space in the Crexent office center in Jupiter, Florida. It is one of those office suite concepts where you give them your credit card and they provide everything, including phones and the like. It was great for setting up an office quickly.

The downside is that you sometimes have to deal with the mess a prior tenant left behind. When we first opened the office, we were getting mail for “Lloyds Commodities.” To me, one sign of a potential fraud is the use of a name that could confuse others. “Lloyds” appeared to have nothing in common with the company’s principals. On the other hand, it could confuse people into thinking that the company is somehow linked with “Lloyds of London,” the insurance outfit from England.

Amazingly, lots of people fell for the sales scheme that was alleged in CFTC Complaint. The CFTC recently obtained an injunction freezing the assets of many companies and their principals. Information on the CFTC’s investigation can be found here.

It’s frustrating to me to see this. No matter how much education is done and how much publicity is given, there are still people who are willing to listen to snake oil salesman promising better than average returns. I’ve said it before people. There is no magic bullet.

That’s the view of one lawyer from Jupiter, Palm Beach County, Florida. I’m Marc Dobin.

First, a disclosure. I was sucked in by the Facebook hype. I have lost money on the stock, on paper. It’s OK. I’ll live.

Now, on to today’s topic, the disclosure of a change to the privacy policies of Facebook and Instragram. PC Magazine just posted an opinion piece about this topic entitled “Facebook is Killing Instagram.” Big deal. It’s not like they’re hiding the cure for cancer somewhere on their servers.

Here’s what I’ve learned since I first took an onramp to the information superhighway. People like free stuff. Heck, I like free stuff. But people forget that free still costs money. Somewhere along the way, someone has to pay for the bits, bytes, flops and RAM. How is this done? Advertising. What attracts advertising? Users. What happens when the advertisers refuse to pay more money? The “free” service figures out new ways to generate revenue.

In Facebook’s case, did anyone step up and say “I’ll pay $25 so you won’t share my stuff”? Nope. They whined. Imagine this. If all of Facebook’s half-billion users kicked in a dollar that would be a half-billion dollars of revenue. $5? $2.5 billion in revenue. Then maybe they don’t have to sell that picture of you doing a kegstand five years ago. I can see the tagline “Don’t do a kegstand so you can get free beer. Get rid of cable.”

The same thing is happening with Google Apps and Gmail. Google figured out that there were lots of freeloaders, like me. Google has said no more freeloading on Google for Business for 10 users or less (for new people). So I am a grandfathered freeloader. Google has also taken away Exchange ActiveSync from Gmail and the free Google Apps accounts. Oh well. If I want EAS, then I will have to figure out how to come up with the $50 per user that Google wants. But I don’t need EAS. So I will remain a freeloader until Google makes it too unpleasant for me.

Speculation is that Google’s ActiveSync license was getting expensive. And that Google is mad that Microsoft is trying to make inroads in mobile phones. So it would stand to reason that Google is trying to discourage people from using Windows Phone while freeloading on Google’s Gmail system. Easy enough. Either the Gmail user pays up or moves on. Hence the migration to Outlook.com, Microsoft’s free email site (the much more sophisticated incarnation of Hotmail) Want it free? Go find it. And take your little dog, too.

Many moons ago it was said that “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” This is still true today. To keep all the twits, tweets, postings, photo uploads and general foolishness of the Internet running, money has to be made and spent. The companies need to do it some way. The business model of giving it away and never making money has been proven to be not profitable. Duh.

So make sure that, when crying, you don’t drip on your touchscreen device. You might short it out. And that repair will cost money.

That’s the view of one lawyer from Jupiter, Florida. I’m Marc Dobin. Have a safe and Happy New Year.

I have been a lawyer for over 25 years. I have been blessed with representing any number of clients who have a special place in my heart. I have had clients whose financial picture changed because of the results I obtained. I have had clients whose lives have changed because of what I was able to do for them. I thought that these kinds of results would be all that I would see.

Then Election Day 2012 came. Obama v. Romney. Patrick Murphy v. Allen West. I had volunteered for the 2008 and 2010 elections as a poll watcher. My job was to ensure that the election laws were complied with and to assist the poll workers in enforcing or complying with those laws. My 2008 and 2010 duties were pretty boring. In 2008, I was in a fairly large precinct in Lake Worth, Florida, and it had very few problems. In 2010, I was in my home voting precinct in Jupiter.

This year I was assigned to a precinct in Riviera Beach, Florida, a primarily African-American neighborhood. I had a feeling that this assignment was going to be much more interesting because these precincts can be targets for voter suppression or voter challenges. My experience this time was much more rewarding.

First there was Marcus (names have been changed). He was having a communication problem with the poll workers. They told him that his registered address was not in the precinct, therefore he couldn’t vote there. The communication issue came up because he did not explain himself well enough. The workers did not understand that he had moved to the precinct. The workers seemed unsure about the address change policy at the polls. (This was early in the day). In Florida, a voter who moves is permitted to change their address at the polls and vote a regular ballot.

I worked with Marcus and the poll staff to get the address changed. He voted a regular ballot.

There was Lynn. She had the same problem as Marcus, an address change. She had been waiting a very long time and did not seem to be getting an answer. She went out to the parking lot where I talked with her. But before I could do that, I had to answer to Mary (her real name), a local activist who wanted to make sure I was not trying to trick Lynn. (I would later meet Mary’s husband and grandson.) I assured her that I was not and showed her what I was doing.

When Lynn went back to the poll, she knew to ask to change her residence address. The address was changed and she voted a regular ballot.

There was Andre and Linda. They were both registered voters, but the system said they were “ineligible.” Neither one had an disqualifying history. In the parking lot, I explained to them what their rights were. They, like Lynn, waited a long time before they could vote, but they voted a provisional ballot. Their ballots would then be examined, along with the county’s records, and would be counted if found to be valid.

There was #23 (his real number, I think). He was an ex-convict who thought his civil rights were restored many years ago. He remembered that he voted about 10 years ago, but didn’t have any information with him. We encouraged him to have the workers look up his information and, sure enough, he was a registered voter. After he was done voting, he danced. He literally danced.

There was Guy. Guy seemed like a really nice guy. He was being told that he was ineligible to vote. He had a conviction. When I interviewed Guy, I learned that he was arrested before the 2008 election and voted in November. But he was then convicted and did jail time afterwards. He was out and wanted to vote. He didn’t know that his civil rights were not restored. He was disappointed that he couldn’t vote. I felt badly for him.

There was Sheryl. She was told by the Supervisor’s office that they would look into her voter registration issue and call her back if they could straighten it out. I never saw Sheryl again after she left. I hoped that the Supervisor’s office called her.

There was Demi. She had all of her ID stolen except for her Social Security card, she said at first. Without a picture ID, the voter would have had to vote a provisional ballot. I explained to the Deputy Clerk that if Demi had a picture ID with her name on it, along with an ID with her name and signature, she would be able to vote a regular ballot. Demi then produced a school photo ID that had a picture and her name. The Deputy Clerk pieced that together with her Social Security card, with signature, and was satisfied as to her ID. Demi voted a regular ballot.

Some people view voting as a chore. Everyone knows it’s important. But for this neighborhood where I spent the day, it was a joyous occasion. One where neighbors saw neighbors. Teachers saw grown-up students. Families voted together. Parents brought their kids. It was unlike my prior two experiences.

For me, it was a chance to help people exercise their civil right to vote. Several of the people would not have voted if I hadn’t intervened. Through the training I received and my legal training, I was able to recover something for several people that money literally can’t buy, their vote. I wasn’t paid. There was no contingency fee. Just the satisfaction of knowing that my presence in a neighborhood far removed from my own made a difference. I want to keep going back to this neighborhood and do it again.

And if you think for one moment that your vote doesn’t make a difference, think again. The Murphy/West race, as of this post, was separated in Palm Beach county by 11 votes. The other two counties in the race had greater differences, but 11 votes in our County is not much.

That’s the view of one lawyer from Jupiter, Palm Beach County, Florida (home of the hanging chad). I’m Marc Dobin.

Traditional wisdom held that the only way to get an expungement of a customer complaint was from a FINRA arbitrator. Since time immemorial, brokers have sought expungements from arbitrators. We have handled a number of these types of expungements. Frankly, we told brokers with old disclosure items (possibly from firms that were no longer in business) that there was nothing that could be done.

We might have been wrong. A recent case in California has held that FINRA can be properly taken before a court and ordered to remove CRD items. This is a sea change in the way things work. According to the opinion, a court always has equitable jurisdiction and the power to order changes to a CRD record.

This case was an appeal from a trial court ruling that only the FINRA Rule 2080(a) standards could apply and that the court did not have the power to apply them. The California appellate court reversed the trial court and held that the trial court has the equitable authority to expunge matters from a CRD record. This upends decades of common practice.

So, what’s in store. It certainly makes sense to seek expungement of “old” CRD disclosure items through a court and see what the court does. I’m thinking that this is going to create a tidal wave of expungement matters in state court proceedings, at least until FINRA changes the rules.

You see, FINRA makes the rules. FINRA tells a broker what they can and can’t do. FINRA may try to short-circuit this process by suggesting a rule that prohibits a broker from suing FINRA in any court for the purpose of getting an expungement. Whether they will be able to get such a rule passed is another issue.

In the meantime, the expungement window may be open.

That’s the unexpunged view of one lawyer from Jupiter, Palm Beach County, Florida. I’m Marc Dobin.