In next week’s Minnesota Lawyer, there will be an article about some of the technological developments that are most worth keeping an eye on for attorneys in 2008, and one of them is pay-for-click advertising – search term-based advertising in which the advertiser pays only when a user clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's website.
Some law offices, notably personal-injury firms, have already mastered the art of pay-for-click. Take Twin Cities PI giant Meshbesher & Spence. For weeks, it has attached an ad to numerous search terms (including neuropathy, kill floor, and numbness+tingling) in an effort to attract potential clients who wish to make a claim against Quality Pork Processors in Austin.
So far, 13 QPP workers have complained of similar neurological symptoms. An undisclosed number of QPP workers have contacted Meshbesher’s Rochester office, according to the firm’s website.
It’s not hard to dream up a search string that will produce a link to a local PI firm: accident+Minnesota, Medtronic+lawsuit, slip+fall+Minneapolis, and Vioxx+Duluth all did the trick. Even the geographically generic search injury+negligence turned up a link to Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben.
Say what you like about personal-injury lawyers, but when it comes to drumming up business, they know how to stay ahead of the curve.
Showing posts with label Meshbesher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meshbesher. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Pardons: an extraordinary remedy
I know sentiments are divided on whether President Bush was right to commute Scooter Libby’s sentence and this post gives you the chance to post about it if you choose. But I thought I’d take the opportunity to bring you up to date on Minnesota’s pardon/commutation law.
The Minnesota Board of Pardons consists of the governor, the chief justice and the attorney general. Article V, Sec. 7 of the Minnesota Constitution and Minn. Stat. Ch. 638 allow the board to grant a pardon (which exempts the person from punishment), a commutation (which changes the punishment) or a pardon extraordinary, which is relief granted to applicants who have served their sentence.
The board granted 12 extraordinary pardons last year out of 27 requests -- and no pardons or commutations. Of the 12 extraordinary pardons, six were for theft or robbery, one was for fifth degree assault, one for attempted criminal damage to property and four for drug offenses.
Minnesota’s most famous recent pardon came a few months ago to retired Minnesota Vikings lineman Jim Marshall. Marshall, now 70, won an extraordinary pardon for his 1991 conviction on a cocaine possession charge. He sought the pardon so he could travel the world without restrictions to work for a nonprofit he co-founded. (Marshall was one of the Purple People Eaters along with Supreme Court Justice Alan Page, Carl Eller and Gary Larsen. But I digress.)
Marshall had already had his conviction expunged and presented a substantial amount of character evidence to the board, said his attorney, Ronald Meshbesher of Minneapolis. Such character evidence is important for anyone seeking a pardon, Meshbesher said. “I rarely get approached about it but I’m surprised more people don’t do it,” the attorney added.
Pardons based on innocence are rare, said Meshbesher. “I can’t think of a sentence set aside on the ground of innocence. There is something to our system of justice that we ought to take credit for,” he said.
The Minnesota Board of Pardons consists of the governor, the chief justice and the attorney general. Article V, Sec. 7 of the Minnesota Constitution and Minn. Stat. Ch. 638 allow the board to grant a pardon (which exempts the person from punishment), a commutation (which changes the punishment) or a pardon extraordinary, which is relief granted to applicants who have served their sentence.
The board granted 12 extraordinary pardons last year out of 27 requests -- and no pardons or commutations. Of the 12 extraordinary pardons, six were for theft or robbery, one was for fifth degree assault, one for attempted criminal damage to property and four for drug offenses.
Minnesota’s most famous recent pardon came a few months ago to retired Minnesota Vikings lineman Jim Marshall. Marshall, now 70, won an extraordinary pardon for his 1991 conviction on a cocaine possession charge. He sought the pardon so he could travel the world without restrictions to work for a nonprofit he co-founded. (Marshall was one of the Purple People Eaters along with Supreme Court Justice Alan Page, Carl Eller and Gary Larsen. But I digress.)
Marshall had already had his conviction expunged and presented a substantial amount of character evidence to the board, said his attorney, Ronald Meshbesher of Minneapolis. Such character evidence is important for anyone seeking a pardon, Meshbesher said. “I rarely get approached about it but I’m surprised more people don’t do it,” the attorney added.
Pardons based on innocence are rare, said Meshbesher. “I can’t think of a sentence set aside on the ground of innocence. There is something to our system of justice that we ought to take credit for,” he said.
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