Statelawtv.com is an excellent website for learning more about some of the important issues facing trial lawyers and the citizens they serve.

I recently spoke to StateLawTV.com president, Cindy Speaker, to explain how quickly they can react to current events and produce quality video content that can be deployed for a variety of purposes. You can learn more at Statelawtv.com or by visiting their Youtube channel.

Joseph E. Fournier, attorney and CPA of Fournier Legal Services, joins Michael J. Swanson to discuss why it is important for law firms to have a succession plan.

By Yvette Valencia

There's more to "seasonal web content" than just following the calendar patterns of spring, summer, fall, and winter. There are many more seasons that matter to different businesses. CPAs, for example, perk up around tax season, while roofers and disaster repair specialists might see a pickup in web searches for their services around hurricane season.

Attorneys: Take a Look at Your Own Seasonal Observations

Seasons exist for attorneys as well. If you've been practicing for a while you should have started to notice trends in your caseload and the types of cases you get during certain times of the year. Understanding this information will help you craft the most relevant content for the season. For example, many family law attorneys find that January is a major month for divorce cases.

Personal Injury: Consider the Recreational Seasons

For personal injury attorneys, there's never an "off season" where people don't get injured in accidents. However, depending on where you practice, there are several "seasons" that can influence the types of accidents you see.

Injury attorneys in warm coastal areas like Florida and California may see patterns of decreases and increases relative to weather and tourist season in water-related accidents.

• Boat crashes
• Parasailing injuries
• Defective water products like jet skis

Personal injury lawyers in rural areas may see an increase in hunting accidents during the various game seasons. Lawyers in or near large cities with high tourism may anticipate more accidents with lost or distracted drivers from out of town during certain seasons.

Keep in mind the major holidays to tailor content to those celebrations, like pedestrian safety for Halloween and decorating safety during the winter holidays. Another type of content to keep in mind during holidays is driving safety.

Every year AAA publishes heavy traffic warnings during major holiday weekends like Memorial Day Weekend, Labor Day Weekend, and 4th of July Weekend. These are all times when more people take road trips or drive while intoxicated from holiday parties.

Seasonal Calendars Can Help You Plan for Maximum Content Success

If you're going to take advantage of content seasons to increase web traffic and lead gathering, do some pre-planning. At the start of every year make up a content calendar and highlight all of the different seasons that matter to your law practice. They don't all have to be legal-related, either. If you have a charitable cause that's near and dear to your heart like breast cancer awareness, highlight that in October during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Planning seasonal content in advance allows you to ensure your content is written, proofread, and ready to post when the appropriate season comes up. Not only does this help you keep your content timely and current, it also ensures you'll have something ready to post when you don't have a regular article or blog to go up.

If you're hitting a wall trying to come up with seasonal content, don't fret! We Do Web Content has your back! Just fill out our contact form and we'll be in touch to discuss your practice and what kind of content we can provide year-round to take advantage of the seasons and other hot topics in your area. Call us at 888-521-3880.

I posted a blog several weeks ago about Tort Reform in North Carolina. It seems that capping non-economic damages and protecting emergency room physicians from liability are not all that Republicans want to include in North Carolina’s Tort Reform efforts.

House Bill 542, introduced in North Carolina’s House of Representatives last week, proposes to protect manufacturers from litigation as long as the products have met Federal regulatory standards. According to the Charlotte Observer reporter Craig Jarvis (4/1), “Product manufacturers would enjoy substantial protection from liability, to an extent unlike any other state in the country.” According to the AP (3/31), opponents of the bill say, “…North Carolina is pushing further than virtually every other state to tilt the balance of justice toward business interests…” Also included in House Bill 542 under Limitation of Amount of Recovery is a limit on punitive damages the plaintiff can recover. The bill proposes that punitive damage awards in excess of $100,000 are to be allocated 25% to the Plaintiff and 75% to the Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund.

Tort Reform has serious implications on the rights of citizens as their access to justice becomes compromised. We will all be watching to see what happens and how the citizenry of North Carolina is affected.

A recent article in Bloomberg News gives an overview of a recently filed lawsuit wherein CVS Caremark Corp., the largest U.S. provider of prescription drugs, was sued over claims it used confidential prescription information to push products on behalf of pharmaceutical makers.

The drug store chain is being accused of violating the privacy and rights of its customers by sending letters to customers’ physicians promoting specific medications, according to the lawsuit. CVS allegedly identified customers by name, date of birth and medications taken by drawing on information obtained via CVS pharmacy services.

The suit was brought by Richboro, AP resident Arthur Steinberg and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers Health and Welfare Fund. “While touted as an ‘RxReview Program’ by defendant CVS Caremark, in reality the physician communications were nothing more than a profit-making opportunity,” Steinberg said in the complaint.

There is a history of CVS showing poor judgment with regards to customer privacy issues. In February, 2009, the company agreed to pay $2.25 million to settle federal charges its employees compromised customer privacy by throwing prescription bottles and records into open trash dumpsters. This payment settled civil charges that CVS violated HIPAA.

According to a spokesperson for CVS, they have not yet been served with the claim and can’t comment. They have said, however, that, “CVS Caremark places a high priority on protecting the privacy of our customers and members.”

The suit seeks unspecified damages and class action status for the case. It is styled as Arthur Steinberg v. CVS Caremark Corp. (CVS), #110300253 in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County.