The “back door” to smartphones: needed tool or bound to be abused?

Where to draw the line? That certainly seems to be the seminal question that courts — and society in general — must address and answer with some clarity regarding what FBI Director James Comey calls “the hardest question I’ve seen in government.” That question concerns privacy expectations on the one hand and the government’s need…

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Oscar-nominated movie probes clerical sexual abuse

“You know nothing.” So says the mother of a man who died last year after losing a long-term battle with alcoholism to people who pass judgment on matters relating to child sex abuse without having personally dealt with it in their families. “Wait until you’ve walked in our shoes,” she says. The grief that personally…

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It seems we can do far better monitoring problem teachers

For obvious reasons, reasonable and loving parents in Southern California and across the country look at their sons’ and daughters’ schools as sanctuaries. That is, they regard those venues as special places where their children go to learn and socialize without fear of being rendered vulnerable to some of life’s harms that simply shouldn’t be…

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KTLA

David Ring appeared on KTLA to discuss his civil lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District on behalf of an underage boy who was sexually abused by a San Pedro High School teacher. The substitute biology teacher, Michelle Yeh was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for multiple counts of child molestation and…

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David Ring And Natalie Weatherford Author Article On Litigating Childhood Sexual Abuse Cases

Taylor & Ring attorneys David Ring and Natalie Weatherford authored the article, “Litigating Childhood Sexual-Abuse Cases,” in The Advocate, the monthly journal published by Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA) . From meeting with the plaintiff and their parents for the first time, to how to proceed with preparing and presenting a case, Mr.…

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An often thorny subject: sex-based penitent/clergy communications

It is a case, notes one news outlet, that “highlights the struggle of courts to interpret a convoluted web of clergy reporting laws” that exist across the United States. And it underscores this topical concern: the ability of church authorities in some instances to shield sexual abusers of children from liability through invocation of a…

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Irony: halls of learning can also be venues of child abuse

Our children are at once the most impressionable and vulnerable demographic within our society, possessed of breathtaking promise yet simultaneously needing to be duly supervised and watched with care while they grow and mature. We all want what’s best for our kids, and know intuitively that promoting their interests encompasses involving them in activities that…

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