We are investigating meat suppliers’ and restaurants’ use of the product commonly referred to as “meat glue.”  This product is being used by some meat product companies and restaurants to bind (“glue”) together scraps of meat into a single piece, and sell it as if it were one cut of higher-grade meat (e.g. a “filet”).  There may be false advertising or consumer law violations in certain situations, if meat-glued products are not being correctly labeled as the law requires.

The meat-glue substance itself is a powder mix, sold under the brand names Activa or Fibrimex.  The Activa product is made with the enzyme transglutaminase, also called TG or TGase.  The Fibrimex product is made with the enzyme fibrin.

Here is an article we wrote with more information about “meat glue” and food-industry use of this product to combine meat scraps and sell the meat-glued products.

If you get in a workplace dispute, watch your emotions carefully.  If you lose your cool, you will likely lose your job.

People understandably feel strong emotions when confronted with strong emotions– say if a boss or HR rep is treating you condenscendingly, sarcastically, or worse, is yelling at you.  If these things happen, it is hard not to let emotions well up and take over.  But that is exactly what you have to prevent.

If management loses their cool, they keep their jobs.  You do not make the decision whether your managers keep their jobs, when they lost their cool in dealing with you.  But if you lose YOUR cool in dealing with them, then they can choose whether to label your actions “insubordination” or “misconduct”, etc.  They can choose to fire you.

These are simple concepts.  But the minute a worker gets into a dispute, he is quick to forget the logical concepts above, and likely to lose his cool.  Don’t lose your cool.  It will do you no good, and will likely cost you your job.

Yesterday, PBC Attorney Michael Brown, who represents John Kroner in the case of John Kroner v. Oneida Seven Generations Corporation (Appeal No. 2010AP002533), conducted argument before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.   The issues before the Supreme Court concern the Brown County Circuit Court’s decision to transfer the case to the Oneida Tribal Judicial System, and whether that decision was appropriate under Wisconsin’s tribal transfer statute (Wis. Stat. 801.54) and other law concerning tribal jurisdiction.

Video and audio recordings of the parties’ oral arguments are available here at the Wisconsin Eye website.

Many employees engaged in employment disputes believe that the truth will set them free.  That once the employer, or the legal system, finds out the employee is factually correct or “in the right,” then everything will work out in the employee’s favor.

This view, while understandable, is flat wrong.  More often than not, the truth does not set an employee free from their dispute.

Consider this.  Say a given person is diagnosed with cancer.  In most instances, such a person would probably (1) recognize he was in a severe situation; (2) seek the assistance of a professional (e.g. doctor, etc.); (3) undertake steps to best deal with the situation (e.g. treatment); and (4) recognize that those steps would improve the ODDS of a successful outcome, but would not be a guarantee.  Accordingly, the person would recognize the situation to be one that involved risk, and that required careful attention to how it was managed.

All of the same factors apply in a legal dispute.  The unfairness, or untruth, of your situation will not cause matters to resolve in your favor. There is risk involved with your situation, however right you may be, and how your situation works out depends in large part on the (careful) steps you take, and a number of factors involved.

The truth is just one factor, one variable, in a legal dispute.  Other variables include, but are not limited to: what other witnesses will say (i.e. their “truths” asserted), what documentation supports your case, the employer’s level of wealth and leverage, the legal resources available (e.g. whether you can get an attorney, whether a legal claim exists or doesn’t exist for your situation, however unfair, etc.), the timing of your matter (e.g. whether you are beyond a deadline), the particular legal authority you’re dealing with (e.g. the particular unemployment claims adjudicator, judge, jury) and so on.

I don’t write all this to be pessimistic.  Often, employees DO have good legal claims and successful outcomes in employment disputes.

However, if you hold the mistaken assumption that the truth will set you free, and you ACT based on that assumption– for example, if you give your employer or an unemployment adjudicator an earful about how “right” you are– you will find out the hard way how insufficient the truth is in the employment-law world.

The Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program (WisLAP) provides confidential assistance to help lawyers, judges, law students, and their families cope with problems related to the stress of practicing law.

Peterson Berk & Cross Attorney Michael Brown (this blog’s author) is a volunteer with WisLAP, and is happy to discuss the program with anyone who wants more information about it.

There are recent news reports about a company called Carrier IQ which has an application installed on millions of smartphones, including some Androids. Concerns exist that Carrier IQ’s application may be obtaining and transmitting phone users’ information without their knowledge.

My law firm handles individual rights matters, and I have been investigating the Carrier IQ situation.

If you have an Android phone and want to detect whether it has the Carrier IQ application installed on it, you can download this application called Carrier IQ Detector to do so.

If you have Carrier IQ installed on your smartphone and you have questions about your legal rights, please feel free to contact me at mbrown@pbclaw.com.

Attorney Michael Brown

Peterson, Berk & Cross SC

Peterson, Berk & Cross attorney Avi Berk was interviewed by Fox 11 regarding proposed rules by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The rules, if adopted, would try to make the WI Supreme Court more transparent to the public, and improve civility on the Court. The proposed rules would, among other new changes, allow the public to watch the justices deliberate cases.

The Fox 11 website article (here) and video both include commentary from Avi.

SCOWIS to discuss proposed changes: fox11online.com

I am an attorney, and every so often, a new potential client will email me, and will do so using their employment email address.  When this happens, often the person’s email will contain negative information about his or her employer, or other information the person would not want the employer’s management to read.

Please know this: most employers can, and will, access employees’ emails sent from their work email accounts. Even if your employer has “never” done this so far, and you think they never will, please know if you later file a legal dispute (or the employer thinks you may), the employer will likely become motivated to comb through your emails at that point.

You can avoid risks by simply doing this: if you email an attorney for your own personal purposes, use your personal (non-work) email account.