GROUPS GATHER WORLDWIDE TO SUPPORT CANCER FIGHTERS

LOCALS SENT OVER 100,000 CARDS IN FIRST ANNUAL “CARDS 4 CANCER” DAY:

April 10, 2010 – A team of local volunteers from New Jersey Legal, Inc., in Cherry Hill participated and gathered dozens of cards to be distributed to individuals battling cancer.  They delivered the uplifting cards to the Center for Cancer and Hematologic Disease, in Cherry Hill.  The local team was one of many around the world who took part in an effort to deliver over 100,000 cards to cancer centers across the globe.

Spirit Jump, a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit hosted its first annual Cards 4 Cancer Day April 10, 2010. On Cards 4 Cancer Day, thousands of individuals around the world delivered uplifting cards to local cancer centers in hopes of raising patients’ spirits and helping them in their fight.  Teams dedicated to this effort formed in 49 states and 9 countries globally to help reach their goal.

“It is truly amazing how influential one’s words can be on another in need of an emotional lift.  We are proud to be a part of the first annual ‘Cards 4 Cancer’ Day.”  James Cortopassi, Team NJ Legal

“While many incredible campaigns focus on the research, thousands lay in hospital beds in need of support.  Cards 4 Cancer Day focuses on those sometimes forgotten fighters.” said Meaghan Edelstein, the Founder of Spirit Jump and a young adult cancer survivor.

“We were very pleased with the turnout here. It’s so nice to see neighbors and families coming together for a good cause.” Quote from one of the team leaders that participated in the event.

About Spirit Jump

Spirit Jump is a 501(c)(3) grassroots nonprofit organization with a mission to provide hope and comfort to the many men, women and children battling cancer.  Spirit Jump accomplishes this by providing uplifting cards and inspirational gifts during this most difficult time through their Cards 4 Cancer program.  Spirit Jump is also well recognized in Social Media, with a large following of active users on Facebook, Twitter and through our webcasts.  For additional information or to make a donation, visit SpiritJump.org,  www.cards4cancer.org or  www.facebook.com/cardsforcancer

No related posts.

I came across an old service list several months ago from the early days of New Jersey Legal. There was no date on the list, but I knew it was from the beginning years of the company because it was so short.  It listed all of the services the company provided at that time and each service on the list was emphasized with a blue bullet to draw attention to it. The list was as follows:

• Litigation Copying
• Color copies
• Oversize Copying
• On-Site Copying
• Trial Boards (Black & White)
• Bate Stamping
• Binding Services
• Video and Audio Duplication
• X-Ray Duplication.

Looking at this list made me reminisce about my first years in the “Copy Business” and how much New Jersey Legal has changed over the years.  I have now been in the industry for 12 years and with New Jersey Legal for 9 of those.

It was a totally different job when I started. I didn’t need a computer and without a computer there was no email to answer. I didn’t need a cell phone. When a client called the office their phone number was sent to my pager. Then I had to search and find a pay phone, scrounge up 35 cents, wipe the phone with disinfectant and then finally make the call – and that’s if the pay phone actually worked! I don’t even think my children know what a pay phone is. Every job was a copy job and scanning documents was seldom done.

Over 15 years we have changed with the needs of our loyal customers. I am impressed and thankful that the owner of the company, Gary Overman, has always invested in people and services and has always adapted to the ever changing needs of our customers.

The list of services and our capabilities continue to grow and change. We went from not even having cell phones to having people on staff that can forensically image them.  We went from just being able to print trial boards and graphics to providing full multimedia courtroom trial support backed by our eDiscovery and computer forensics services. We went from just copying paper to imaging hard drives and processing data. I am writing a blog. We even have our own comic strip!

Congratulations to Gary and everyone that has been involved with making us successful. I can’t wait to see what the next 15 years has to offer!

Related posts:

1. New Jersey Legal Participates In New Jersey’s Oldest Civil Case
   All of us at New Jersey Legal want to say congratulations to Brown & Connery for settling the oldest...
2. My Beginnings As A Courtroom Trial Presenter
   When I started with New Jersey Legal I was hired as a customer service representative to help Dave MacDonald...
3. New Jersey Legal Introduces Contract Attorney Services
   New Jersey Legal introduces contract attorney services to existing and new clients to conduct document review, brief writing, jury...

Last week we posted an update talking about the epidemic of cyber-bullying. Largely based upon psychological assault, cyber-bullying has been spreading through our school systems rapidly. The impact on some children has been so strong that, not only are they afraid to go to school, in some extreme cases treatment is required for a variety of mental disorders including anxiety and depression. In the most extreme cases children are even committing suicide as a result of the cyber-bullying. While our last post served as an introduction to the serious nature of this epidemic, this week we want to talk about the impact our services — in particular cell phone forensics and computer forensics — can have on these cases.

An article from the Star-Ledger was posted on NJ.com on Monday that discussed the need for strong protection against cyber-bullying for our children. For many of us, growing up we found bullying to be almost entirely face-to-face, regardless of whether you were on the receiving or giving end. While technology clearly brings many benefits and has provided an invaluable learning tool for many, it has also brought some negative and devastating repercussions:

Death threats are being made in text messages and e-mails and anonymous notes.

…

And now there is another complication: technology. In face-to-face bullying, victims know their tormentors. In the murky world of the internet, faceless bullies can do untold damage to reputations and psyches. And, unlike other abuse, cyber-bullying doesn’t stop when the school bell rings at the end of the day.

It’s no longer easy for these children to escape from this torture. It may not be a single bully they’re facing, but a mob of faceless, anonymous voices looking to be as ruthless as possible without any fear, and maybe knowledge, of the consequences. While education needs to be more strongly presented as a way to work towards prevention, there are ways of easily identifying abuses from these seemingly anonymous sources.

As we have noted in the past, not only does your computer store and track bits of information you’re unaware of, it also keeps your files and history even when you “delete” them by emptying the Recycle Bin on your desktop. Your emails, IMs, web browser history, cookies, passwords and more can be retrieved with ease. Some of the files we can retrieve will be years old, files you’ve probably forgotten you ever had. We’ve been able to retrieve partial and whole messages sent through MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites and some of these messages contained incriminating evidence.

A very high percentage of children have cell phones now, most able to send text messages and many able to access email and the internet. Some phones like the iPhone and BlackBerry have applications and programs devoted to messaging and communication, allowing you to communicate with others 24/7, for better or worse. This also means that cell phones have become a goldmine for finding incriminating files for all sorts of crimes and wrongdoings.

For example, the iPhone takes a screenshot every time you press the ‘Home’ key and stores that screenshot on the phone. While this is done so that applications can startup faster and without seeming to delay, it also allows us to see many of the things you’ve seen on your phone. Emails, text messages, web sites, videos, calendar info, your contacts and just about anything else you’ll use your phone for can be found in these screenshots. From a cheating spouse’s secret affair to corporate fraud and theft to child pornography, cell phone forensics has allowed us to find incriminating evidence to a wide variety of offenses. With the increase in cyber-bullying this means many of the bully’s actions can be found through a fast cell phone analysis.

One of the hardware-based tools that we use for cell phone forensics allows us to image and analyze a cell phone within minutes. While the storage space on cell phones continues to grow, they still have only a small fraction of what the average personal computer does in hard drive capacity. The smaller size allows for faster imaging which means, when called into a law firm, corporation or school, we can have call logs, text messages, picture messages, videos, web browsing history and more within minutes.

Ultimately both cell phone forensics and computer forensics allows us to frequently find evidence of cyber-bullying. Whether it’s found in text messages, instant messages, emails, photos, videos or fake profiles, we have the tools to defensibly locate and present the facts in any cyber-bullying case, from middle schools to large corporations.

Related posts:

1. Cyber-Bullying: How Cell Phone and Computer Forensics Help (Part 1)
   Sally feels humiliated at lunch after tripping over an unfortunately placed backpack belonging to another student named Jenny. The...
2. Captain Forensics Fights Cyber-Bullying
   Last week we put up a post on cyber-bullying. This is a terrible trend impacting children around the world...
3. What’s inside your child’s cell phone? (Part 2)
   A follow up to ‘Cell Phones for Children – A “Catch 22”?‘ Some of you may remember “Joe” from...

Last week we put up a post on cyber-bullying. This is a terrible trend impacting children around the world in very serious, and even deadly, ways. While our blog posts here will focus more on the serious sides of these issues, we also have an outlet that lets people learn about these issues through a quick, easy to understand and fun method: comics. We’ve started a comic series titled “Captain Forensics” that deals mostly with computer forensics, cell phone forensics and eDiscovery topics and lets people of all ages learn while having some fun. Our most recent comic on Captain Forensics is beginning to deal with cyber-bullying and how cell phone forensics and computer forensics can help.

Captain Forensics is setup in a manner similar to our blog, where you can sign up to receive updates through your email. On both this site and Captain Forensics, the email updates box is on the lower right side of the page. By signing up to receive updates by email you’ll always have the most up-to-date postings in a very convenient location. You can read Captain Forensics by either clicking on this sentence or the image below.

For those of you who are local to us in the New Jersey area, these topics are often hitting close to home. A recent article in the Courier Post titled “Teens Caught ‘Sexting’ Face Porn Charges“states:

“This week in Spotsylvania, Va., two boys, ages 15 and 18, were charged with solicitation and possession of child porn with intent to distribute after an investigation found they sought nude pictures from three juveniles — one in elementary school.”

Clearly this is a much more serious problem than most people believe. The legal consequences these children face will stay with them for much of their lives. Cyber-bullying, ’sexting’ and other topics involving children and cell phones or the internet are showing a strong need for education and communication between authority figures and children as, the Courier Post article ends with:

“He required each to do community service and to ask peers if they knew sexting was a crime. They told O’Malley they surveyed 225 teens; 31 knew.”

Related posts:

1. Cyber-Bullying: How Cell Phone and Computer Forensics Help (Part 2)
   Last week we posted an update talking about the epidemic of cyber-bullying. Largely based upon psychological assault, cyber-bullying has...
2. Cyber-Bullying: How Cell Phone and Computer Forensics Help (Part 1)
   Sally feels humiliated at lunch after tripping over an unfortunately placed backpack belonging to another student named Jenny. The...
3. What’s inside your child’s cell phone? (Part 2)
   A follow up to ‘Cell Phones for Children – A “Catch 22”?‘ Some of you may remember “Joe” from...