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The general public knows substantially less about entertainment law than it does about the general criminal justice system and when you take a close look at how complex and sprawling entertainment law can be, you understand why. From prolonged contract negotiations to intellectual property cases, entertainment law can be a bit dry and boring, even if the dollar amounts involved are gigantic. One alternative resolution method that many entertainment lawyers recommend to save time and money is mediation. With mediation, both sides of an issue meet and talk in hopes of solving a dispute so the two parties do not have to go to court, which often times takes significantly longer and can, in some cases, cost significantly more. Let’s take a look at some of the plusses and minuses of using mediation over litigation.

Probably the biggest advantage mediation has over litigation is that it helps two sides sit down at the bargaining table and attempt to talk out their problem instead of spending unreasonable amounts of time in court. While most mediators are paid by the hour and can be somewhat costly if the two sides are far apart, it is often significantly less than what both sides would pay for separate legal representation.

Problems with mediation can arise if the two sides are especially contentious with each other. There are infamous scenarios from the world of international politics where the two parties involved take weeks to decide on the shape of the table they will be negotiating at and what sort of food will be catered at the negotiation. If this sounds like the situation you are in at the moment, you probably want to forego mediation for something more formal.

Mediation can also be a great public relations tool. It shows a level of maturity and willingness to compromise with the other side if you can sit down and have a real conversation. Often times, companies that are experiencing strikes will ask for mediation simply because of the photo-ops that take place and the image of the two sides literally sitting down at the same table and talking. Mediation can also help clear up any misconceptions the two sides have about each other that might not be resolved until the two sides meet in court. If a long standing dispute has been played out in the media over a long period of time and both sides have been routinely misquoted, which is routine in so many high profile entertainment disputes, mediation gives both parties a chance to sit down, clear the air and maybe even reach a settlement. If not, mediation can give both sides a clearer idea of what the other wants and can completely change the tone of what has happened up to that point.

While mediation can never be considered a cure all, it is considered a far more adult way to solve standing disputes. It gives two parties a chance to discuss a situation face to face for a fraction of the cost of litigation. It may not be for every situation, but it does have far reaching applications in the world of entertainment law.

If you could do a quick survey of everyone in Hollywood to find out how they became stars, you would likely find that there are two distinct camps: those that sought to be a star and worked hard at it and those people who, through one way or another, became stars without ever really meaning to. Regardless of how you have joined the non stop circus that is the entertainment industry, you are likely in need of a trained professional to help you from this point on. No matter what others may tell you, the field of entertainment law is highly specialized. Colleges and universities offer completely separate degrees in entertainment law because of how complex it can be, so it is probably best not to listen to your uncle who is a real estate lawyer when he asks to manage your career. Here are a few tips you should consider when picking the right entertainment lawyer for you.

The most important attribute that your entertainment lawyer should possess is versatility. While most lawyers make their living prosecuting or defending cases in front of a judge, your entertainment lawyer will also need to be a wizard with contracts. From big to small, contracts rule Hollywood. If you are an actor who sees him or herself in films, television or commercials, you will likely be singing contracts every step of the way. While you may need your entertainment lawyer to represent you in a court of law should something happen, it is their role as a contact specialist that makes them so valuable.

Some members of the entertainment industry also use their entertainment lawyer as their agent, while some people find that heaping even more responsibility on an already overworked lawyer tends to yield negative results. If you do choose to utilize your entertainment lawyer as your agent, you are going to need to check and then double check a whole new list of criteria that they can meet. It is also possible that the role of entertainment lawyer can change over time. For instance, the musical group R.E.M. originally had an entertainment lawyer and a band manager that served as their agent. As time went on and operations became more streamlined, the band’s entertainment lawyer slowly took on the responsibilities of both jobs, so it helps to find an entertainment lawyer who is open to accepting new challenges and is also a fast learner.

If the search for your own entertainment lawyer has you feeling overwhelmed, it is always a good idea to seek out personal references. Even if you are new to the entertainment industry, chances are you know others who have more experience in the business than you do. Find out who the respected names are in your field and call around. There is often an entire interview process where you can speak to an entertainment lawyer one on one before deciding which one you want to work with. Remember, they need to impress you to earn your business.

While Hollywood has done magnificent job packing movie theatres across the globe for the past 100 years, it has done an even better job of selling itself to the world. From sandy beaches to sunshine to that quintessential California lifestyle, Hollywood has perfected the art of self-branding to the point where, every year, aspiring actors, screenwriters and directors show up on busses with nothing more than the clothes they have on their back. They soon learn that they are completely ill prepared for what Hollywood truly is, a cutthroat business town that chews up and spits out those that aren’t ready to defend themselves. It is for this reason and a million more than you should consider copywriting your script before you catch the next bus headed west to make your fortune in Tinsel town.

For those people that have done a bit of research on their own, they may believe that copyright is inherent in any written material, and while an antiquated 1889 law does provide some legal protection, you will be much better off getting a full copyright on your script before you begin to show it to people who may or may not be honest. Known as the Berne Convention, this international copyright treaty has helped writers protect their creations for over a century stating that copyright is essentially automatic as soon as you put pen to paper, but as legal wrangling and court rulings have chipped away at the original intent, further proof of copyright is now needed to truly protect one’s interests.

For far too many years, urban legends have given false hope that one’s creations are protected from intellectual theft. Almost everyone has heard of the easy and inexpensive ritual of simply mailing yourself a copy of your script, or of anything else you’ve created, and then storing away the unopened envelope and using the indelible postmark as irrefutable proof that your creation was made on the date certified. In reality, this practice accomplishes nothing other than wasting postage. There is no proof whatsoever that you didn’t just mail yourself an empty envelope and then store it away for future use. Your script could have been written yesterday and then inserted into the postmarked envelope and presented to the court. If you’re thinking about using this method to protect your copyright, no court of law on earth will accept it.

If you insist on showing your script around town without an official government copyright, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself. Keep flawless records of each and every person you show your script to and have them sign a simple release form that states they will not and can not use any ideas, characters, etc, from it in any form. A good sign that you’re dealing with a reputable Hollywood producer and not someone looking to take advantage of you is that they won’t even look at your script without signing one of these releases. Remember, no one else in Hollywood is going to protect you, you must protect yourself.

If you are considering a career in the entertainment industry, one of the first things you should do is hire an entertainment lawyer to make sure that your best interest are protected. The field of entertainment law is vast and quite complicated and one of the most complicated and often misunderstood areas is that of libel and slander. While these two terms are very much related and are sometimes, incorrectly, used interchangeably, they are different and it is important that anyone considering a career in the entertainment industry know the difference, know when they have been a victim of libel or slander and know the only true ultimate defense. Let’s take a look at these two terms and how they are used, and often, misused.

Before we talk about how the two terms are different, let’s look at how they are similar. Both libel and slander qualify as defamation of character. Defamation of character is defined as the clear communication of false information as stated as fact which then brings harm to an individual or an entity. To put it simply, defamation of character is a lie told by someone to another individual or group that does harm to you or to a group. Since both libel and slander fit under the definition of defamation of character, it is easy to see how the two can get confused. Even the mass media sometimes uses the words interchangeably, so confusion is understandable.

Libel is defined as defamation of character that is in written form. If you read something untrue written about you that you feel does you harm that is in a magazine, newspaper or other written medium, than you have been libeled. On the other hand, if you hear someone say something that you know is untrue and it is being said to more than just you and that you have been harmed in some way by what was said, than you have been slandered. What makes libel law and slander so difficult to define is that, especially in the world of entertainment, ideas cross multiple media platforms so quickly. There could be a breaking news story in an entertainment publication like Variety that hours later is repeated by an anchor on the television show Entertainment Tonight. In a matter of hours, what was once libel has become slander.

While your entertainment lawyer may craft several defenses in court in an attempt to defend you and win damages against the parties who either libeled or slandered you, there is only one “absolute defense” against these actions and that is proving that they are false. Of course, this can be drastically more difficult than it sounds. For instance, Tom Cruise has sued several different organizations for both slander and libel for reporting that he is gay, but “proving” that he isn’t is obviously extremely difficult. This is why so many slander and libel cases never advance to a court trial and why defamation of character is one of the hardest things to prove in any category of law.

When the final contract to the most expensive film ever made, Titanic, was finally drafted, it easily dwarfed the script, complete with stage directions, by several times. Chances are, you will never need to draft a contact of that magnitude, but contract drafting can still be a challenging field even for the most accomplished entertainment lawyer. Here are a few tips you can keep in mind if you are even saddled with the daunting challenge of drawing up an entertainment contract.

It may sound a bit bizarre, but writing clearly is probably the most important part of drafting a good contract. To the average person, a contract is practically unreadable thanks to the prevalence of “lawyer-speak” that dominates most official documents, but by using such language, a contract becomes legally binding and very difficult to challenge in court. As any experienced entertainment lawyer can tell you, it is close to impossible to draft an iron clad contract without a vast knowledge of legalese so it is a good idea to not ever give this a try.

Another major challenge facing those that wish to draft an entertainment contract is completeness. Being able to think of every eventuality, every circumstance and every possible turn of events as it regards to your client may seem impossible, but that is literally what is being asked of you. There are general clauses that can be added in to protect your client’s best interests should a circumstance arise that isn’t explicitly spelled out in the contract but these are often easily challenged in a court of law. To help contract drafters cover all necessary bases, they often times use preexisting contracts as general templates to ensure that everything is included. Of course, you don’t want to copy another contract word for word, but you can itemize the various categories and areas that a respected existing contract covers and then make sure that your contract covers the same things.

Working hand in hand with the previous point, make sure you sit with your client and go over every possible way in which your particular situation is unique. Using a preexisting contract as a guide can be very beneficial, but it can also handcuff you in the end because, after all, that contract was written expressly for someone else, not your client. The whole reason why you are writing a contact from scratch is because your client has unique needs and attributes that no one else has. Make sure you cover your bases with a preexisting contact, but the need to personalize your contract so that it accurately reflects your client is just as important.

Finally, it is important for anyone looking to draft a contract to realize that there will often be a negotiation process once your first draft is received. That means that you write in a degree of wiggle room and flexibility into every contract. Of course, you don’t want to make absurd demands since that pollutes a good faith negotiation, but don’t completely show your hand with your first draft, either.

While the private lives of celebrities are fawned over, analyzed and broken down to an absurd degree by the general public, the legal wrangling that makes Hollywood what it is is often ignored. The world of entertainment law is one of the most complex and varied forms of law practiced today because it encompasses so many existing forms of law under one umbrella. Not only are entertainment contracts some of the most sweeping and confusing documents ever created by mankind, court cases involving entertainment law can also be extremely complicated. The demands placed on an all-purpose entertainment lawyer are high, but often times, so is the reward. Let’s take a quick look at what falls under the banner of entertainment law.

To put it simply, entertainment law encompasses no less than eight different disciplines, including, but not limited to, labor law, employment law, immigration law, intellectual property law, securities (law & interests), insurance law and agency. Major stars who can afford a team of lawyers or those that have contracts for representation from an entire law firm instead of singular representation from one lawyer often have a team of lawyers who manage the various fields that entertainment law encompasses. If you aren’t that wealthy yet, you are going to have to find an entertainment lawyer who is literally a jack of all trades. Depending on what part of the entertainment industry you’ll be calling home, you may need an entertainment lawyer to help you with any or all of the issues listed below.

If you are going to be calling the film industry home, you had better hire an entertainment lawyer who dislikes sleep. You’ll likely face problems regarding everything from contract negotiations to complex intellectual property issues, and that’s on a slow day. You may also face such other challenging issues like production and post production legal issues, as well as negotiating distribution rights and option agreements that resemble small encyclopedias.

Entertainment lawyers who choose a career in film oriented law aren’t the only ones that get to feel overworked. The music industry has its own separate demands that are placed on entertainment lawyers, including talent agreements that can take months to create, negotiate and sign, negotiating and writing contracts for people who will work with the band you choose to represent such as session musicians and producers and even music-industry specific fields like synchronization rights for music videos and intellectual property law due to the widespread theft of digital music.

While film and music tend to be the most complex of the various entertainment fields to represent as an entertainment lawyer, each field has its own unique requirements and demands. A good entertainment lawyer is, above all, passionate about their chosen field and has a desire to constantly learn more so that they can represent their current clients and their future clients more effectively. It is no wonder that the entertainment law field is one of the best earning in the world. The demands and responsibilities are truly extraordinary.

While a good number of American citizens can quote parts of the Constitution and Bill of Rights by heart, there are a whole host of common misconceptions that many people have when it comes to rights or privileges that aren’t really mentioned in either document. Often times, court rulings can build on existing aspects of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and create protections that the Founding Fathers did not explicitly spell out, but the belief that these protections are an original part of either document is false. Let’s take a look at just a few examples of rights we all take for granted each and every day that aren’t a part of the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

Perhaps the most talked about and debated part of American life that isn’t really mentioned in either document is the right to privacy. While privacy in the traditional sense is nowhere to be found in these two guiding documents, there are aspects of privacy that can be found. Often times, the First Amendment’s provisions protecting Americans from a state-sponsored religion and its related section guaranteeing the right of religious expression is considered a form of privacy since it forbids any federal agency from interfering in one’s ability to worship how they please. Constitutional scholars also point to the Third Amendment that forbids the government from housing soldiers in private residents’ homes. Although there is nothing clearly spelled out here that guarantees a right to privacy, it is clear that the Founding Fathers viewed a private home as a space in which citizens deserved a certain degree of privacy. A final example of how privacy alluded to but not spelled out in the traditional sense is with the Fourth Amendment which protects citizens against unreasonable search and seizure. While the definition of the word unreasonable would be up for much debate, the Founding Fathers again clearly and unequivocally highlight their belief that a private home is just that, private. Based on the existing contents of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, it is easy to see how so many people believe that privacy in a broader sense is guaranteed when it really isn’t.

There are a few other interesting rights that many of us take for granted that are not spelled out in the Constitution. As was seen in the case of Roe v. Wade, there is no mention of abortion in the Constitution. The governing principals that determine if such a procedure is legal or not is determined by the courts and by laws passed in various jurisdictions. There is also no inherent right to marry in the Constitution. While some may debate on why this is, it is likely because the Founding Fathers viewed marriage as a religious ceremony and not one that was any business of the state.

Most constitutional law scholars agree that the Founding Fathers showed remarkable vision when writing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They included provisions that have served as a guiding light even though 200 years have passed, but there are still many common misconceptions about rights and privileges that simply are not spelled out in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Thanks to countless hours spent in high school civics class, most Americans are aware of the Supreme Court and the impact it has on our society. From helping to end discrimination in public schools to giving women the right to have an abortion, the impact the Supreme Court has had on American society is almost impossible to quantify. Let’s take a closer look at how this powerful body works and how people get to serve as a member of the court.

Thanks to cable news and the number of political blogs in existence, people today have a greater knowledge of how the Supreme Court nomination process works than ever before. During the 1980’s people everywhere got to see the nominations of Robert Bork, who failed in his attempt to become a part of the Supreme Court to Clarence Thomas who managed to be appointed successfully even though the nomination process was fraught with controversy. Before a person can sit in front of Congress in an attempt to join the Supreme Court, they must be first nominated to fill an existing vacancy by the President of the United States. One of the most underrated powers that the president has is that of nominating Supreme Court justices. Although a president can only serve two terms, the Supreme Court justices that they nominate can serve as long as they live, which can tip the court to either conservative or liberal perspectives for generations.

While history has shown that the nomination process is often clear sailing, it can be fraught with problems depending on the candidate that has been nominated. In the case of Robert Bork, a nominee can actual be turned down by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the president than has to nominate another person. A similar firestorm of controversy occurred with the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, although much of that controversy revolved around personal issues and not his constitutional interpretations.

While more and more people are familiar with the nomination and approval process that is used to determine who serves on the Supreme Court, most people don’t understand how a case makes it to the highest court in the land to be heard. There are two main ways that the Supreme Court can choose to hear a case. If there is a dispute between two states, the Supreme Court can step in and choose to rule on the case. Although this happens very rarely, a recent example was when a dispute between New York and New Jersey over which state controlled historic Ellis Island. The other way that the court can hear a case is if a majority of members of the court agree to hear it. If they choose not to, the final ruling of the lower court is considered final.

The Supreme Court may be the most important, most complex and least understood part of American government, but thanks to advancements in technology, people everywhere are beginning to realize the momentous impact the court has had and will continue to have on society as a whole.

For people who study constitutional law for a living, or for casual fans, arguing about how the Founding Fathers interpreted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights is a favorite pastime. When Supreme Court justices are nominated, the first way they are usually described by is how they interpret the Constitution. Most observers would say that the Bill of Rights is one of the most important and far reaching documents in history and it is exciting to realize that even though the document was written a long time ago, court rulings and laws are constantly changing and altering the way those rights are interpreted and defined. Let’s take a look at some of the best known parts of the Bill of Rights and see how they are still being interpreted today.

It may come as a surprise to some, but there were prominent people arguing against the creation of the Bill of Rights as it was being crafted. Arguments usually centered around the idea that having a Bill of Rights inherently limits one’s rights because then the government can restrict any rights not listed on the document itself. A compromise on this topic was reached with the inclusion of the Ninth Amendment which clearly states that the government does not have the right to limit rights that are not clearly spelled out in other parts of the document. Since the Founding Fathers could not possibly have imagined the technology and lifestyles people would be living 200 years into the future, the inclusion of the Ninth Amendment showed remarkable vision.

Perhaps no amendment is sited and talked about more than the First Amendment. In one fell swoop, the Founding Fathers covered everything from religious freedom to freedom of speech to freedom of the press. It has taken law experts generations to adequately sift through the thousands of ways that this amendment alone impacts our daily lives and courts from California to Maine still debate this very topic on a daily basis. One part of the first amendment that is so often misinterpreted is the part about religion. Many people don’t realize that there are two distinct parts of the First Amendment that speak about religion. First, the amendment forbids the establishment of an official religion in the United States. The wording here is very clear but it hasn’t stopped many religious leaders from petitioning the government to declare the United States a “Christian” nation. The second part also forbids the federal government from passing any laws prohibiting the free exercise of religion. With one brilliant sentence, the government has given full rights to those that do not wish to be affiliated with one official religion and given the right to others to practice their religion as they see fit, assuming it doesn’t violate anyone else’s human rights. While other parts of the First Amendment are frequently discussed and dissected, the two sections regarding religion are often the most controversial and will likely continue to be into the future.

While outsiders may view law as a stagnant entity that changes slowly over time, enlightened observers take great joy in the realization that law is a liquid creation that is constantly being changed, molded and finessed by dozens of court ruling each and every day. Perhaps no other court in the land has caused more seismic shifts in the law than the Supreme Court. Since its inception, the court has ruled on some of the most important and defining issues of our time and the impact of those rulings is still being felt today. Let’s take a look at just a few of the most famous Supreme Court rulings in history.

While the Supreme Court has been making landmark rulings from day one, perhaps the best known court ruling of all time was Brown v. Board of Education. With this 1954 ruling, and the follow up case a year later, segregation in public schools was put to an end. Of course, the front line battles continued for years afterward, but this ruling was essentially the death knell for any sort of government sanctioned racism in the United States. Critics point to the fact that a ruling of this sort should not have been needed to end what is so obviously a horrendous practice, but sometimes, positive changes in society need to be given a push, and in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, the push completely changed the landscape of America.

As controversial as Brown v. Board of Education was at the time, there is a nation wide consensus that the ruling was correct and an important step socially for the country. In the case of 1973’s Roe v. Wade, the battle cries of both sides are still being heard loud and clear. The Roe v. Wade ruling is hailed by some as the most important human rights and woman’s rights ruling since women were given the right to vote, while critics claim is has caused a virtual holocaust of lost lives. Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the ruling for so many is that while Brown v. Board of Education caused a decade or two of infighting before people everywhere realized the wisdom of the ruling, Roe v. Wade might be more contentious today than it was in 1973. The ruling has done nothing to help people on both sides to communicate and build an understanding of why the ruling that was made was correct. With the current formula of the Supreme Court leaning to the conservative side, supporters of the Roe v. Wade decision are fearful that the case may be reheard in the near future and that the practice of abortion will be made illegal once again. Regardless of whether that happens or not, the battle over women’s rights is still as passionate today as it was then and it shows no signs of slowing down.

It is impossible to quantify the impact that Supreme Court rulings have made on our daily lives, but we can tune in the next time a major case is being heard to catch a glimpse of what the future holds.