When you need a lawyer, it can be easy to assume that a lawyer is a lawyer and one lawyer will do just as well as any other. This is not actually the case, however. There are a wide variety of lawyers, some of which specialize in very narrow branches of the law. There are, of course, a few larger specialties such as divorce or family lawyers and civil and criminal attorneys but there are also a wide range of somewhat lesser known specialties as well. Here are 4 types of specialized law and some types of cases that lawyers that practice that type of law handle.
Entertainment Law
Entertainment lawyers tend to be most active in the areas of radio, television and film, although authors and other artists may benefit from their services as well. The artists themselves are also not the only people who may need to contract an entertainment lawyer. In some cases, individuals may find themselves the subject of songs or other works that portray them in a negative light or end up in film or video footage they don’t want to be. Entertainment lawyers are generally who you want to call.
Maritime Law
Maritime law is also often referred to as Admiralty Law. Maritime law is important because anything that happens at sea or on large bodies of water are often subject to different laws and even jurisdictions that those that happen on land. If you are injured in a boating accident or on a party boat or involved in altercation at sea, you will most likely want to use the services of a maritime lawyer. In addition, if you or a neighbor have a boat dock or some type of dispute that involves water, maritime lawyers are best equipped to deal with these types of disputes.
Computer Law
Sometimes also referred to as IT law, computer law deals with almost all types and forms of digital property. Computer law can sometimes overlap with intellectual property law and even in some cases entertainment law. For instance, if you recorded a song on your computer that someone stole and recorded, you might hire either an IT lawyer or an entertainment lawyer depending on what type of case you wanted to bring against them. This would also be the case if you began designing an app or video game that someone used without your permission.
Intellectual Property Law
Intellectual property law is becoming a larger and larger field thanks to the influx of digital media. Intellectual property law shares a lot of crossovers with entertainment and IT or computer law and can also cover a lot of the same ground as patent or copyright law. Simply having the same idea as someone that produces a similar product is not a violation of intellection property. Intellectual property looks at how much work has gone into developing an idea into an actual salable product such as a book, song, poem, video game or invention.
