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Sony Dong gave new meaning to the children’s song lyrics “Mister bluebird’s on my shoulder” when he smuggled songbirds into the United States by hiding them in his pants. Dong, 46, hid the birds by attaching them to his calves underneath his pants on his flight back from Vietnam. He was charged and sentenced to four months in prison, the Associated Press reports. Officials said 14 live birds were found attached to pieces of cloth wrapped around his legs....

This is a lesson in how to properly carry out your client’s wishes. Or just a good reason for why you should never hold onto client property unless absolutely necessary. Located in Hackensack (Hacky Sack?), New Jersey, the Lesnevich & Marzano-Lesnevich law firm just got saddled with a $950,000 verdict for releasing a passport to a mother who then took her child to Spain in violation of a custody agreement....

On automatic appeal from a conviction and imposition of a death sentence on defendant for first degree murder of a deputy sheriff and the attempted willful, deliberate and premeditated murder of a commander and two other deputies is affirmed in its entirety and all of defendant’s pretrial, guilt phase, and penalty phase issues are rejected as they are without merit. Read People v. Ervine, No. S054372 [HTML] Read People v. Ervine, No....

In sentencing of defendant convicted of burglary and receiving stolen property, judgment is modified as defendant cannot be punished for both burglary and receiving stolen property taken during the burglary and the sentence is also modified to award defendant proper conduct credit for the time served in jail prior to sentencing. The remaining issues relating to the trial court’s true finding on the prior serious felony allegation for purposes of Three Strikes law is affirmed....

Schwartz v. Poizner, A126217, involved a plaintiff’s petition for a writ of mandate seeking to compel the Commissioner of the California Department of Insurance to pursue additional remedies against the insurers that will inure to the benefit of class members, in his suit against the insurers on behalf of himself and California residents holding disability income policies issued by the insurers who, like him, submitted no claims under their policies but allegedly were overcharged for their policies in view of the insurers’ unlawfully restrictive claims procedures and who received no benefit under the terms of the settlement agreement....

Gov. Jerry Brown has been called a “judicial trailblazer” because of his groundbreaking appointments, including the nation’s first openly gay and lesbian judges. And either Judge Jim Humes or Judge Therese Stewart, both of California’s First District Court of Appeal, could become the first gay or lesbian justice on the California Supreme Court. There is a vacancy, and potential candidates are waiting. But it has been almost 10 months since the opportunity presented itself, and the governor seems to be lost in the woods....

Perhaps you are a bit behind on your bills. Perhaps you have not made the last payment on your Gulfstream IV. What could possibly happen? A repo man like Ken Cage could come along and take off in your jet, leaving you gaping in the hanger. The Journal reports that as with any other repossessed items, after Cage and Co. take possession of for example, your yacht, they clean it, make any necessary repairs and then sell the item to a new owner....

Going to trial is among the most difficult tasks an attorney can be hired to do. It’s not that the actual courtroom presentation is overly challenging, especially if you’ve prepared. It’s more so that the rest of the world does not stop during trial. Taking care of all the logistics of your practice before a trial begins is absolutely essential in order to make sure you can maintain focus on your trial....

It may be boring work, but somebody has to count all the people. Researchers use the numbers to address important issues such as infrastructure, mortality rates, and many other human concerns. As populations increase across most of the world, the easy question is where do all these people come from? But when the American lawyer population increases 15 percent, the harder question is why? Or as Seinfeld would ask, who are these people?...

While quite a bit has changed about law school over the years, one thing certainly hasn’t: It’s difficult. Luckily for law students these days, there’s plenty of advice online that you can use to help figure out what’s going to work for you. So while you’re winding down for semester break, check out the 8 best advice blog articles for law students featured here on FindLaw in 2018. Being cold called is just part of law school....

With Presidents’ Day this week, what are some wacky ways presidents have impacted the D.C. Circuit? Being commander-in-chief of the United States lets presidents wield substantial power over the courts, particularly when it comes to nominating judges. However, sometimes their powers are extended in less conventional matters. Before the D.C. Circuit became appeals court we know and love today, it was the primary court that served D.C. back in the day....

I only just started playing fantasy football this year. I knew it was a thing people did, and they enjoyed it, so I thought I’d give it a try. I enlisted some friends and we created a league. Fair warning, though: I know almost nothing about football. I just know that fantasy football is fun. And, truthfully, it turns out watching football can be fun. But fantasy football in particular carries a lot of lessons for lawyers....

America is obsessed with where transgender people poop. In March, North Carolina made it a crime for anyone to use a bathroom that doesn’t correspond to their sex at birth – ostensibly to fight off the non-existent plague of predatory men in dresses lurking behind the commode. That set off a showdown with the Department of Justice over what rights are afforded transgender people, who simply want to pee in peace....

In a petition for review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s revisions to its financial forms and reporting rules for interstate natural gas pipelines, the petition is granted where a dissenting commissioner raised an alternative possible approach but the Commission failed to address it. Read American Gas Ass’n. v. FERC, No. 08-1266 Appellate Information Argued November 17, 2009 Decided January 22, 2010 Judges Opinion by Judge Brown Counsel For Petitioner:...

Aaron Siebers decided to play hooky from his shift at Blockbuster Video. Instead of calling in sick, he stabbed himself and made a false report that he was attacked by three Hispanic males. Siebers was taken to the hospital and received numerous stitches to close the leg wound, police said. Following Siebers’ false report, the Lakewood Police Department set up a large perimeter and began a manhunt for the suspects. They also brought K-9 units into search for the perpetrators, near a Target store where Siebers claimed he was attacked....

In plaintiffs’ suit against their former dentist and others for allegedly disclosing their and their minor children’s confidential medical information in violation of the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, trial court’s rulings sustaining defendant’s demurrer on certain causes of action and dismissing certain claims is affirmed as, although the causes of action at issue are not impermissibly vague or confusing, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act preempts plaintiffs’ claims against defendant....

If you could go back in time, before the bar, before the case books, before the LSAT, would you make the same decision? More than 40 percent of your cohorts wouldn’t. And that’s just one of many findings of a report by a State Bar of Wisconsin task force. Other (obvious) findings included recent graduates earning far less than they expected when they went in to school, being so far in debt that they feel like they’ll never escape it, and more than a third admitting that they have considered changing professions (though only approximately 1 percent actually did)....

A 2010 law that would have placed a number of restrictions (fingerprinting purchasers, sales tracking, and a ban on online and mail-order sales) on ammunition that is “principally for use” in handguns, has twice been shot down by California courts as “void for vagueness.” Now, the law will get its last chance at life from the state’s high court. The California Supreme Court yesterday agreed unanimously to hear an appeal in the case, reports the Metropolitan News-Enterprise....

A dog and a cat both fell to their deaths from the same 43rd-story balcony of a high-rise apartment building, just three days apart, reports The Huffington Post. After an investigation, Chicago police now believe the deaths were accidental. The apartment’s tenant owned Oak the kitten, while Duke the dog belonged to the tenant’s mother, stepfather, and sister, who were visiting from out of town. Police initially looked into the pets’ high-rise plummets as possible animal cruelty cases; officers “threatened to arrest me,” the tenant told the Chicago Sun-Times....

A North Carolina couple high on bath salts were arrested for breaking into their neighbor’s home on Tuesday. They allegedly believed someone was after them and armed themselves with guns and knives. It doesn’t seem that they stopped to consider whether they were the people to avoid, not the ones being chased. The Walls were allegedly delusional from using bath salts when they decided to bust into the Robinson’s. They were held overnight in a hospital under they came down from the high....