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The administration of justice is not just critically important, it’s also costly. While it makes sense to allow courts to charge fees to the criminally guilty for the administration of justice, it’s undeniable that doing so creates a potential conflict, or minimally, the appearance of a conflict. If the fines assessed against the guilty and those offered diversion are used to support the court’s operations, the public will logically see that there is a financial benefit to the court finding guilt or offering diversion....

To some, Gollum was “a small slimy creature,” bent by obsession and greed. To others, he was a tortured soul whose tragic corruption ultimately leads to victory. While most are free to disagree about one of J. J. R. Tolkien’s more notorious characters, not so for Bilgin Ciftci, who faces two years in a Turkish prison for comparing the country’s president to the twisted fictional being. If Gollum is a bad guy, Ciftci could be guilty of “insulting a public official;” if he’s a good guy, Ciftci could beat the charge....

It’s a dog-eat-lawyer world out there, and resumes can make a world of difference. But there are many myths about legal resumes that you’ll want to dispel. When it comes to resumes, the truth is that there is no one “correct” way to craft them. There are, however, five bits of advice that either don’t matter or have outlived their time. Here’s what lawyers and law students need to know:...

Judges might not be too hip with street slang, but they hang with a different posse, one they like to call the federal judiciary, and it too has its own language. Despite our statements that neither we, nor judges care for legalese, there are some specialties of the English language they cannot seem to resist. Here are five of the densest and most arcane terms that only federal judges will use....

If you graduate from a law school, you should have a good shot at passing the bar, right? After all, you’ve had three years of school and you’ve got to pay back those loans. But many law school grads never pass the bar, and at a handful of schools less than two-thirds of J.D.s end up becoming esquires. To address that problem, the ABA proposed tightening law school bar-passage standards. Under a controversial proposed rule, 75 percent of a school’s graduates would have to pass the bar within two years, or the school could risk losing accreditation....

If you think only active sports stars have an attitude problem, think again. Ex-NBA bad boy Allen Iverson demonstrated last week that the notion of entitlement doesn’t end with retirement. He spent twenty minutes throwing a self-indulgent hissy fit at a Georgia police when they impounded his Lamborghini. He’s lucky he didn’t get hauled in. Allen Iverson was reportedly driving through Atlanta on March 30 when he was pulled over for changing lanes without signaling....

For many lawyers, it often comes as a surprise that scammers are so bold as to target individual lawyers and law firms. But after you read about what happened at one big Canadian firm, that surprise should fade into paranoia, anxiety, and then, hopefully, action. Basically, using social engineering or some other method, a hacker breached a client of the firm which was about to receive a large chunk of money....

A journeyman boxer was arrested in a clever FBI ploy to collect DNA evidence worthy of a CSI episode. Martin Tucker is a 32-year-old welterweight with a career 8-10 record. He hadn’t won a fight in seven years. That is, until his victory over previously undefeated up-and-comer Michael Torres in April. During the fight, Torres snuck a couple shots past Tucker’s defense and was able to bloody the veteran fighter, reports the Boxing Scene....

In a Privacy Act action by a former Department of Interior employee claiming that Defendant failed to provide Plaintiff access to an appraisal of her job performance and failed to safeguard that appraisal, summary judgment for Defendant is affirmed in part, where Plaintiff did not point to any adverse agency determination she experienced because of Defendant’s failure to maintain the appraisal; but reversed in part, where there was a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether Defendant intentionally destroyed the appraisal after Plaintiff requested access to it....

With the growing popularity of YouTube and other video sharing websites, daredevils and stuntmen have easy access to a public forum to share their feats. Today’s daredevils film themselves jumping off buildings into pools, and doing all sorts of other death-defying things with high-definition video cameras strapped to their bodies. However, the stunts of today lack the same level of showmanship that classic daredevils like Evel Knievel or even Super Dave Osborne used to provide....

One half of a duo of allegedly drug dealing brothers may have a shot at overturning his conviction after the D.C. Circuit remanded his claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Since the D.C. Circuit allows that claim to be raised on appeal, but district courts are better suited for hearing it, almost any claim which asserts sufficient facts is entitled to remand – though the court promises this isn’t reflexive!...

People v. Smith, C061805, concerned a challenge to the trial court’s conviction of defendant for rape of an intoxicated woman and related crimes. In affirming the convictions, the court rejected defendant’s claim that the trial court gave misleading and incomplete instructions on rape of an intoxicated woman that require reversal of both rape convictions. The court also held that there was sufficient evidence to support defendant’s conviction of misdemeanor sexual battery....

Former Fiesta Bowl chief executive John Junker has pleaded guilty to one count of felony solicitation to commit a fraud scheme. He and other executives have been accused of asking employees to make $50,000 in donations to bowl-friendly politicians. Reimbursements were then recorded as “employee bonuses.” The scheme caused organization records, donor lists and campaign finance reports to be falsified over a 9-year period. It is also illegal to use another person’s name to make political contributions....

Florida has proved that it won’t be falling behind the times by enacting a law that prohibits schools from punishing children who chew Pop-Tarts into simulated guns. Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Friday signed the “Pop-Tart” bill that was spurred by a 7-year-old’s suspension for chewing his toaster pastry into a shape that resembled a gun. The new law purports to prevent children from being unreasonably disciplined for these sorts of breakfast-food hijinks, which are apparently a problem in Florida....

In large cities across the country, prior to release, police officers photograph tattoos on the bodies of suspected gang members. These identifying marks have helped solve dozens of crimes over the years, but no one has ever seen a case like this. Anthony Garcia, a member of Los Angeles’ Pico Rivera gang, tattooed his confession on his chest. LA County Sheriff’s homicide investigator Kevin Lloyd was flipping through a book of gang tattoos in 2008 when he came across a photo of Anthony Garcia, reports the Los Angeles Times....

Should a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge receive millions of dollars in free services from a Los Angeles-based law firm? According to his latest financial disclosures, George W. Bush-appointee Judge Jay Bybee has accepted more than $3.2 million in free legal services from global super-firm Latham & Watkins, reports The Wall Street Journal. The firm provided Judge Bybee legal assistance as he fought a five-year ethics inquiry by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR)....

Petitions for writ of mandate challenging trial court’s denial of petitioners’ motions to dismiss recommitment petitions, brought after the trial court granted People’s motions to convert petitioners’ involuntary two-year commitment under the Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA) to an indeterminate term under the 2006 amendment to the SVPA, are denied where: 1) substantial evidence supports the trial court’s finding that the People made a good faith mistake of law when they failed to timely file the recommitment petitions before the expirations of petitioners’ most recent two-year commitment periods; 2) the good-faith exception of section 6601(a)(2) precludes dismissal of the untimely recommitment petitions because petitioners’ unlawful custody was due to People’s mistake of law; and 3) therefore, the trial court properly denied petitioners’ motions to dismiss and the court has jurisdiction to proceed on the petitions....

Cuddles? Cuddle-cakes? Cuddle-bear? Cuddle-muffin? Cuddle-bunny? What do you call a man who breaks into his ex-girlfriend’s home to cuddle with her? Well, and probably to have sex with her. She slept through the first part of the cuddle-assault, but woke up when Sanchez – still in bed – tried to remove her underwear. Yeah, dude’s a real cuddle-monster. Police say a drunken Augustin Sanchez cut through the screen and pushed open a bedroom window, reports the Orange County Register....

Something about being naked makes a lot of people do crazy things. Earlier this month on July 4th, a naked New Mexico man was arrested after he stole a police car and fled captivity. You may be surprised to know that this is not a particularly rare occurrence. Curry County sheriff’s deputies got a wild surprise last Saturday when they responded to a report of a naked man along the road....

A prank phone call to a McDonald’s in Kennewick, Oregon turned into a serious and costly headache for the restaurant. Employees, believing the caller who said he was from the local fire department and was testing remote alarms, pulled the fire alarms as the caller instructed. The alarms triggered a spray of flame-deterring chemicals, United Press International reports. The prank cost the restaurant about $5,000 in damages. But that was not the only such call....