Josh Brent reportedly had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit when he crashed his car and killed his teammate Jerry Brown, police say. Brent has been charged with intoxication manslaughter in the single-car accident and is currently out of jail after posting a $500,000 bond. The 321-pound Dallas Cowboys lineman had a blood alcohol content of 0.18 percent, reports ESPN. The legal limit in Texas is 0....
L.L. Bean, the 5,000-employee megastore, sells annually about $1.5 billion in boots, clothing, and outdoor equipment. Alfwear, a 60-employee competitor, sells enough outdoor clothing to keep growing in the shadows of the Wasatch Mountain Range in Utah. So why is the little-known company suing the household name? Because the upstart owns “The Outsider” trademark, and L.L. Bean’s ad campaign says, “Be an Outsider.” Inside Outsiders L.L. Bean has been around since 1912, when Leon Leonwood Bean founded the one-room operation....
When Lance Armstrong admitted to doping five years ago, his sponsors were understandably unhappy. None more so than the United States Postal Service, which paid Armstrong more than $30 million over the course of their six-year sponsorship agreement. USPS sued Armstrong, claiming he had violated the contract and unjustly enriched himself, and the government was seeking triple damages – somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million. Fortunately for the disgraced cyclist, he was able to settle those claims this week for $5 million, mere pennies on the sponsorship dollar....
Going to hurricane-torn Puerto Rico was not exactly a study-abroad program. But for Natalie Trigo Reyes and 29 classmates from Harvard Law School, it was a lesson for life. The law school sent them to Puerto Rico to help victims of Hurricane Maria, which leveled the U.S. territory last year. “It looked as if the island had been hit by a nuclear bomb,” said Trigo Reyes. “A Nuclear Bomb” Trigo Reyes should know; she was raised in Puerto Rico....
If you felt the ground shifting, it was not an earthquake. That was the playing field changing law practice. According to a new report, more than half of the legal work at companies is being done in house. That’s bad news for outside counsel. On the other hand, that is good news for general counsel, legal operators, and others who are rolling with the changes. Benchmark Report It may be no surprise to outside counsel, who have seen corporate clients take more legal work internally in recent years....
What’s supposed to be just a funny fad on Facebook has landed a teenager in legal trouble. A judge found him guilty of a “planking spree” and fined him $303, The Smoking Gun reports. For those unfamiliar with “planking” from either Facebook or Pilates classes, it’s when you pose completely stiff in a flat, plank-like position. As an exercise, it’s a great way to strengthen your core. As a social media fad, it’s supposed to get laughs and “likes” on Facebook, when you “plank” in incongruous places....
Around 6 p.m. on Saturday evening, University of Missouri football players went on strike, joining a larger student protest against University President Tom Wolfe’s inaction regarding several racist incidents on campus. Less than two days later, Wolfe had resigned and the team will be back at practice this afternoon. It was an astonishing display of influence and risk, given that college athletes lack the protections of unionized employees and most athletic scholarships are not guaranteed....
The Texas teen who made a clock that was mistaken for a bomb, Ahmed Mohamed,14, is asking for $15 million and an apology. Specifically, his family’s lawyers sent demand letters to the city and school district that responded to the science project by panicking. Threatening to sue within 60 days if they did not pay for the illegal detention and questioning, the Muslim family is asking for $10 million from the city of Irving and $5 million from the school district, according to The Guardian....
A new NFL concussion lawsuit accuses the league of hiding the ball when it comes to head injuries. More than 100 ex-NFL players, including former Atlanta Falcons Jamal Anderson, Chris Doleman, and O.J. Santiago, are named as plaintiffs in the new federal lawsuit, filed May 3 in Atlanta, CNN reports. With the latest lawsuit, a total of more than 1,500 former NFL players are now suing the league for allegedly covering up the dangers of concussions....
In the battle over trademark supremacy, Super Bakery and “GOODY MAN” triumphed over Ward E. Benedict and his “G THE GOODYMAN” mark. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s cancellation of Benedict’s trademark registration for repeatedly failing to comply with discovery requests and TTAB procedures. Benedict had registered his trademark five months after Super Bakery in 2005. Both trademarks were registered in International Class 30 for bakery products....
Here’s a novel DUI defense: “Ozzy Osbourne and his music made me do it.” Ozzy Osbourne, also known as the Prince of Darkness, is no stranger to controversy. He has bit off the heads of both a dove and a bat. He has been accused of encouraging suicide and Satan. But now he is being accused of something strange even by his standards: making music that causes another person to drive drunk....
A Pennsylvania woman who faked cancer in order to get donation money will likely be facing the ire of her friends in combination with a stint in jail. Alicia Tolton, 27, was sentenced to 11.5 months to 23 months in jail. Tolton allegedly told friends that she had breast and ovarian cancer, and then tricked them into holding a fundraiser on her behalf, reports The Pottstown Mercury. Friends then organized a “beef-and-beer” benefit, called “Wishes for Alicia....
Trial court’s revocation of defendant’s Proposition 36 probation and imposition of a 30-day sentence in a county jail is reversed and remanded as the authorized use of medical marijuana does not by itself make a nonviolent drug offender unamenable to the treatment mandated by Proposition 36. Read People v. Beaty, No. F055868 [HTML] Read People v. Beaty, No. F055868 [PDF] Appellate Information Filed January 28, 2010 Judges Opinion by Judge Wiseman...
When new drugs come on the market, the warnings about side effects can seriously dampen the advertised benefits. Personalized medicine through genetic testing holds the promise of changing all that. Designed to reduce adverse side effects on an individual basis, it seeks customized solutions for all kinds of ailments. In Vanda Pharmaceuticals v. West-Ward Pharmaceuticals, a federal appeals court affirmed the validity of a patent for treating schizophrenia based on such genetic testing....
If Halloween happens to fall on a school day, you might be wondering whether you should don your costume all day, or just after class. And while your school may have actual rules on what you can and can’t wear as a costume, as a law student, that little voice in your head called self-respect might be stronger than it has ever been before. If you can keep it PC and not create a commotion or disruption, then dressing up in a law-related costume, or a costume that requires formal attire (think Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Margaret Thatcher, etc…), is a great idea....
Want to be a sleeping attorney? Go practice in the 6th Circuit, where counsel is now free to take brief naps during trial without offending a client’s constitutional rights. The court has ruled that Joseph Muniz was not sufficiently prejudiced when his counsel decided to pass out during his cross-examination, even though prosecutors ended up asking him impermissible questions. Score one for adult naptime. Muniz filed a writ of habeas corpus challenging his conviction on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel....
Smart Car owners beware, there’s a terrible new trend hitting the streets: Smart Car tipping. Move over rural cow tippers, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that at least four Smart Cars were tipped over in San Francisco as of Monday. Were no-good kids to blame? And what can our legal system do to prevent future Smart Car tippings? As San Francisco’s KRON-TV reports, a group of “eight hooded vandals” were seen turning Smart Cars on their ends and rolling them onto their sides....
Today, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals held in favor of Cephalon in a patent case involving the muscle relaxant drug, Amrix. The Federal Circuit Court ruling reversed and vacated the lower court ruling which found the two patents invalid as obvious. Essentially, the appeals court held that the failure to consider the lack of a known pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic relationship for the claimed drug formulation resulted in error on the trial court’s part when it considered the obviousness issue....
Seventeen spots. Just last year, we were speculating on how Washington and Lee was managing to thrive in an otherwise dismal market for law schools. Though most schools were plagued with plummeting enrollment and demand, my dear W&L accidently enrolled its largest class ever, thanks, it seemed, to a higher than expected yield rate (the percentage of students who accept the school’s offer). Many were suggesting that the school’s practice-based third-year curriculum was the reason for the spike in demand....
While the D.C. Circuit may be withholding any sort of published opinion from us all – was it something we said? – oral arguments are going off without a hitch. As September wraps up and October begins, we take a look at three cases in oral arguments before the D.C. Circuit: a birther defamation suit, a Medicare adjustment case, and the conviction of Bin Laden’s publicist. These oral arguments may be setting the stage for a momentous 2013 - 2014 session....
