By most accounts, the new Obama student loan proposal doesn’t do much. It’s only available to current students, which means that the rest of us are screwed. And even if it did apply to graduates? Its impact is so small, we JD grads would still be screwed. But student loan debt has hit $1 trillion, which exceeds the country’s total credit card debt. Tuition has increased so much that students borrow twice as much as they did a decade ago....
Dog bites man is the natural order of things. But when you are a police dog, the natural order may not always apply. Please sit back and read with me the unnatural tale (and tail) of Onyx, brave police dog, and one unnaturally rough day. Our story begins on patrol in West Haven, Connecticut, in the early morning hours of October 7… According to the report by the New Haven Register, Officer Scott Bloom was on patrol with fellow K-9 officer Onyx at about 2:30 a....
Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, like any political candidate, has his opponents, but this post isn’t about his politics. The harrowing tale of his hazing as a 1L and throughout law school is an all too real reminder of why hazing is just wrong, despite how even the coolest lawyer blogs are joining the pile on. Unfortunately, the story of his hazing effectively confirmed that the pejorative nickname given to Moore by some jerk of a professor was well deserved, according to his peers....
After Vermont Law School stripped 14 professors of their tenure, the faculty are waiting for the other shoe to drop. That would be the shoe that kicks them to the curb. The law school is “restructuring,” which is admin-speak for “cost-cutting.” Like many law schools, Vermont has struggled financially in recent years as student enrollments dropped off. For some, it was a matter of time before faculty had to go....
Someday, researchers believe, they will find a cure to cancer. Until then, the sad truth is that a lot of people are going to die. It’s the awful cost of medical progress, and it takes time. The California bar exam is no cancer, but a lot of test-takers are dying out there. Is lowering the cut-score a solution, a salve, or a prayer? More Research Needed The state Supreme Court, which is charged with setting the bar exam standard, is studying the problem – still....
A Seton Hill University student has filed the first lawsuit related to the fatal Seton Hill bus crash last week in Pennsylvania. A bus being operated by Mlaker Transportation was carrying Seton Hill University’s lacrosse team when it veered off the Pennsylvania Turnpike, reports Pittsburgh’s KDKA-TV. Coach Kristina Quigley, 30; her unborn son; and driver Anthony Guaetta, 61, were killed in the tragic accident. Michalski and five other members of the lacrosse team suffered serious injuries....
Marvin Castellanos’ attorney spent more than 100 hours toiling on Castellanos’ workers’ comp claim. And after defeating numerous defenses from Castellanos’ employer and its insurer, the attorney was victorious. But when it came time to collect attorney’s fees, his reward was only $164, or $1.53 an hour. That’s because Florida law sets a mandatory fee schedule based on the amount won – without allowing consideration of whether those awards are reasonable....
Lichoulas v. FERC, No. 08-1373, involved a petition for review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) order terminating petitioner’s license to operate a hydropower project attached to a historic six-story mill building in Lowell, Massachusetts. The D.C. Circuit denied the petition, holding that 1) FERC’s application of the implied surrender doctrine here was not arbitrary and capricious; the Commission examined the relevant data and articulated a satisfactory explanation for its action, including a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made; 2) even assuming arguendo that certain challenged contacts by FERC officials violated FERC regulations, there was no indication that they influenced the ultimate decision makers; and 3) petitioner did not identify any issue he could explore at an evidentiary hearing that could not be adequately addressed on the papers....
After being arrested 396 times, a Chicago woman has agreed to a plea deal that will send her to a mental health and substance abuse treatment program, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. Guess the third time (times 132) is the charm… The judge’s statement of extending an olive branch to Shermain Miles, 51, was pretty sweet: If only all trials were this polite and encouraging. A Lengthy Rap Sheet Miles, who’s been at the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln since December, has a lengthy rap sheet including armed robbery....
An Atlanta Braves fan died after falling six stories from the upper seating deck of Turner Field on Monday. Ronald Lee Homer, 29, of Conyers, Georgia, was attending the baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies and appeared to have sustained his fatal injuries from an accidental fall, reports Atlanta’s WSB-TV. This is the second fatal accident to occur at Turner Field in the last five years, and the historic baseball venue may be facing legal trouble....
Judgment of the United States Court of International Trade upholding the denial by United States Custom and Border Protection of a refund on the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT) allegedly paid on exports before July 1, 1990 is affirmed where: 1) Customs retains the authority under the HMT statute to amend and enforce its refund regulations as applied to export HMT; 2) Chrysler has failed to raise a genuine issue of fact regarding the validity of the regulation or its compliance with that regulation; and 3) the trade court clearly acted within its discretion in declining to impose an adverse inference....
A DWI suspect arrested in New York is facing additional charges after he allegedly tried to eat his Breathalyzer test results. According to The Associated Press, Kenneth Desormes, 40, was stopped for speeding on Interstate 95 on Sunday and arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. But back at the Tarrytown, New York, State Police station, Desormes allegedly tried to snatch and eat his Breathalyzer results as they were printing. Will this DWI suspect get more than a tummyache for attempting to take a bite out of criminal justice?...
Jerry Bailey suffered an eye injury when a bottle of Cook’s Champagne exploded as he was erecting a sales display in a Safeway grocery store. Bailey sued the manufacturer of the champagne bottle, Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc. for strict liability design defect under the consumer expectation theory; Bailey also sued Safeway under that same theory and for negligence. Bailey then filed a separate complaint for equitable indemnity against Safeway as Saint-Gobain’s assignee....
A district court in Vermont is typically bound by Second Circuit precedent. When that same court is deciding a patent issue, however, it must defer to the Federal Circuit’s standards of proof. Confusion regarding the proper standard is an reasonable mistake, but one that can result in a remand. Revision Military, Inc., and Balboa Manufacturing Co. design, manufacture, and sell protective eyewear. Revision alleges that Balboa’s new “Bravo” design protective goggles (also called “Bobster Bravo”) copied and infringes Revision’s patented “Bullet Ant” goggles....
Here’s a warning to all you husbands out there: if you don’t “perform” enough during your marriage, you may have to pay your wife damages over a lack of sex. A 51-year-old Frenchman has been ordered to pay his ex-wife about $14,000 in damages over a lack of sex in their 21-year marriage. Was the wife not found to be liable at all, here? The husband, identified only as Jean-Louis B, says that he suffered from “tiredness and health problems” throughout their marriage which led to him not performing as often, according to the New York Daily News....
In an environmental dispute involving the development of residential properties, trial court judgment is affirmed where: 1) the court did not err in refusing to grant plaintiff’s writ petition seeking to force defendant to set aside a resolution determining that plaintiff was not a qualified conservation entity and enter a new resolution; 2) the court properly granted summary judgment on plaintiff’s causes of action for breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing against certain defendants; and 3) the court properly awarded those defendants attorney’s fees and costs as plaintiffs failed to demonstrate they were entitled to reversal of the judgment....
You’re a young associate looking to make a lateral move. Maybe you’ve reached out to another firm, or another firm has reached out to you. Either way, your first point of contact is going to be The Recruiter (that is, the in-house recruiter, who’s different from the outside recruiter). It’s important to impress the hiring partners, for sure, but the in-house recruiter has more influence on the hiring partners than you might think....
There’s nothing skilled professional women like more than being judged for their appearance. Indeed, most lady lawyers invite the chance to have their hair, dress size, and outfits overshadow their legal prowess. Luckily for female lawyers in the San Francisco area, two Marin County styling consultants stalked the halls of a county court house to do just that. The pair spent a day critiquing female lawyers’ outfits – and had their judgments published by the Marin County Bar Association....
Vinny Gambini was not a real lawyer, but he was a master of cross-examination. Gambini, of “My Cousin Vinny” fame, impeached a key witness during a criminal trial. If you don’t know the scene, you missed out on one of the finer points of trial work. It’s not always what you know about the law that wins. Sometimes, it’s about knowing how to cook. “A Master Class” Judge Merrick Garland knows this....
Los Angeles has filed in federal court to join a lawsuit against the Department of Justice for threatening to withhold law enforcement funds from sanctuary cities. If approved, L.A. will become the third major city to sue the government over the sanctuary city controversy. San Francisco and Chicago sued after Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the DOJ would cut off grants to cities that do not cooperate with the Trump Administration’s campaign against illegal immigrants....
