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Law school is a rip-off that will probably leave you in thousands and thousands of dollars of debt. The bar exam is a nightmare, two-to-three days of ritualized torture that should be considered more illegal hazing than an accurate test of who is qualified to practice law. Why put up with it, when you can just fake being a lawyer instead? Fake Lawyers Abound, From Brooklyn to Uptown The legal profession is self-regulating, but that doesn’t prevent plenty of enterprising pseudo-lawyers from operating outside of the official rules....

A family squabble turned into a public affair on Friday when Katina Dorton filed a first-ever Duke basketball ticket lawsuit against her sister, brother-in-law, and the university. At issue is a set of Duke men’s basketball season tickets that once belonged to her father, John Dorton. She claims her sister and brother-in-law, Sophia and Gordon Caudle, with the approval of Duke officials, fraudulently transferred the tickets to themselves without her father’s consent....

Welcome to 1L torts class! In case you’re wondering, “tort” is an Old French word meaning “very lengthy negligence fact pattern.” You’ll spend the next year reading many cases about old ladies falling down, whether it’s at their own homes, on a railroad platform, or in a slippery parking lot. To get you in the mood, here are five “classic” torts cases that you’re going to be seeing real soon:...

Indiana residents Benjamin Sims and Danielle Howey are not your average babysitters. They’re your less-than-average babysitters. The two are accused of using a baby as a decoy to steal alcohol. How exactly was the toddler used as a decoy? Did they dress him up in a flashy but cute costume to distract store clerks? Sadly, their ploy was fair simpler than that. They just used the 2-year-old to cover up their stolen goods....

The California Supreme Court has put a lot of thought into employee rest breaks this year. In April, the court ruled that employers must make meal breaks available, but they don’t have to force wage workers to take a break for a meal. This week, the court ruled that a prevailing party cannot collect attorney’s fees after winning a meal or rest break dispute. Plaintiffs Anthony Kirby and Rick Leech, Jr....

The California Supreme Court ruled against comedian, Jello-spokesperson, and alleged serial sexual offender Bill Cosby last Wednesday. The court rejected Cosby’s attempt to block a sexual battery lawsuit by Judy Huth. Huth’s lawsuit alleges that the comedian molested her at the Playboy Mansion in 1974, when she was 15 years old. Cosby could soon be deposed under oath, following the ruling. That’s certainly not something the Cosby team is looking forward to, given the damaging revelations from a recently discovered deposition....

Chad Johnson is reportedly refusing to sign divorce papers drawn up by his wife Evelyn Lozada. The former NFL wide receiver is pulling out all the stops to save his marriage with Lozada. Not only is he holding on to the divorce papers and refusing to sign them, he also had Lozada’s face tattooed onto his leg, reports Fox News. While having your face tattooed on a man’s leg may be a dream come true for many women, this apparently is not the case with Evelyn Lozada as she reportedly wants to divorce Chad Johnson as quickly as possible....

The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade held hearings yesterday to examine the legality of daily fantasy sports and whether further federal oversight is needed to regulate the industry. But some major players were missing from that hearing, most notably representatives from DraftKings and FanDuel, the two largest daily fantasy ventures, or anyone from any of the major sports leagues or media companies partnering with daily fantasy sites or pushing their products....

A lot of changes are happening on the law school/bar exam front. California’s Supreme Court finally gave its blessing to the state’s recent proposal to lop a day off its legendary three-day exam. Oklahoma’s Supreme Court okayed, “dumbing down” its state bar exam. The UBE is being adopted by more jurisdictions at a notable rate. And now, at least one school has dropped the requirement that its applicants had taken the LSAT....

A concerned neighbor in Michigan called 911 over what she thought was domestic violence, but it was all hot air, literally: The fight was actually over a fart. One of the neighbors had heard somebody – a female – yelling, “Stop! No!” the police chief of Clawson, Michigan, told Detroit’s WWJ Newsradio. The dutiful fart patrol neighbor also said that, in between shouts, she heard a repeated loud noise. “The female that was inside stated that her boyfriend had continued to pass gas, and she was yelling at him to stop,” the police chief said....

A Florida man allegedly assaulted his neighbor for feeding peanuts to squirrels. Actually, the fight wasn’t even about the peanuts – it was the peanut shells that set him off. Eugene Oates, 57, of Vero Beach, was arrested for battery after he allegedly grabbed neighbor Ernest Willette and forced him out of his home. Their dispute was over Willette’s feeding of peanuts to squirrels in their neighborhood: Oates was apparently angry that the squirrels kept discarding peanut shells on Oates’ driveway and lawn, The Huffington Post reports....

In a world connected through the internet, satellites, cell zones, and wireless networks, cybersecurity threats can come from virtually anywhere and affect almost anybody. This is especially true in the United States, where even the recent presidential election was affected by email hacks and security breaches. Cyber-espionage has become the weapon of choice for some governments. In the breach, lawyers and their clients may want to consider cybersecurity laws taking shape in many parts of the world....

On Tuesday, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon announced 16 people would come together to form the Ferguson Commission, a panel appointed to help the community heal after the shooting death of Michael Brown. According to The Associated Press, two attorneys will sit on the Ferguson commission, along with pastors, a community activist, a professor, and a detective, to name a few. And while some construction blogger is likely furiously typing about the owner of a Ferguson construction supply company’s involvement, we’re a bit more interested in the two lawyers....

If you look at the Ten Commandments, most of them tell you what not to do. That’s because people – with exceptions, like Santa Claus – are generally inclined to do the wrong thing. It’s what we do. Lawyers are even worse; just look at all the “shall-nots” in ethics rules. With apologies to Moses, here are some rules on how not to become a judge’s least favorite lawyer. Thou Shalt Not Mansplain If the Old Testament had been written today, a prohibition against mansplaining would be in there....

Juvenile court’s determination that the juvenile-defendant be a ward of the court and placed on probation after concluding that he was in possession of a switchblade knife is affirmed as Penal Code section 653k is violated any time a person carries a switchblade knife on his or her person, regardless of where the possession occurs. Read In re S.C., No. A123371 [HTML] Read In re S.C., No. A123371 [PDF] Appellate Information...

Earlier this week we talked about what types of legal issues make for great, publication worthy note topics. Today, we’ll discuss how to find note topics, and important factors to consider when deciding on a note topic. How to Find a Note Topic Though finding a great note topic is difficult and time consuming, there are lots of great resources out there to help you find a note worth devoting a year of your life to....

Lisa West was the go-to lawyer if you wanted to sue Usher, but now she’s gone. West represented his ex-wife in divorce proceedings, and has been representing a woman who says Usher gave her a sexually transmitted disease. Now the lawyer wants off the case, saying she can no longer “effectively represent” her client. It’s news because Usher is a high-profile singer, but inquiring minds want to know the story behind any lawyer-client meltdown....

Our favorite non-FindLaw blog, Above the Law, had a hilarious take on one school’s advertising of a law school love story. The school presented the story of a couple that met during orientation and fell truly, madly, deeply in love. ATL’s Staci Zaretsky took issue with the law school, stating, “[W]e’re completely “gobsmacked” that a law school would attempt to prey upon people’s wallets vis-à-vis their lonely hearts.” But did the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s William H....

If you’re going to deliver mail naked, it might be a good idea to pick a warmer location than Wisconsin in December. It’s bad enough getting arrested for lewd and lascivious behavior. It’s even worse having to explain the issue of “shrinkage” to the recipient. A 52-year-old mail carrier was arrested at the North Shore Post Office, after admitting that he delivered the mail completely naked to a woman on his route....

Holiday party debauchery is nothing new for the scores of BigLaw associates out there. In fact, it’s practically a rite of passage. But judges? They’ve got reputations to uphold. Except when they’re drinking, that is. New Jersey Superior Court Judge Marquis Jones, Jr. would be proof of this fact. He’s been accused of groping female probation officers at a 2010 party. He blames all the alcohol he consumed as a result of the “Holiday spirit....