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If you’ve been anywhere a television, newspaper, or computer in the last five days, you’ve most likely seen images of a UC Davis campus police officer pepper-spraying a line of peaceful protesters on November 18. Many people are outraged by what they believe is the use of excessive force against peaceful protesters, and question whether the officer would be protected by qualified immunity. Others are simply debating whether pepper spray is “a food product, essentially....

Defendant’s murder and street terrorism convictions are affirmed where: 1) defendant’s prior conviction for extortion was admissible to prove the charge of street terrorism against him; 2) a witness’s statement that his sister had been executed did not necessarily implicate defendant; and 3) the trial court erred in using the same factor to both enhance defendant’s sentence and to run it consecutively, but the error was harmless. Read People v. Tran, No....

Sometimes, life sucks. You know it. We all know it. From bills to sitting in traffic in [insert metropolitan area here], the day-to-day grind can wear down your soul. Tack on an extra stressor, such as your car being towed or a medical problem, and it can feel like it’s all too much to bear. Or you might just need to vent. Ester Boggess called her niece on December 31, 2011....

Which is not like the other? Coloring books, drugs, and prison inmates. If you’re thinking coloring books, you’d be right. But you’d also be wrong. Coloring books, drugs, and prison inmates have everything to do with one another, as three inmates at New Jersey’s Cape May County Correctional Center, along with two women, were just charged for attempting to smuggle drugs into the prison via coloring books. Based on a tip, prison officials began to monitor inmate mail last month for any sign of Suboxone, a controlled narcotic that is sold in pill and film form, reports NBC....

You can petition the White House online about anything, and get an official response if you can gather enough signatures. But that doesn’t mean silly ideas won’t be rejected. In 2011, President Obama’s administration launched a website called “We the People” that allows citizens to send petitions directly to the White House. All you needed was 25,000 signatures in 30 days to get the president, or at least his staff, to consider your request....

The rich get richer in law school, too? According to recent studies, rich students actually do get richer through merit scholarships. “Law School Scholarship Policies: Engines of Inequity,” an annual report from researchers at the University of Indiana, confirms that scholarships more often go to privileged law students than to disadvantaged ones. “The end-result is a cascade of negative outcomes, including a perverse cost-shifting strategy through which disadvantaged students subsidize the attendance of their privileged peers,” said Aaron N....

Colorado is becoming a more interesting place by the day. First they legalize pot, and now one town may soon allow its residents to shoot down military drones for cash. “Shoot Down Drones for Cash” sounds like some sort of Al Qaeda game show, but it turns out that it’s actually a proposed law in the town of Deer Trail, Colorado. The ordinance, if approved, would enable citizens to “hunt” unmanned drones and cash in on their lightweight-metal corpses, reports Reuters....

Twelve minutes later, the Steve Martin jury duty tweets continued with: “REPORT FROM JURY DUTY: guy I thought was up for murder turns out to be defense attorney. I bet he murdered someone anyway.” The tweets got a lot of attention on Twitter. Several users didn’t get the joke and sent Martin warnings not to tweet from the jury pool. Of course Martin wasn’t serving on a jury at all and the Steve Martin jury duty tweets were a clever hoax....

Do you know what tomorrow is? It’s the Roman New Year. “Beware the Ides of March,” a soothsayer once said. The warning, unfortunately for Julius Caesar, was ignored. It’s been 2,058 years since that fateful day, but things haven’t changed all that much. Treachery and betrayal live eternal in the hearts of ambitious men and women, nowhere more than a law firm. At your firm, are you the assassin, Marcus Brutus, or the assassinated, Julius Caesar?...

Unlike high school or college students, law students have to be especially careful of what they post on social media sites. When you were younger, social media was a great way to express your individuality and share your day-to-day experiences with friends. But as you get older – especially when you enroll in law school – you should consider evolving your social media use to consider its ability to benefit or hurt your career prospects and how your potential clients view you....

Lets all say it together: “We are screwed!” It breaks down your balances, illustrates your interest accrued over the principal in a red bar graph, estimates your monthly payments, and has a calendar that tells you when payments are due. It even has a cute little slider that tells you how much you’ll save if you can somehow manage to dump additional funds into your monthly payments. The only thing it doesn’t do is pay the loans for you....

Jury selection started this week in Nicollette Sheridan’s wrongful termination employment lawsuit against Desperate Housewives Creator and Executive Producer Mark Cherry, and it already sounds as though the cast’s real-life drama will be more interesting than the on-screen drama. For those of you who don’t watch Desperate Housewives, and don’t understand why this lawsuit is happening, let’s recap the high points of Sheridan’s claim. Sheridan, who played saucy minx Edie Britt on the popular ABC show, says that Cherry struck her across the head with his open hand during a September 2008 rehearsal after an argument about the script....

It was a busy year, on and off the field. While players and coaches were vying for championships, lawyers and judges were working overtime behind the scenes, sorting out some enormous legal issues in the sports world. Here are the major sports law stories from 2017: 1. 3 More States Trying to Legalize Sports Betting By far the most far-reaching sports story of the year has to be current efforts to legalize sports gambling nationwide....

The interplay between likability and success has been debated since Machiavelli’s “The Prince” hit the printing presses. He famously pondered the question “whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved?” His answer to male politicians (then and now): “It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved....

Sunday’s 6.0 earthquake in Napa County proved fairly destructive near the epicenter, toppling wine bottles, knocking out power, and shearing bricks off buildings. It was the strongest quake to hit the San Francisco Bay Area since 1989. Even if earthquakes aren’t that likely where you are, plug the magnitude of harm into Judge Learned Hand’s cost-benefit analysis and you’ll quickly discover it’s worthwhile to take some steps to make your office more earthquake-resistant – especially here in California....

A former partner at a BigLaw firm, and former DOJ staffer, Jeffrey Wertkin, accepted a plea deal in the case against him stemming from the sale of a sealed Justice Department lawsuit. For certain causes of action, such as federal qui tam claims, the DOJ requires lawsuits be filed with them first, confidentially. The department then decides whether it would like to pursue the action, or allow the plaintiff asserting the claim to do so....

Tennis parents for some reason appear to have a strange propensity to misbehave, carry on, or make outrageous statements that may be unmatched by parents in other sports. This isn’t really borne out by any statistical proof, and perhaps is due more in part to the fewer amount of players or maybe the increased amount of media coverage tennis parents receive. Whatever the reason might be, tennis pro Jelena Dokic’s dad, Damir Dokic, may be staking his claim to the top of tennis-parent-infamy, if he wasn’t there already....

The “Harlem Shake” is happening everywhere – in college dorms, libraries, on the street, and to the dismay of the Federal Aviation Administration, on a plane. Students from Colorado College’s Ultimate Frisbee team filmed a version of the popular dance video meme while on board a Frontier Airlines flight to San Diego. They even got the other passengers to participate in the fun, as shown in the video. But it seems the FAA isn’t enjoying the contribution to Internet humor....

Ever had that nightmare where you pushed the wrong button and suddenly your career was over? That’s gotta be the real-life nightmare Angela Turiano is having. In an eDiscovery response, Truiano accidentally turned over confidential client information to opposing counsel. But this wasn’t just some embarrassing email; it was confidential information about thousands of Wells Fargo’s wealthiest clients – names, Social Security numbers, and billions of dollars. If only there were an undo button....

A baby in a basket is clearly capable of representing oneself in immigration court. An eleven member panel of Ninth Circuit federal judges is currently hearing arguments regarding whether or not immigrant children should have free legal representation in immigration court removal proceedings. Specifically, this case centers around an immigrant minor, C.J., who asked for asylum when emigrating from Honduras at the age of 13, claiming that violent gangs were threatening to harm him if he didn’t join their ranks....