Suspended NBA Star Gilbert Arenas has been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s office with felony gun possession. According to the Washington Post, the charge in the Gilbert Arenas gun case was filed was filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia. He was charged with one count of carrying a pistol without a license, in connection with a locker room standoff with teammate Javaris Crittenton, authorities said....
Unfortunately, a lot of a lawyer’s life involves going to other people for help, whether it’s a clerk, a secretary, a senior associate, or even opposing counsel. You can’t do the job just on your own. There’s a learning curve to figuring out who you should talk to in which situations. You can waste a lot of time by talking to the wrong person. A lot of billable time. So who’s the right person to talk to?...
Yosemite National Park may be one of the world’s most impressive landscapes, with its granite cliffs, towering waterfalls, and ancient sequoia groves. But while the beauty of the valley and surrounding mountains is a product of 10 million years of geologic shifts and slow evolution, the park itself is a legal creation, and a very important one at that. Yosemite became the nation’s first parkland set aside for preservation when Congress passed the Yosemite Grant Act, signed into law by Abraham Lincoln on June 30, 1864....
If you’re a fan of rock and roll – and aren’t we all? – you’ve obviously heard the news by now. David Bowie, the musical icon, died of cancer on Sunday, just a few days after his 69th birthday and the release of his 27th album. But Bowie’s career should be more than just the music on your stereo. There are lessons to be learned there, even for those of us who chose the glamorous world of law over glam rock....
The urban legend has people waking up in bathtubs full of ice and discovering that their kidney has been removed, all because of a lucrative black market for internal organs. And that black market exists because most state and federal laws prohibit people from selling their organs, citing public policy concerns and the negative incentives that a body part market would create. But it’s your body – surely you can lop a little of it off if you choose to, right?...
You know you aren’t in college anymore. And you know that social media sites typically couldn’t care less about your privacy, so there is a decent chance that whatever you post will accidentally go public. (Or an annoying friend will screen-cap it and pass it along to others.) And yet: you’re on Facebook. And Twitter. And Instagram. And Ello. And whatever the heck else is out there. Here are five tips for survival:...
Amid increasing allegations that he lied to university and NCAA officials about his knowledge of widespread rules violations, there has been a lot of talk about whether Ohio State University can rescind Jim Tressel’s contract. Having resigned over the weekend, the inquiry can be settled once and for all. Do the Buckeyes owe the shamed coach any of his contract’s designated payouts? The remaining $14 million? The perks? In short, probably not–and for a few reasons....
To the extent that most of us use them, few of us really think much about our stamps. We pick up a roll or sheet at the post office or grocery store, put them on letters, cards, and bills until we run out, then start again. Every now and then we choose stamps based on the image, whether it be a favorite historical figure or cartoon character, or we just like the way they look – some stamps are chosen for their artistic appeal....
How does one bite off an eyebrow? Is it kind of like biting into a rib, and then pulling the meat away from the bone? If you’ve ever pondered such a question, you should chance a conversation with Luis Miguel Aguilar, a 29-year-old Buena Park, California, man who has been arrested for nibbling on his opponent’s eyebrow during a fight. Did I mention that he proceeded to chew it up and spit it out?...
Just sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to driving under the influence, Boulder resident Lisa Norton was charged with first degree murder last week after trying to swim away from a DUI crash that resulted in the death of Gabriel Nielson. While her two other victims — Nielson’s sister and young daughter — remain in critical condition, Norton is being held at the Boulder County Jail and is under suicide watch....
Under the federal False Claims Act, a person who is not affiliated with the government can file a claim against a federal contractor, asserting fraud against the government. The law allows the filer to receive a share of recovered damages, but it’s generally governed by a first-to-file limitation. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals offered clarification regarding the first-to-file requirement in November, holding that, in the case of duplicative False Claims Act complaints, the earlier-filed complaint does not have to meet the heightened fraud or mistake pleading standards of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b) to allege facts sufficient to prompt a government investigation, and bar later-filed complaints on the same facts....
I know, we all do the same thing at red lights and interstate exit ramps – try not to make eye contact with the panhandlers and their cardboard signs. But here’s a reason to pay more attention next time: those homeless-looking beggars might be cops. If they see you unbuckled or texting while driving, you’re getting a ticket. San Bernardino police officers pulled over 53 cars and issued 50 citations in a three-hour sting this month, all while posed as panhandlers....
For our second installment of “Ethical Dilemma of the Week,” we address a situation that many BigLaw associates may have wondered about. You’re flying somewhere on a client matter. The client is ultimately paying the bill, but the firm bought the airline tickets (or you bought them with your “rewards” credit card), and you entered your frequent flyer number so you can rack up those awesome miles and get an upgrade to Business Plus/First Class Minus, where there are a few more precious centimeters of leg room....
Over here at FindLaw’s Federal Circuit blog, we’re no fans of business method patents. Every chance we get, we write about, and celebrate, another Federal Circuit opinion using Alice v. CLS Bank to invalidate phony baloney “on a computer” method patents. After a string of Alice success stories, in which the Federal Circuit struck patents for regular old, ordinary, analog things done on a computer, the court has upheld a business method patent because the problem the patent sought to solve actually was something unique to the Internet....
Stromile Swift, the second overall pick from the 2000 NBA draft, pleaded guilty to stalking a woman in Shreveport, Louisiana. Swift received a suspended sentence of six months in jail and was ordered to serve 18 months on supervised probation. The stalking arrest stems from a series of intimidating acts the former LSU star and NBA journeyman committed against Chaquinita Pouncy. Swift was arrested last year after Pouncy called police to report that the six-foot-ten-inch man was following her vehicle, reports the Shreveport Times....
Fuzzysharp Technologies Inc. (Fuzzysharp) won in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals last week in its case against 3DLabs. The Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the case, Fuzzysharp Technologies v. 3D Labs, after a district court invalidated several Fuzzysharp patents for failure to meet the “machine-or-transformation” test. In light of the Supreme Court’s Bilski v. Kappos decision, the Federal Circuit determined that the district court had erred in applying the machine-or-transformation test....
Geo M. Martin, Co. v. Alliance Mach. Sys. Int’l., LLC., 09-1132, concerned a challenge to the district court’s ruling as a matter of law that the ‘566 patent would have been obvious at the time of invention, in a suit for infringement of a patent, relating to an improvement over the traditional bundle breaker (a machine used to separate stacked sheets of corrugated board). In affirming, the court held that the district court correctly concluded as a matter of law that the difference between the prior art and the claimed improvement were minimal....
Judges routinely ask attorneys to submit proposed rulings, but should they? As officers of the court, attorneys have a duty to help administer justice. But there are limits to what they can do. One former judge admitted that he asked attorneys to ghostwrite “a couple hundred” rulings. An independent review panel said the judge went too far in at least a dozen cases. Proposed Rulings Judge Edward Jacobson served in Plymouth County, Iowa for 16 years....
Fans of Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant may have to find a new way to cheer for him. The three-time NBA all-star has been sued over his nickname, ‘Durantula.’ Rock musician Mick Durante filed a lawsuit against Durant claiming trademark infringement. Durante says he trademarked the name ‘Durantula’ back in 1993 and his website uses that name as the URL. But does this mean that fans won’t be able to use the nickname next season?...
Veritas Investments, the largest residential landlord in San Francisco with more than 200 buildings and 5,500 apartments, is being sued yet again for trying to drive out rent-controlled tenants. This lawsuit, which represents 68 plantiffs, is the fourth filed by tenant’s rights attorneys Ryan Vlasak and Ken Greenstein, against the same defendant for the same cause of action. In total, these attorneys represent more than 100 tenants in suits against Veritas....
