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In plaintiffs-developers’ suit against the city challenging its extension of an interim ordinance restricting development in areas zoned for multifamily residential uses raising various statutory and constitutional claims, judgment denying plaintiffs’ petition for a writ of mandate and denying any relief on their complaint is reversed where: 1) trial court’s denial of plaintiffs’ petition for a writ of mandate as to the first count was improper as the city council failed to make findings required under Gov....

Facing a potential of up to 400 years in prison on 45 counts of child sexual abuse, Jerry Sandusky was sentenced Tuesday to 30 to 60 years in prison. Judge John Cleland justified his decision by saying that the minimum of 30 years behind bars was essentially a life sentence for Sandusky, now 68 years old, reports NBC News. But perhaps a symbolic sentence of the full 400 years may have been a more powerful statement against Sandusky....

If there was ever a time to be thankful for nosy neighbors, it’s when your neighborhood postman decides to defecate on your front yard. Yep, you read that right. Don Derfler of Portland, Oregon photographed his mail carrier dropping trou on his neighbor’s lawn last week, and no one knows just why the pooping mailman did it. Derfler was waiting for a babysitter when KATU reports he saw the postal worker pull down his pants....

There are many things that could have led to Stanley Hilton’s divorce. But above all else, he blames the “around-the-clock” airport noise at San Francisco International Airport. He said the noise from the jet roaring overhead was so powerful that it ripped his marriage a part. Hilton said the aircraft takeoff sounds like bombs dropping in a war zone. He filed a 16-page suit in San Mateo County Superior Court on Nov....

Paul Manafort, the one-time campaign chairman for President Trump, was sentenced to 47 months in prison. Unless he is pardoned, Manafort may not survive it. He will soon turn 70, and still faces charges in a separate case. But his defense attorneys can take it as a win because Manafort faced closer to 20 years. Ultimately, however, all roads lead to the same place. In Custody Manafort has been languishing in jail after being convicted last year in Virginia on eight felony counts related to bank and income tax fraud....

The NCAA has reached a $75 million settlement agreement in the various concussion cases filed against it, with new guidelines proposed for each of its member schools. According to USA Today, the proposed settlement doesn’t include any damages for the individual plaintiffs named in the suits, but it allows these players to file “separate personal injury lawsuits.” The $75 million instead will go toward medical monitoring for current and former NCAA players, as well as research....

In a case involving an antidumping investigation of recycled polyester staple fiber (PSF) from China, a United States Court of International Trade’s judgment upholding the imposition of antidumping duties on appellant is affirmed as the United States Department of Commerce’s Final Determination was supported by substantial evidence and not contrary to law in its methodology and resulting color-specific PET flake valuations. Read Ningbo Dafa Chem. Fiber Co., Ltd. v. US, No....

If you’re a Georgia man who loves to sext pictures of your penis tattoo, rejoice. The Georgia Supreme Court has sided with a man who sexted a picture of his tattooed penis to a lady who wasn’t at all impressed. According to the court, Charles Leo Warren III should not have been charged under a criminal indecency law when he sexted an image of his tattooed penis, UPI reports. Warren’s genital tattoo reads: “STRONG E nuf 4 A MAN BUT Made 4 A WOMAN....

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Dennis Northcutt’s ex-girlfriend, Sharri Henry, suffered a setback today in court in her lawsuit stemming from an assault at a nightclub last May. The AP reports that an L.A. judge has thrown out a portion of the suit in which, among various claims, Henry said Northcutt arranged her beating (while she was four-months pregnant, to boot). The lawsuit specifically claimed that Northcutt convinced his bodyguard (who also happened to be his cousin) to “maliciously assault, beat, strike and batter … her face and head with great force and violence, causing severe and permanent disfigurement to her face”....

In a negligence action against a public-entity health-care provider, trial court judgment is affirmed where: 1) plaintiffs must comply with both the six-month statute of limitations in the Government Claims Act and the three-year statute in the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) when bringing actions for medical negligence against public entities where the latter deadline is the outside date by which plaintiffs must file their suits against public-entity health-care providers; and 2) plaintiff’s complaint was untimely filed despite being timely under the Act, as it was filed more than a year after the expiration of the three-year date in MICRA....

Because the D.C. Circuit is the go-to circuit for questions involving the powers of the branches of government, the cases that come from this circuit, predictably, involve government authority. Zivotosfky v. Kerry (Oral Argument: November 3) Next month, the Court will wade into a contentious issue involving Israeli/Palestinian politics, a 9-year-old kid, and tension between Congress and the president’s immigration power. The Washington Post observes that the case “even touches on the unsettled question of presidential ‘signing statements....

After a molestation cover-up which would give the Catholic Church a run for its money, California’s Sixth District Court of Appeal has ruled that summer camps, as daycare providers, have a duty to minors and their parents to disclose suspected molestation by camp employees. The case arose after parents brought suit against Keith Edward Woodhouse and his employer, Camp on the Hill, a summer camp for first through sixth graders run by the First Baptist Church of San Jose, also known as the Church on the Hill....

Police in Texas are investigating a woman who allegedly faked attending law school and forged a law degree, complete with signatures from the school’s dean and president. Michelle Lee Fyfe, 43, of Dallas, also claimed to have worked as an intern at Haynes & Boone, an international corporate law firm. But there is no record of Fyfe ever working there, the Dallas Morning News reports. Fyfe declined to comment to the Morning News....

Plenty of lawyers regret their career choice. The long hours, tedious work, crushing student debt, and poor job market aren’t exactly the kinds of things that make you pat yourself on the back every morning. But that’s just the negative yin to lawyering’s positive yang. Being a lawyer is a great career. You should love what you do. Here are six reasons why. 1. You Get to Help People I know, I know, it’s cheesy and cliché....

Phantom rings keeping you up at night? Constantly fighting the need to reach into your pocket? Suffering from stiff-thumb syndrome? You may be a smart phone addict. Or at least addicted to smart phone games. According to a recent survey, 20% of smart phone users consider themselves addicted. iPhone devotees self-identify as addicts 26% of the time, whereas only 13% of BlackBerry users do the same, reports Crowd Science. There’s no doubt that lawyers are on the list of people most attached to their smart phones....

It seems inconceivable that Berkeley Law administrators did’t see this coming: the school’s current arrangement of students looks like a form of segregation. Law schools routinely break the incoming students into smaller sections, which Boalt calls “mods.” It’s standard practice that mods take 1L classes together. But Berkeley’s current arrangement will all but ensure that every single African American student will get funneled into two “super-mods,” leaving the other mods completely free of any black presence whatsoever....

J-M Manufacturing Co., the plaintiff in the McDermott malpractice suit, amended its complaint last week, adding new allegations of professional negligence directed at the law firm’s contract attorneys. In addition to originally claiming that McDermott’s attorneys failed to properly supervise its off-site staff attorneys, the lawsuit now alleges that the contract attorneys also “negligently performed their duties.” Their duties being document review. The McDermott malpractice suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court back in June, stems from the firm’s representation of J-M Manufacturing in a government investigation that was launched after a former employee filed a whistleblower suit....

There’s a disturbing trend playing itself out in California courtrooms according to Eugene Volokh. The trend potentially criminalizes disclosure of private facts, even if the content disclosed isn’t actually revenge porn. Court applications of the Cal. Pen. Code sec. 530(a) should chill the public. Since when did the disclosure of some private facts of another become a full fledged crime? The Curious Case of Kevin Bollaert Although the California statute in question has previously been applied by courts in manners many lawyers and court watchers find perturbing, the most recent case of Bollaert really caught the watchful of Eugene Volokh....

Souls? Just kidding. Lawyers don’t have those. Or do they? After all, unlicensed lawyers, a.k.a. random dudes who are engaging in the unauthorized practice of law, aren’t exactly lawyers. Their conduct isn’t what one might consider legal, but that’s not the issue for the State Bar. Like most lawyers, they want power and money, reports the Wall Street Journal. The faux-lawyers’ money. Already a Crime Newsflash: unauthorized practice of law is already a misdemeanor offense, punishable by between 90 days and one year in jail, or a fine of up to $1,000, or both....

Maybe you’re a LARPer or a fan of Renaissance Fairs. Maybe you’re an engineering or history student, studying the effectiveness of various siege weapons. Or maybe you’ve got a neighbor with high walls and a penchant for playing their music too loud. Either way, if you’re looking to launch a projectile a great distance (without the aid of explosives), you might be wondering if you can build your own catapult, trebuchet, or similar siege engine without interference from the fuzz....