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In plaintiff’s suit against the defendant for infringement of jewelry designs, trademarks and copyrights, trial court’s decision denying plaintiff’s motion to strike defendant’s complaint under the anti-SLAPP statute is affirmed as the filing of a lawsuit in a foreign country is not protected activity under the United States or California Constitutions as to implicate the statute. Read Guessous v. Chrome Hearts, LLC, No. B212074 [HTML] Read Guessous v. Chrome Hearts, LLC, No....

Flash. That’ll be $980. Who caught you? A camera, one that can’t face you in court. And the person who prepared the picture that is attached to your ticket? She’s also not available to cross-examine. Good luck with your defense. See why red light cameras and other “Automated Traffic Enforcement Systems” (ATES) are problematic? Hearsay issues and Confrontation Clause rights are at the center of the war on ATES – one that is set to hit the California Supreme Court next week, and which has inspired a pro se plaintiff’s U....

Did anybody not see that the Macy’s Day Parade is just a big commercial? That Black Friday is just a fake name for another Holiday Sale? That the “12 Days of Christmas” is just a countdown to Year-End Clearances? Not to be a Grinch or anything, but what about the BigLaw Bonus Days? What exactly are these law firms selling, and does anybody really care? Bonus Season It’s that time of year when Greedy Associates takes note of the annual bonus throw-down in BigLaw....

Malcolm Gladwell, the journalist famous for books like ‘The Tipping Point’ and ‘Blink,’ is known for his unexpected theories. Those include the assertion that policing small crimes can reduce crime rates overall (the so-called ‘Broken Windows’ theory), that 10,000 hours of practice can make anyone a master, and most recently that half of law students at the most competitive colleges are taking drugs. Now, these aren’t your trashy bath salts and bong hits, of course....

“Think Outside the Bun”. Convicted thief, Anthony Williams seems to have taken Taco Bell’s company slogan to a whole other level. He was arrested after authorities say he tried to sell a police scanner radio to customers at a Taco Bell drive-through, the Trentonian reports. Police say a video shows Williams attempting to get into the police station, but being turned away. Later, police say the 41-year-old man sneaked into police headquarters and allegedly stole a police radio, a computer monitor and a sergeant’s attache case....

Zachary Ramirez was digging himself into a hole about 2 am last Saturday morning. The 21-year-old was pulled over and arrested after a traffic patrolman clocked him going 111 mph in a 45 mph zone in Naperville, Ill. As if that wasn’t enough, Ramirez responded when the officer asked him where he was headed. And as it turns out, he was speeding for sex. Yeah, he was going 66 miles over the speed limit in a bid to get laid....

Cesar Vargas came to the U.S. illegally at the age of five. His status as an undocumented immigration didn’t stop him from pursuing a career in the law. Undocumented aliens generally aren’t able to obtain professional licenses in the U.S. The Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department reviewed Varaga’s case. In the context of Obama’s immigration reform policies, the state appeals court granted Varaga admittance to the New York Bar. After graduating law school and passing the New York Bar, Vargas faced removal due to his undocumented status....

The Pittsburgh Pirates have fired one of their “Racing Pierogi,” a takeoff of the Milwaukee Brewers’ racing sausages. The Pirates fired Pierogi racer Andrew Kurtz after he criticized the contract extensions of general manager Neal Huntington and manager John Russell on his Facebook page. “Coonelly extended the contracts of Russell and Huntington through the 2011 season. That means a 19-straight losing streak. Way to go Pirates.” The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Dan Millar, the Pirates’ mascot coordinator quickly called Kurtz regarding the post, “He called as the game was going on…I told him I didn’t mean anything by it, and he was like, ‘Well, why’d you put it up?...

At this point, everyone knows the dangers of smoking cigarettes. While some people choose to smoke knowing the risks, others are exposed to the risks – and the smells – without a choice. One Democrat in New York is trying to reduce non-smokers’ exposure to cigarette smoke by asking the New York City Council to ban smoking while walking. Adding to the Already Strict Anti-Smoking Laws The city and state of New York already have some of the strictest anti-tobacco laws in the U....

In a significant social media case, the California Supreme Court said Facebook and other social media companies must comply with subpoenas for information that users make public. Facebook v. Superior Court of the City and County of San Francisco is actually based on a criminal case, but it reaches beyond criminal law or procedure. In the underlying matter, Derrick D. Hunter and Lee Sullivan subpoenaed social media communications of a homicide victim and a witness....

In People v. Lara, No. S155481, the California Supreme Court faced a challenge to the court of appeals’ reversal of trial court’s denial of defendant’s motion to dismiss the petition to extend his commitment. The defendant moved to dismiss the petition for failure to comply with the statutory 90-day filing deadline. In holding that the court of appeals erred in directing the trial court to grant the motion to dismiss, the court held that the statutory deadline for filing an extension petition is not mandatory, but rather directory as long as the petition is filed before the expiration of the current commitment....

Raise your hand if, at some point, you got slapped with a student loan bill for more than $1,000 per month. If you haven’t yet, and took out loans for law school, it’s only a matter of time before some idiot loan servicer sends you a bill requesting more than half of your take-home pay. And for many people, their response will be to utter a few choice profanities and then to ignore the letter....

Sometimes the D.C. Circuit hits a bit of a slump, some legal doldrums in which no racy or hard- hitting opinions are released and the political forays are just business as usual. In times like these, it can be prudent to do a nice flyby of the issues that have passed through the D.C. Circuit in the last week, and hope for some fairer legal trade winds in the future....

It’s sad enough when one prospective law student gets rejected, but when the entire law school gets rejected it’s cause for mass depression. That’s what’s happening at Valparaiso University Law School. The struggling law school was on its way to Middle Tennessee State University, but then the state’s higher education commission suddenly turned it down. Valparaiso expressed “disappointment in the decision,” but it’s really worse than that. For 235 law students, it may be the end of the road....

In the medical field, there are physician assistants and nurse practitioners who can offer limited medical diagnosis and treatment without a medical degree. So why shouldn’t there be a category of legal professionals who can offer legal advice without passing the bar? Maybe because we already have too many lawyers and too few jobs? The California State Bar Board of Trustees is mulling the idea of a limited-practice licensing program that would create a new class of professionals who could give legal advice, reports the California Bar Journal....

A Colorado court has ordered cancer-charity scammer Adam Shryock to repay $1.89 million in ill-gotten income and an additional $4 million in civil penalties for running a fake fundraiser called “Boobies Rock!” According to the state’s Attorney General, Shryock regularly sent promotional models into bars to sell “Boobies Rock!"-branded merchandise while leading patrons to believe that they were donating to a breast cancer charity. “Boobies Rock!,” it turns out, was no charity fundraiser, and the money it took never went to breast cancer groups....

‘Do, or do not. There is no try.’ With apologies to Yoda, either you transfer law schools or you don’t. There is no half-way path to a successful law school career. To transfer to a better school, it takes planning. But if you are just winging it, may the Force be with you because there are some bad reasons for transferring law schools. Bad Reason No. 1 Bad grades will not help you in any law school....

As always, there was another episode of How to Get Away With Murder last night, which means that any theory you ever had about who did what to whom has once again be turned on its head. Forget anything I’ve ever said about Bonnie. It’s Philip. It’s Philip who killed the Hapstall parents, Philip who shot Annalise, and Philip who hacked into your World of Warcraft account. So, let’s talk about Philip....

Well, that was unexpected. This week’s episode of How to Get Away With Murder (the zenith of the golden era of television) delivers some very satisfying revelations, tidying up the mess of a plot that we’ve been struggling through for months and introducing a whole new mystery. No more flash forwards. We’ve finally reached the big day. It’s time to watch Annalise get shot. Here’s your spoiler-filled recap of last night’s insane HTGAWM episode....

The writing is on the wall for Pamela Geller, who sued a city bus service that rejected her anti-Muslim ad. Technically, the Metro refused to put her ad on the side of its buses – not the wall. But a federal appeals court upheld the bus service’s policy in a similar case, and the writing is on the wall because Geller’s case is pending. In Archdiocese of Washington v. Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority, the U....