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When Volkswagen first got caught cheating emissions tests in 2014, Oliver Schmidt was right to think his company might have a problem. “It should first be decided whether we are honest,” he said in an email to a Volkswagen colleague in April 2014. Schmidt was working as an executive over emissions testing in the United States at the time, but was transferred to Germany after the revelations led to a fiasco that has cost the company so far about $20 billion to pay for recalls, settlements, and criminal defense....

What will law firms of the future look like? Probably a lot different than the BigLaw model we know today. And it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. Twenty-five years ago, way back in the 1980s, things like the Internet, cell phones, and email did not exist for law firms. So how did lawyers do their work? Well, with heavy reliance on their secretaries, paralegals, and other support staff....

We at Legally Weird specialize in the odd, the absurd, the sometimes creepy side of American law. Therefore, out of sheer necessity, we have developed a few specialties. Crime linked to fast food restaurants. Bizarre uses of the 911 system. Lawsuits that would make Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia weep. An unfortunately growing specialty seems to be that of dead bodies and the above-ground adventures of those that have already “passed....

James Gilliland Jr., a prominent San Francisco attorney, was killed in front of his home on October 27th. Gilliland was a partner at Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton LLP, where he worked on litigation, representing companies like Oracle, Sony, Williams-Sonoma, and Levi Strauss in intellectual property and other disputes. In the weeks since Gilliland’s death, investigators have yet to establish a motive for the killing. Now, an anonymous donor is offering $50,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of Gilliland’s killer....

A YouTube prank in which four men were detained by officers after admitting to having a trunk full of “coke,” as in the soft drink, is drawing less than rave reviews from the Los Angeles Police Department. Video of the prank has gone viral since being posted on YouTube earlier this week, racking up more than 700,000 views in just over four days. But the LAPD is not impressed, reports Los Angeles’ KCBS-TV....

Three University of Vermont (UVM) students are accused of stealing, killing, and eating a frat house’s chicken. UVM police allege that Cameron Dube, Darien Newman, and Hannah Jackman, all 18, snuck into the Alpha Gamma Rho frat house in Burlington, Vermont, snatched a chicken, then killed, plucked, and ate it. The students were originally facing trespass and theft charges, but the Burlington Free Press reports that the three chicken snatchers have been “referred to the university’s reparative board....

How far would you go for a theft? Would you squeeze yourself into a suitcase? One contortionist thief would, in an elaborate two-person suitcase theft scheme aboard an airport bus in Barcelona. Sometimes, when a friend goes on a trip that we wish we could go on, we jokingly say that we wish we could hide in their suitcase. Well, these two men certainly brought a whole new dimension to “hiding in a suitcase....

In what other state in this great nation would a sheriff’s deputy package toy dynamite in a box, insert a note saying “Boom,” and use interoffice mail to send it to his lieutenant as a prank? Former Pinellas County Sheriff’s Deputy James Piper, a 59-year-old with 35 years on the force did just that, leading to the evacuation of the administration building and his own resignation. Apparently not everyone thinks fake bombs are funny....

In celebration of Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week,” now in its 26th year, we thought it’d be only appropriate to remind you about some shark laws. Because despite Steven Spielberg’s still incredibly frightening thriller that might peg sharks as our enemies, they’re not. And like many other misunderstood creatures, the law does what it can to protect and treat them fairly. So, with that said, here are five shark laws that you may not know about:...

Inmate’s petition for a writ of mandate seeking review of trial court’s ruling sustaining demurrers to several of her and her infant daughter’s causes of action for physical injury and emotional distress is granted in part where: 1) the trial court properly sustained the demurrer as to plaintiff’s causes of action for negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and intentional infliction of emotional distress against the state, as well as her cause of action for “failure to furnish medical care to prisoner” against the state and state employees, as plaintiff was a prisoner and the defendants are entitled to immunity under the Tort Claims Act; 2) plaintiff’s infant daughter was not a prisoner within the meaning of Gov Code section 844, and thus, defendants are not entitled to claim the protection of the special immunity provisions set forth in Gov Code section 844....

Early in Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America,” the lawyer and arch-villain Roy Cohn, multitasking between phone calls, sandwiches, and an interview, declares “I wish I was an octopus, a f—ing octopus. Eight loving arms and all those suckers.” That sentiment would be shared with more than a few other lawyers. Imagine, three arms for billing clients, two to check your stocks, another for booking theater ticket and one for patting yourself on the back....

YouTube user ‘Bacon Moose’ was annoyed by the traffic ticket he got in a town he called a ‘money trap.’ To show the police how he felt he went to pay his ticket in one dollar bills folded into origami pigs. The traffic fine was for $137 which is a lot of little pigs. He packed them up in donut boxes to present to the police. When he showed up to make his payment it didn’t go as smoothly as planned....

Edward Neely of Jefferson, Mo. has his baby back. Or at least his stolen 1969 Camaro. Nicknamed “Chelsey Pearl,” Neely purchased the car when he was 18. In 1995, the car was stolen, and hadn’t been seen since. That is, until he spotted it in an online ad. Armed with a report from the Syracuse police, Neely hightailed it out to Utah last week, where the car was located. It’s since been returned to its rightful home in Missouri....

When the U.S. Supreme Court begins its next session in October, the first question from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to her colleagues could be: “Did you read my new book?” “The RBG Workout: How She Stays Strong … And You Can Too!” hits the bookstores Oct. 3. The 84-year-old justice did not write the book, but she is the star. Her trainer put it together with her permission, of course....

The good news is the Trump administration is looking at rules that could make it easier for students to bankrupt school debt. The bad news is that it’s not really up to the administration; the legislature has the power to change the rules and the courts have the job of interpreting them. For now, lenders like the rules the way they are. In any case, nobody really likes the dark doors of bankruptcy court....

A New York postal carrier is accused of hoarding 40,000 pieces of mail in his apartment, car, and post office locker. Joseph Brucato, 67, admitted that he had been hoarding the undelivered mail since 2005, reports the New York Post. It took postal agents five hours to remove more than 2,500 pounds of mail that Brucato had squirreled away, including letters, magazines, and coupon books. How did authorities discover Brucato’s stash, and what kind of charges might he now face?...

Google has walked away victorious in a suit brought against it first in 2011 by SimpleAir in which allegations that Google violated patent law with its cloud computing services. Judge Wallach concluded that “no reasonable jury could have found patent infringement” under proper claim construction. It’s shaping up to be a good couple of days for the giant Internet company as it also posted a victory in its legal dispute with GeoTag....

Are you interested in the ways the law impacts non-human animals? Are you fascinated about the rights of primates, or the implications of biomedical science? Do you just want to hug every cat? Well, then you might be interested in animal law – and luckily, there are a few openings in this niche practice area. So, push your cat off your keyboard and load up your resume. This week, as part of our affiliate relationship with Indeed, we’re bringing you the coolest three legal jobs we could find dealing with animals and the law....

We have to say it: we’re a little disappointed in the Uber settlement – and not because it doesn’t give drivers enough cash, or because we’d rather not tip. The settlement means that one of the biggest questions of the modern “gig economy” goes unanswered. We still don’t know: are the thousands of on-demand workers, at companies like Uber, Lyft, and Postmates, employees or independent contractors? Uber announced yesterday that it was settling two massive class actions brought by its drivers....

Did you know UC Irvine has a law school? Federal judges certainly do. UC Irvine’s 2012 clerkship rate exceeds even prestigious rivals like Harvard Law. This coming from a school that just opened its doors in 2009 and isn’t even fully accredited by the American Bar Association. Surely someone over at Harvard is getting a tongue lashing right about now. UC Irvine placed about 1/5 of its graduates into federal clerkships....