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Yesterday, San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi was sentenced to one day in jail and three years’ probation for false imprisonment in a domestic violence incident. While the plea agreement provided plenty of headline fodder — sheriffs are supposed to enforce the laws, not break them — Mirkarimi might have been able to walk away from the incident scot-free if an evidence ruling had been decided differently. Sheriff Mirkarimi and his wife, Eliana Lopez, had an argument on New Year’s Eve that turned into a physical altercation....

Paul Manafort should have packed his toothbrush before going to court. That’s because he wasn’t going home after Judge Amy Berman Jackson sent him to jail for allegedly tampering with witnesses while he was out on bail. Jackson said she had no choice. “I cannot turn a blind eye to this,” she said in the Washington courtroom. “This is not middle-school. I can’t take away his cell phone.” Now Manafort is in jail – without his toothbrush or his cell phone....

Conviction for grand theft and perjury is affirmed where the trial court properly denied defendant’s motion to dismiss based on the statute of limitations, as a third-party disbursing contractor is not the victim when a person defrauds a government funded program, and thus defendant did not establish as a matter of law that the statute of limitations on his crimes ran before the People filed the complaint. Read People v. Moore, No....

Trial court’s conviction of defendant for first-degree residential burglary and related crimes is affirmed as there was no prejudicial error or any constitutional due process violation, and even assuming that defendant had a possessory interest in the apartment under the lease at the time of the charged crimes, this was not a complete defense to the burglary charge because there was substantial evidence he had moved out of the apartment prior to the crimes and therefore no longer had an unconditional possessory interest in the apartment unit....

You’ve heard of dog attacks, but what about a pet duck attack? A woman from Washington claims that she suffered injuries after a pet duck ambushed her for no apparent reason. Cynthia Ruddell, 62, was on her mother’s property in Oregon when a neighbor’s duck allegedly attacked her without provocation, according to Reuters. She claims to have suffered a broken wrist and sprained elbow and shoulder. Ruddell is claiming that the duck’s owner failed to control her pet....

A woman from Harlem is claiming that a Rihanna-endorsed lipstick gave her herpes. Starkeema Greenidge, 28, was at a Rihanna concert in Brooklyn where a MAC Cosmetics representative let her sample a used stick of “RiRi Woo.” A couple days later, Greenidge says she discovered a cold sore on her lip, which her doctor subsequently diagnosed as herpes. She couldn’t work for two weeks, an ordeal that “cost me a lot of money,” she told the New York Daily News....

Roger Stone, the embroiled political consultant, sent the wrong message to a federal judge. Stone posted an Instagram message that showed a picture of Judge Amy Berman Jackson with a target-like image behind her. He realized his misstep, however, and quickly apologized to the judge. It was a good thing he apologized because the judge is presiding over Stone’s criminal case. It could also be too little, too late. Instagram Post Stone is facing charges he obstructed justice and lied to Congress....

Am. Nurses Ass’n v. O’Connell, No. C061150, concerned an action against the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the California Department of Education (CDE) challenging a portion of a legal advisory regarding the rights of students with disabilities in K-12 public schools, arising from a 2005 class action settlement. In affirming the trial court’s judgment and peremptory writ of mandate issued, the court held that California law does not allow designated voluntary school personnel, who are not licensed nurses, to administer insulin to diabetic students who require the injections under a section 504 Plan or Individualized Education Program....

By some estimates, there are around 6 million car accidents every year, injuring some 3 million Americans. Many of those accidents are simple fender benders, and most are covered by insurance. But some can involve serious injuries, and insurance doesn’t always compensate you for all the costs. So, you might be considering filing an injury lawsuit, and you’ll definitely need to tell your insurance company about the accident. But when is it too late to do either of those things?...

When someone asks a law student for a legal opinion, it’s usually somebody like your uncle at the dinner table wanting advice about a traffic ticket. Well, “Uncle” Philip R. Shawe just upped the ante for soliciting legal opinions from law students. And unlike your real relative, he’s even offering to pay for it. Shawe, co-chief executive officer of TransPerfect Global, has offered $100,000 to the law school students who prepare the best argument to the United States Supreme Court regarding the sale of his company....

Convenience can be a patentable quality when creating a glucose monitor. Friday, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals found that the USPTO’s rejection of Abbott Diabetes Care’s glucose monitor technology was unreasonable due in part to the inconvenient wires protruding from the non-Abbott glucose monitors. Abbott owns two patents that describe methods and devices for “the in vivo monitoring of an analyte using an electrochemical sensor to provide information to a patient about the level of analyte in the bloodstream....

Frank Abagnale, Jr. began his famous autobiography, Catch Me If You Can, by saying that “a man’s alter ego is nothing more than his favorite image of himself.” One can only wonder if Adam Wheeler was thinking the same thing when he allegedly created an elaborate scam that included faking his way into a Harvard College acceptance. Wheeler, 23, is accused of forging and fabricating documents as well as receiving over $45,000 from Harvard in grants and financial aid....

When it comes to pejorative phrases that get directed at attorneys, none are more dreaded than the oft cast lampoon: Ambulance chaser. The simple fact is that attorneys cannot chase ambulances without risking their most valuable asset, their license to practice. Recently, a Texas state representative, Ron Reynolds, had his conviction upheld on appeal of a scheme to solicit clients after car crashes and hospitalizations by using a third party. While Reynolds wasn’t lacing up his running shoes and taking to the streets, the third party reviewed police reports of injury accidents in order to contact victims for medical services, and then would refer those injury victims to Reynolds for legal representation....

In what some of have called the case of the “most-litigated email message in American jurisprudence,” the score is now Google Inc.: 0, Oracle, Corp.: 7. Google lost another attempt to exclude a potentially-damning email written by one of its engineers as it fights a Java patent infringement lawsuit filed by Oracle. This time, it was the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals that held the email was not protected by the attorney-client privilege – even though one of its recipients was a Google in-house lawyer – since it clearly did not discuss legal strategy prepared in advance of litigation....

The kids are out of school and you’re still stuck working nights and weekends trying to make your billable hours. Sure, you’d much rather spend your days taking the little ones to the beach, instead of sitting through another status call or polishing off a memo, but that’s not always possible. So, lawyers with children, what exactly can you do to deal with the kids over the summer? Law firm jobs aren’t exactly amenable to child rearing....

These guys might be more annoying than that dog that used to shill for Taco Bell. Remember the shrill voiced Chihuahua demanding tacos in the commercials? Two football players from Baylor University in Texas did something so ridiculous, they are making that dog look savvy. Willie Jefferson and Josh Gordon were arrested early Sunday morning when cops found them passed out in their car in the drive thru lane at a Taco Bell near the Baylor campus....

A South Carolina man was sentenced to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to having sex with a horse. He was caught on video tape. According to the Associated Press, Rodell Vereen, 50, was also ordered by the judge Wednesday to undergo mental health treatment once he is released and never to go near the stable. In addition, Judge Larry Hyman sentenced Vereen to three years in prison for violating his probation relating to another buggery charge from a 2007 (with the same horse)....

The human body is weak. We are soft, fleshy. We tire easily, can work barely 16 hours a day. We demand standing desks, days off, health care. When thrown against a wall of endless document review, legal research, contract revisions, motion practice, we crumble. Robots, however, are resilient. They need none of Man’s comforts – or even pay. And now, when it comes to the boring, rote work that many flesh-bound lawyers slog through day-by-day, at least one firm has decided that robots make a better fit....

Will Qualcomm accept Broadcom’s offer to buy the mobile-phone chipmaker? According to reports, the offer was a 28 percent premium over the stock’s closing price. In a transaction valued at $130 billion, it seems like an offer Qualcomm can’t refuse. Of course, things change everyday – especially in technology. But if the deal goes through, it would be the largest acquisition in tech history. Broadcom Broadcom is on an ambitious campaign to become the world’s third largest chipmaker, reports Ars Technica....

Way back in May, Donald Trump released his first list of potential Supreme Court nominees. Among those named was Eleventh Circuit Judge William Pryor. Now that Trump has won the presidency, he has recommitted to picking a justice from that group. Pryor could be a good fit. He’s extremely conservative, emphatically against Roe v. Wade and gay rights. The fact that Trump has started packing his cabinet with controversial right wingers doesn’t hurt Pryor’s chances either....