What’s a lawyer by any other name? Well, if the U.S. Supreme Court has anything to say, if the names are close enough, they’re suspended. At least temporarily or until someone tells them that they got the wrong lawyer. For the second time this year, the High Court has acted, well, rather high and hasty. In issuing a suspension against one James Robbins of New York, the hasty High Court accidentally suspended Jim Robbins of San Francisco....
A heroic Chihuahua chased robbers who had entered into the Ace Smoke Shop in Altadena, California. Paco the Chihuahua is only 15 pounds, which means that his bark is probably worse than his bite. But, the robbers don’t know that. The two robbers broke into the Altadena store earlier in July, armed with shotguns. They demanded some cash. That’s when Paco rushed in, reports LA Weekly. Unfortunately, while Paco’s yelping and barking were enough to probably annoy the two would-be robbers, the two still managed to make it away with some of the cash in the backpack, reports LA Weekly....
In the spirit of Mother’s Day, we’re bringing you the top five blogs for female lawyers, specifically, for lawyer moms. Any female lawyer who is also juggling the job of being a mother will tell you that “juggling” is the right word. The career of law is difficult enough as it is, without the struggles of motherhood. Some of these blogs talk about legal issues, others talk about the struggles of being a working mother....
It’s a much-lamented fact of life that student loan debt is basically non-dischargeable. Can’t pay your credit card debts? File bankruptcy. Can’t handle hospital bills? File bankruptcy. Can’t pay your student loans? Move to Djibouti. For one lucky law grad, however, he’ll be slightly closer to debt-free, despite three failed attempts at the bar, a single-income household, and the Ninth Circuit’s affirmation of a lower court’s holding that even if he were to pass the bar, he probably wouldn’t make much more than he does now....
Ah, to be a lawyer. The prestige, the wealth, the simple nobility of the legal profession! Sound good? Of course! If only real life matched the fantasy. The fact is, a career in the legal profession isn’t for everyone. The hours are grueling, the work draining, the job prospects shaky. But if you love it, you love it. Luckily, for those considering becoming a lawyer, there’s plenty of opportunities to test out the legal profession before getting a J....
When should you go to law school? We may have not-so-subtly suggested a thousand times that perhaps you just shouldn’t, but of course we haven’t forgotten about those of you who are still dead-set on pursuing a legal career. Perhaps you’re a fresh-faced, straight-out-of-undergrad future barrister, eager to get your Elle Woods on right away. Or perhaps you’re at a crossroads, and are waiting for the right moment to change course and go back to school....
It’s not often that a perfect storm of irony rolls into town. But a woman name Fellony has been charged with, you guess it, felony battery after a bar fight in Indiana. In what must be the most unfortunate case of a child living up to her name, Fellony Silas, 30, allegedly smashed a glass against a woman’s forehead. The altercation started after the 24-year-old victim bumped into Fellony on the bar’s dance floor, The Smoking Gun reports....
Things heat up in this week’s episode of #HTGAWM as Sam’s sister comes snooping around, asking all these crazy questions like “Where’s Sam?,” “Why aren’t you looking for Sam?,” and “Did you kill Sam?” What a busybody. We also learn how the gang spent Christmas break, and then Annalise treats us to a new lesson: How not to represent your client – if you want to keep your law license, that is....
Guess what’s legal in Oregon? Snapping upskirt photos of a 13-year-old girl in a Target store. That’s what 61-year-old Patrick Buono of Portland was accused of doing. And even though a trial judge said his actions were “lewd” and “appalling,” he didn’t actually do anything illegal. How can it be that snapping such pictures isn’t illegal? It turns out that Oregon’s law is too specific as to what it prohibits....
Arrested for twerking? What is this, “Footloose”? Well, not exactly. Brittany Medak, 20, Christie Valazquez Coura, 20, and Leokham Yothsombath, 22, were arrested in Beaverton, Oregon, but the arrest likely had little to do with the dancing itself. According to The Oregonian, the trio started twerking in the parking lot of Beaverton’s City Hall, immediately after one of them paid a fine. The exhibition wasn’t complete, however, as the girls reportedly flashed their genitals at the building before one of them lifted her skirt and urinated between two cars....
An Anaheim pimp prevailed in a death penalty appeal before the California Supreme Court yesterday for the 1995 burning death of a prostitute. The unanimous court ruled trial judge failed to articulate that jurors had to find that the pimp meant to kidnap his victim, as well as kill her, to warrant the death penalty, reports the Associated Press. The victim, Kelly Gordon, was a prostitute who worked for defendant Gary Galen Brents....
We’ve all seen the creative ways that expectant parents reveal the sex of their baby. Countless parents have cut into pink and blue cakes, popped colorful confetti filled balloons, and even made ridiculous videos that only their families can really enjoy. However, one soon to be dad went a bit too far and is now facing criminal charges as a result of the booming reveal. Jon Sterkel, of Nebraska, made a binary explosive, also known as an explosive target, mixed with blue chalk....
Defense attorneys do more than represent criminals. Apparently, they also make friends with them when there are nefarious deeds to be done. This seems to be the case with Frank Carson, a defense attorney in Modesto, California who allegedly used his criminal connections to mastermind a murder-to-hire plot. In jail since last Friday, Carson is currently held without bail. If all goes well for the prosecutors, Carson may indeed be able to continue developing his relationships with criminals – as he spends quality time with them behind bars....
The local press is calling it a morality tale. We here at Legal Grounds are calling it business as usual. An unnamed woman and her boyfriend decided to go fishing the week before Thanksgiving down in Galveston, reports The Daily News. Deciding that the weather was too cold for her two-year-old, the woman returned the boy to the car, strapped him into the seat and left the heater (and thus, the car) running while she went to do the more important job of helping her boyfriend with the fishing tackle....
Do you remember with great anticipation getting ready to tie the knot? There were all those tasks that needed to be done, like getting a copy of the marriage certificate, contacting the Social Security Office about changing your name, changing your name with the DMV, opening up joint credit cards, and getting both names on the property deed of your new forever home? Well, after a divorce, you have a similar laundry list of things to do....
We teased the premise of the Obamacare subsides lawsuits back in October on our U.S. Supreme Court blog, but since then, one of the cases has proceeded all the way through oral arguments at the D.C. Circuit. Last week, while the Supreme Court was hearing oral arguments in the contraception mandate lawsuit, the D.C. Circuit was hearing its own oral arguments in Halbig v. Sebelius (the subsidy dispute), with two of the three judges appearing to be inclined to side against the IRS and Obamacare....
Jobs reports can be confusing, even for law graduates and licensed lawyers. But when one report says unemployment is at the lowest level in two decades and you still don’t have a job, it can be infuriating. And how is it that the employment rate for law grads is the highest since the recession, and you’re still sending out resumes?! If that’s you, or if jobs reports just make you want to scratch your head, here are some reasons it seems like everybody else got a law job:...
We all want to pay less taxes, and we all know that dependents get you extra tax breaks. Most of us know that you shouldn’t lie about the number of dependents you have, and I’m pretty sure that almost all of us know that you shouldn’t put on ad on Craigslist looking for kids to claim as your dependents so you can get a bigger tax refund. All of us except for Raheem McClain, that is....
With more and more Americans becoming soccer fans every year, Thursday’s kickoff of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil will likely be a much-discussed event. It might also be the subject of a great deal of wagering. According to The Las Vegas Review-Journal, the World Cup is still no Super Bowl in terms of total amounts wagered, but some of the matches played will get as much action as a football game – American football, that is – at Vegas’ sports books....
It’s either one heck of a way to celebrate “Shark Week” or some good old fashioned synchronicity: A church in Texas cooked up 75 pounds of shark meat taken from a whopping 809-pound tiger shark donated to the church earlier this month. But while the shark feed was certainly a noble gesture (except in the eyes of the shark, perhaps), was it legal? Most regulation of shark fishing is left to individual states....
