Everyone remembers the scandal that led to Chief Judge Randall R. Rader’s resignation earlier this year, right? The Chief sent an email to his buddy, Edward Reines, a patent attorney at Weil Gotshal’s Silicon Valley office. The email related a third-party judge’s comments that Reines was “IMPRESSIVE in every way,” and Rader added: “I was really proud to be your friend,” before encouraging Reines to let others see the message....
The Federal Circuit recently released a proposed set of amendments to the Federal Circuit Rules of Practice and Procedure that are expected to be a major overhaul of the current rules. The rules are about 60 pages long and the edits themselves compose about six pages worth of red-lining and changes. For those who have any interest in giving their input, you have till January fourth to comment on the proposed amendments....
Patent attorneys may be wondering where to go after a federal appeals court upended a decision involving location services on mobile devices. In a unanimous decision, the appeals court ruled that a patent review board had overstepped its authority in denying the patent as a “covered business method.” Judge Jimmie Reyna said the board used an overbroad definition that would have allowed the board to consider challenges to virtually any device that could be used in commerce....
Forget procreation, sometimes you just have to wonder whether certain people should even legally be allowed to have sex. Luckily for those people, the chance of an injunction against their bedroom activities are slim to none. Unless they live in the U.K. Under British law, the Court of Protection can make important decisions for those who are considered not intelligent enough to do so for themselves. Recently, the Court walked into something a little bit stickier than it bargained for when it took away sex from a man with a low IQ....
There was so much blood that neighbors thought that the victims had been shot. Police responded to an alarm, thinking that they were headed to a home invasion robbery. Instead, it was perhaps the most extreme alleged case of a disgruntled ex-employee that you’ll ever see. Alecia and Andrew Schmuhl, both attorneys, were arraigned this morning on charges of malicious wounding and abduction after they allegedly entered the home of Alecia’s former employer and stabbed both him and his wife....
It’s been a bumpy ride for American Apparel, the Los Angeles-based retail chain. American Apparel stores exploded across the country in the early 2000s, quickly becoming the go-to place for American made t-shirts and hipster spandex leggings. That growth was fueled in part by the image of Dov Charney, American Apparel’s founder and ex-CEO, who seemed capable of spawning sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits almost as adeptly as fawning magazine pieces....
Move over boating DUIs, shopping cart DUIs are this year’s coolest way for Alaskans to be intoxicated aboard a moving object. Just like the time the Fonz jumped that shark, Merrill Keith Moses attempted to tear down walls and let the joy shine in by riding his grocery cart chariot out of the grocery store parking lot and into oncoming traffic, reports United Press International. Despite his future place as an Alaskan folk hero, possibly even on some sort of shopping cart totem pole, Moses bummed us all out by breaking the law....
A California woman’s claim that she was severely burned by spilled McDonald’s coffee was revealed to be a scam when investigators discovered that photographs of the woman’s alleged injuries had been downloaded off the internet. 38-year-old Selena Edwards of Victorville, California had claimed that an unsecured lid on a cup of coffee she ordered in a McDonald’s drive-through had caused serious burns to her hand, reports the Los Angeles Times. The woman submitted photos and medical documents back up her injury claims....
The Court of Federal Claims normally only gets mentioned when its cases are appealed to the Federal Circuit Court. But last week, the Court of Federal Claims was in the news thanks to the largest settlement ever obtained by a single Indian tribe against the U.S. government – $554 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. Mineral Mismanagement The case began in 2006 when the Navajo Nation, the country’s largest Indian tribe, sued the United States for $900 million over mismanagement of royalties from oil, coal, and gas mining on Navajo land....
Apparently North Dakota is not a state. Well, it probably is, but despite 122 years of statehood, the North Dakota Constitution still isn’t quite right. Flouting the requirements of the U.S. Constitution, the state’s executive branch isn’t required to swear allegiance to…the U.S. Constitution. Damn federalism. If this doesn’t make much sense, it’s because it really isn’t supposed to. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution requires legislators, executive, and judicial officers of the several states to take an oath to abide by its contents....
Apparently, there was an election this week. No one really noticed, as the election mostly covered local measures. In fact, so little attention was paid that the City of Sunnyvale, the proud home of LinkedIn, FindLaw, and numerous other tech heavyweights, tacked a measure onto the ballot that passed 66 to 33 percent, and which will almost certainly lead to years of litigation. What did Measure C do? It merely incorporates, on a city-wide level, a handful of gun control efforts that were vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown just last month, and of course, implicates the Second and Fifth Amendments....
Californians approved medical marijuana in 1996, and considered legalizing pot for the general public in 2010, but some communities are hopeful that a California court decision will reign in medical marijuana dispensaries. Last week, anti-drug activists won a challenge in Orange County Superior Court in Qualified Patients Association v. City of Anaheim. The plaintiff in the case, an Anaheim pot dispensary, questioned whether a state law enabling collective growers to sell pot through marijuana dispensaries preempts a city ban on the dispensaries....
In a case that illuminates the tension between negligence and negligence per se standards, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard a case concerning a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) bus. Margaretta Sibert-Dean was injured when the WMATA bus on which she was riding struck a car. Evidence at trial showed that the bus hit the car because the driver was distracted by a gaggle of teenage girls. [Insert your “dirty old man” joke here....
What do you think when a defendant claims that the cops planted evidence, that he or she was framed. Bull crap, right? We know, like Shawshank, everyone’s innocent. And seriously, why would cops risk their careers and livelihood to put some low-level junkie in jail on an “under the influence” charge. Except they did, according to Allison Ross in her civil suit. And they were caught on tape. The worst part is, even with the transcripts from the tape, her story still seems incredible....
It’s not easy being a for-profit law school these days. Just take Arizona Summit, the law school that offered grads $10,000 to skip the bar exam, presumably so that the school’s pass rate wouldn’t tank. Or Florida Coastal School of Law, the law school that recently failed the ABA’s gainful employment test. Then there’s the Charlotte School of Law, which recently had to hold a food drive to support students after the Department of Ed....
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will not be blocking the release of the Ted Stevens report, reports The Wall Street Journal. To refresh your recollection, the 500-page report deals with the 2008 corruption case against the late Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. In 2008, Senator Stevens was convicted of lying on financial disclosure forms. The following year, the conviction was tossed when it was discovered that certain evidence had not been disclosed; evidence which would have helped Senator Stevens in his defense....
If you have been an avid or occasional reader of this blog, you probably noticed something. A list. Or two. Or more. There are lists about getting into law school, getting out, and the gradients in between. And luckily, you seem to like lists. That is, at least, judging by the popularity of posts which happened to be lists. So here are a few of your favorite lists bundled together for you in, well, a handy list…...
In an indemnity action arising from a lawsuit brought by a homeowner’s association (HOA) over defective conditions in a condominium complex, trial court’s order requiring defendant to reimburse plaintiff for the defense costs it had incurred in defending the HOA claims is affirmed where: 1) the indemnity provision does not state that there must be an underlying claim of negligence specifically against defendant in order to trigger its defense obligation; 2) the trial court did not err in its determination that plaintiff’s claims were not barred by illegality of the parties’ contracts; and 3) defendant failed to establish that it had incurred expenses that were attributable to plaintiff’s failure to file a statutory certificate....
Breaking News: Former judge Vaughn Walker did not need to recuse himself from hearing the Prop 8 same-sex marriage case. This ruling came in earlier today by federal judge James Ware, writes The Wall Street Journal. If you’re unfamiliar with the Vaughn Walker case, you’re likely asking yourself why he needed to recuse himself. The answer to that is very simple for Prop 8 supporters: Because he’s gay. Last year, Judge Vaughn Walker struck down Proposition 8, concluding that it violated the rights of same-sex couples....
You may have heard the law student urban legend: If you claim to have a disability like attention deficit disorder, you will receive more or unlimited time to take the state bar exam. While you may have contemplated listing your symptoms (such as an inability to sit through an hour-long TV show) as a legitimate disability, most of you probably thought better and sat for the bar exam without any accommodations....
