For most Americans, the holiday season is a time for feast, family, and fun. That is, unless you’re a BigLaw associate. If you are, you’re probably trying to figure out the best way to explain to your parents that you have to write 3 motions before Santa can hit the chimney. That whole “no smartphones” at the table rule that your relatives love to employ? That simply won’t work – you’ve got work to do....
If you’re jogging backwards in Florida, you’re weird but not unlawful. A Florida judge has dismissed a backward jogger’s traffic ticket, ruling the man is free to roam in reverse as long as he stays in bike lanes. The reverse runner was slapped with a ticket for obstructing traffic in Miami Beach in April. But this week, the case against him hit the skids. In Florida, it’s against the law for a person to willfully obstruct a public street, highway, or road by standing or approaching cars or pedestrians too closely....
Ending a story that may never be told in court, UC Berkeley School of Law has settled a controversial sexual harassment case against the school and its former dean. Sujit Choudhry, who resigned as dean last year after a former assistant sued him for sexual harassment, has settled the case. So has the university, which will pay $1.7 million to Tyann Sorrell and her attorneys. Although the settlement agreement with the university is confidential, it has already been released on the internet....
In what had the appearances of being a major legal battle over arsenic levels in California wines, the industry scored a major win when Judge Shepard Wiley dismissed a lawsuit against 83 California wine brands. Celebrations are sure to follow the defendants’ successful demurrer of the suit Doris Charles v. The Wine Group. Despite the loss, plaintiff’s lawyers have vowed to keep on the fight. In the meantime, we can enjoy the quiet with a little wine....
California’s Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, was passed in 2006. It set the goal of hitting early 1990s greenhouse gas emission levels by 2020, and does so though a “cap and trade” system. California sets a statewide cap on carbon emissions, awards permits to affected companies, and then the companies are free to buy, sell, and trade between themselves. There are also a number of permits that are held back....
Managers for the Options Public Charter School are accused of diverting millions of dollars in government funds toward their own businesses, and the District of Columbia is suing them for it. According to The Washington Post, the Options school was intended to serve “the District’s most troubled teens and students with disabilities,” but at least $3 million earmarked for the school were allegedly siphoned away by sophisticated contracting scam. The District’s complaint claims these school managers funneled state money into their own private contracting businesses and much more....
Being a pro cheerleader looks like a pretty good gig, but the more we learn about how professional sports teams treat their cheerleaders, the less fun it sounds. Most recently, the Cincinnati Ben-Gals, the same Bengals cheerleaders subjected to dehumanizing rules like “no panties” and “so slouching breasts,” just reached a $255,000 settlement with the team over federal wage and hour violations. Cheerleaders may now officially be employees, but they aren’t getting compensated like their male athletic counterparts just yet....
California’s Fourth Appellate District Court said bah-humbug to a plaintiff’s motion for default judgment on Wednesday, finding that the plaintiff’s allegations had not sufficiently supported the judgment he sought. The Fourth Appellate District overturned a trial court’s default judgment in favor of Plaintiff-Respondent Gil Kim, finding that - despite the defendants’ failure to respond - Kim had not sufficiently pleaded factual allegations to support judgment in his favor. After disposing of its business with Kim, the court slapped his attorney, Timothy Donahue, with $10,000 in attorney sanctions....
In the summer of 2006, Hezbollah militants killed more than 1,000 civilians in a bloody attack on Northern Israel. After kidnapping and killing several Israeli soldiers, they fired thousands of rockets into civilian cities, towns, and villages. When it was over, nearly 2,000 people were dead. Some years later, survivors sued for their injuries in Kaplan v. Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Unfortunately, their battles are not over....
Chalk up another “W” for Alan Gura, the Second Amendment Foundation, and concealed carry advocates everywhere. Washington, D.C., is home of some of the nation’s most stringent gun laws, including a handgun registration requirement and a complete ban on concealed or open carrying outside of one’s home. Or at least it was: It may soon have a pretty lax carrying policy after the District’s ban was struck down by a federal district court....
It is generally unheard of for an employer to have to ban employees winking at each other. Rules regarding employee misconduct usually are not that specific. However, when employees communicate via emojis, an employer might want to make sure everyone is at least on the same page as to emoji etiquette and proper usage. After all, the last thing you want is your HR being overrun because of a kissy face emoji....
This week, 61-year-old Ana Rockman of Long Island, New York turned herself in to police for a crime that occurred in 2015. Rockman has been charged with breaking into her ex-husband’s home and destroying antiques, appliances, artwork, electronics, instruments, and more. The total value of the damaged property is estimated at $350,000, as several of the items were highly valued. She was released from custody on $5,000 bail, but is facing felony burglary and criminal mischief charges....
A Facebook post kept Rodney Bradford from facing possible criminal charges. The 19-year-old was arrested on Ocober 18 as a robbery suspect in New York. But Bradford’s defense lawyer said the young man couldn’t have committed the crime because at the time of the robbery he posted a Facebook status update from a computer at his father’s apartment in Harlem. The prosecutor’s office subpoenaed records from the social media company and authenticated Bradford’s alibi, the New York Times reported....
A recent lawsuit filed against Brandon Spikes, of the Buffalo Bills, is seeking payment of a court judgment that was the result of unpaid fish services performed by “the Fish Guy.” Spikes, apart for being known for his ability to tackle and move back and forth between the Bills and Patriots, enjoys his tropical fish. Unfortunately, during one of the moves between Buffalo and New England, tropical fish drama ensued. Following the fish drama, the Fish Guy filed his fishy lawsuit....
A recently filed motion in the ongoing legal saga prompted by the Netflix series Making a Murderer has legal commentators questioning the Steven Avery matter once again. After Brendan Dassey’s conviction was overturned, it seems like Avery’s attorneys are trying to get the same result. According to the recent motion, crucial new evidence has been discovered, which, if believed, could potentially, circumstantially, just maybe, exonerate Avery. Avery’s defense posits that several pieces of new evidence paint a rather compelling picture that Bobby Dassey (not Brendan) murdered Teresa Halbach....
When a court says jump, lawyers generally ask how high, especially after exhausting all appeals and being threatened with terminating sanctions. But, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, which is the governing organization for the Jehovah’s Witness congregations nationwide, didn’t jump when ordered to produce a set of documents. Instead it kept coming back to the merits of the case, insisting that the documents were irrelevant, even after being told to produce the documents multiple times and being threatened with severe terminating sanctions for failing to take the court’s last chance offer....
Not all arrests were created equal in terms of ridiculousness, or creepiness. Recently, a New York county judge, yes a judge, was arrested due to an alleged burglary at a neighbor’s home. Apparently though, the judge wasn’t after the family jewels, or anything traditionally valuable, but rather, the family’s underwear. It is alleged that Judge Robert Cicale broke into his neighbor’s home, stole soiled women’s underwear from the hamper, and then fled when the neighbor’s 23 year old daughter saw him in the house, standing in her doorway....
The highest-earning female athlete in the world admitted she failed a drug test for a banned performance enhancing substance. Maria Sharapova announced on Monday she tested positive for meldonium at January’s Australian Open. So what in the world is meldonium? How long will Sharapova be suspended, if at all? And what does that mean for her sponsorships, which have paid her in the neighborhood of $200 million? A Glaring Admission Sharapova didn’t just admit to failing one drug test – the tennis star said she had been taking meldonium for the last ten years to treat a magnesium deficiency and irregular EKG results....
When it comes to President Trump’s plan for public service loan forgiveness, forget about it. There is no forgiveness for law students who go into public service jobs under the new plan. The American Bar Association sensed it was coming when Trump won the election, and now it is getting real. If the budget goes through, the kick-to-the-gut won’t kick in until next July. Better borrow like there is no tomorrow, or forget about it....
A Texas man will definitely be remembering the Alamo, as he’s pleaded guilty to urinating on the historic monument. And this is why we can’t have nice things. In spite of the saying “when you gotta go, you gotta go,” Daniel Athens, 23, of El Paso, cut a deal with the district attorney and pleaded guilty to criminal mischief, UPI reports. The DA’s office even issued a press release about it, entitled “Don’t Whizz On the Alamo....
