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Political questions dominate this week’s T.G.I.FindLaw! These questions aren’t as pressing as those faced by presidential candidates, but they do bring up some legal curiosities: 1. What happened to John Kerry’s face? Hockey happened. And he probably can’t sue. The image of Sen. John Kerry’s black eyes and broken nose shocked millions of our fellow Americans during Tuesday’s State of the Union Address. Turns out, Kerry reported for duty at a pick-up hockey game with family and friends, The Washington Post reports....

In October, we noted that transgendered golfer Lana Lawless had filed suit against the LPGA and the Long Drivers of America to remove rules that banned her from competition. The LPGA players themselves addressed the issue, handing Lawless (and other transgendered women) a win. The players voted Dec. 1 to remove the rule requiring LPGA golfers be “female at birth” to compete in tournaments. Lawless filed suit to prevent the LPGA and the Long Drivers of America from holding events in California as long as they were allegedly in violation of the state’s civil rights laws....

A UVA law student broke into the University Registrar’s Office to steal official transcript paper. The student, Joshua Peter Gomes, was charged with two counts of breaking and entering and another count of possession of burglary tools. Some might wonder why Gomes would risk it all by breaking into the office. If you’re one of those people, you must not be an attorney or a law student. In this economy, OCI can be incredibly difficult....

A Florida man was arrested after allegedly fighting with a restaurant manager. The two were fighting because the customer was reportedly having sex with his girlfriend on a table at the restaurant, and the manager wanted them to stop. Some people are turned on by whips and chains. And others are apparently turned on by having an audience – apparently even if that audience includes children. Jeremie Calo, 32, reportedly was making out with his unidentified date at the Orlando-area restaurant....

Rumor has it that using an exercise ball instead of a regular office chair brings a number of health benefits. In addition to forcing your core muscles to work constantly to maintain stability, it also burns calories and helps your posture. Such benefits would almost make up for looking like the office weirdo. Those are the rumored benefits, anyway. Out of sheer boredom, and as part of my post-law school fitness obsession, I figured what the heck: worst case scenario, I do mad crunches between slamming protein and creatine shakes in my cubicle....

Leave it to a UC Santa Cruz student to construct a two-pound joint worth an estimated $15,000. From the perspective of the toker, police patrolling the University of California, Santa Cruz campus totally vaporized the fun at a 4/20 party when they confiscated the colossal marijuana joint. Here’s a video clip of the massive joint being confiscated, which has now gone viral: The 4/20 celebration at UC Santa Cruz reportedly drew thousands of revelers, The Huffington Post reports....

Junior associate, senior associate, partner – it’s great to have titles, but these days, you can make up your own title to inflate both your self-importance and your outward appearance of importance. As they say in writing class, “Show me, don’t tell me.” Your title might say you’re a “senior” whatever, but how do you know when you’ve finally “arrived” at your firm? The Law Firm hierarchy will tell you....

Say farewell to Pendergrass. The California Supreme Court on Monday overruled the 78-year old limitation on the fraud exception to the parol evidence rule, finding that the ruling was “ill-considered.” The fraud exception is a longstanding one, and is usually stated in broad terms. In 1935, however, the California Supreme Court adopted a limitation on the fraud exception in Bank of America Assn. v. Pendergrass: Evidence offered to prove fraud “must tend to establish some independent fact or representation, some fraud in the procurement of the instrument or some breach of confidence concerning its use, and not a promise directly at variance with the promise of the writing....

Your face is yours forever, but so are many pics and videos online. Scary, isn’t it? You don’t know the half of it. In a sign of the times, questions are being raised over the legality of swapping people’s faces onto pornographic videos and images. It’s an uncomfortable subject that leads to uncomfortable answers from legislators and lawyers. “Deepfakes” is the eponymous term for editing in someone else’s face to an otherwise real pornographic video....

According to Charles Oakley, an assault last year in Las Vegas has left his coaching future with the Charlotte Bobcats in jeopardy. He has since sued the Aria Hotel. The lawsuit alleges that the assault led to his back pain. Oakley, who is 6'9", was punched and handcuffed after an argument with Aria Hotel security. The argument was about whether or not Oakley could return to a VIP area of the hotel pool area....

Scott Johnson, a quadriplegic attorney from the Sacramento area, best known for representing the rights of disabled individuals has been sued for sexual harassment. Johnson has sued thousands of businesses for violating the rights of the disabled, but he now finds the tables turned as four of his former legal assistants have named him in a sexual harassment lawsuit, reports the New York Daily News. The plaintiffs claim they were forced to dress and undress Johnson, place him in swim trunks, and rub lotion on his body, writes the Daily News....

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that certain tax exempt groups who finance electioneering ads must disclose the names of their donors, reports the Associated Press. The court held that a law requiring disclosure of the names of contributors was not shown to be harmful to the contributors. This comes after a federal district court ruling in March against the Federal Election Commission. The FEC had not been enforcing the disclosure law....

The two largest (and for all intents and purposes only) players in the daily fantasy game have agreed to a blockbuster merger. DraftKings and FanDuel announced the plan to unite on Friday, and don’t expect the deal to close until the summer of 2017. While both companies were quick to assure users that the impending merger would not immediate affect their daily fantasy experience, others aren’t so quick to assume it’s a done deal....

A Wyoming man’s penis sketch may have cost him his unemployment benefits, with his old employer arguing that the penile Picasso isn’t owed anything. David A. Dell was fired by Teton Motors in May 2013 for allegedly handing a business card with a “drawing of a penis on the back” to a female customer in late 2012, reports the Jackson Hole News & Guide. Can Dell be denied unemployment checks over a doodle?...

Over five decades, Bob Dylan has left an indelible mark on American culture and music – and even on the law. His lyrics are cited in judicial opinions more than any other writer’s, winding up in everything from federal administrative law opinions (citing “Like a Rolling Stone”) to state consumer fraud rulings (“It Ain’t Me, Babe”). But Dylan’s influence reaches beyond rhetorical flourishes and poetic asides, according to Vermont Law professor Philip N....

It’s been a good year for law firms, with revenues topping off at their highest in a decade. According to financial reports, lawyers can thank higher billing rates and increased demand for legal services. One bank said overall law firm revenue grew 7 percent, and another reported about 6.3 percent. Wells Fargo looked at the biggest 200 law firms in America, and Citi included niche firms that were not in the top tier....

In a personal injury action, grant of defendants’ disqualification motion is affirmed where plaintiff’s counsel hired a former defense attorney who had received work product related to the action, and defendants’ attorneys did not waive the attorney work product privilege by communicating with each other regarding their respective clients’ common interests. Read Meza v. H. Muehlstein & Co., No. B201427 Appellate Information Filed July 18, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Kitching...

Mylan, Inc. scored a victory in the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in its battle to lift a ban prohibiting the company from selling a generic version of the antibiotic Doryx. The Federal Circuit overturned a lower court’s decision to grant the ban while a patent-infringement suit against the company makes its way through the court process. The antibiotic’s maker, Warner Chilcott, has argued that Mylan should not be allowed to make generic versions of the drug until its patent on a “stabilizing coat” expires in December 2022....

The relationship between NFL cheerleaders and the teams that employ them has gotten quite litigious over the past few years. The Buffalo Jills sued the Bills franchise, claiming hundreds of hours of unpaid labor along with harassment and degrading sexual comments at team events. A Raiderette sued the Oakland team for numerous wage and hour violations related to minimum wage, overtime, expenses, and breaks. Heck, a San Francisco 49ers cheerleaders even filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL itself, claiming the league “conspired with the Defendant NFL Member Teams to coordinate, encourage, facilitate, and implement the agreement in order to pay female athletes below fair market value....

Recently, a New York lawyer pleaded guilty for her involvement in the “Taxi King’s” $5 million tax fraud, which happened after the king himself pleaded guilty in a no-jail deal. There are quite a few curious facts in this case, and one of the more curious ones (apart from the whole taxi-royalty being a thing) involves the fact that the no-jail deal for the Taxi King (a.k.a. Evgeny Freidman, a disbarred attorney), seemed to materialize conveniently after the recent raid on Michael Cohen’s office....