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A New Jersey priest who allegedly threatened an eight-year-old parishioner with an empty musket will plead not guilty to child endangerment and aggravated assault at his arraignment. Father Kevin Carter’s lawyer says the incident stemmed from a football rivalry and was just a joke. One Sunday before Mass last month, Giants fan Father Carter allegedly pulled a boy wearing a Dallas Cowboys jersey into a rectory room at St. Margaret of Cortona Roman Catholic Church, stood him against the wall, and aimed an empty gun at him....

Maybe Misty Corb, a payroll supervisor, thought retired judges make too much money. After all, a judge can make bank with retirement checks and private judging at the same time. Plus, Corb wasn’t really taking anything from the retirees. She made fake assignments for them and diverted the money into accounts she controlled. The judges never knew about it because they didn’t receive the assignments – until one day auditors realized something was missing....

One of the top Immigration Judges in the nation recently stated under oath that he’d taught immigration law to 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds well enough to ensure that they got a fair hearing, satisfying due process in immigration court. Sound a little crazy? A long-time immigration official for the Executive Office for Immigration review, Jack H. Weil’s comments shine a light on the issue of whether or not children who unwittingly break United States’ immigration laws should be entitled to publicly-funded attorney representation....

Among the 900 or so new laws taking effect in 2015, California is letting undocumented immigrants get state driver’s licenses. Undocumented immigrants are already out there driving, but without licenses because they can’t prove they’re in the country legally. If you’re in the immigration biz, or even if you’re not, here are five things you should know about the new law: The AB 60 route of applying for a driver’s license is available only to applicants who can’t prove legal presence in the United States....

Tailgating is a great American sporting tradition, but accidents at tailgates can leave various parties liable for resulting injuries – and in some cases, even deaths. Here are four of the most common people and entities shouldered with the blame in tailgating-related lawsuits: Since many tailgating injuries can be attributed to some feature of the tailgating area (typically the parking lot of a stadium), stadium and parking lot owners can be on the hook under a theory of premises liability....

March is Women’s History Month, and tomorrow is International Women’s Day, but apparently law firms have not gotten the memo. Many take this time to celebrate the achievements of women, and while we share those sentiments, we have some news that may cast us as a Debbie Downer. National Association of Women Lawyers The National Association of Women Lawyers (“NAWL”) is an organization “devoted to the interests of women lawyers and women’s rights” and is “the voice of women in law®....

A 90-year-old man and two pastors were arrested by Fort Lauderdale police on Sunday for feeding homeless people in public. 90-year-old Arnold Abbott runs a nonprofit group called Love Thy Neighbor and had prepared around 300 lunches to give away outside Fort Lauderdale’s Stranahan Park. However, Abbott and the two pastors were only able to serve three of those meals before being ordered to stop and subsequently arrested by police, reports The Washington Post....

The numbers are in from Cravath, Swaine and Moore regarding 2012 year-end bonuses, and it certainly doesn’t look bad. If Cravath continues to be the weather vane for holiday bonuses among BigLaw firms, it will be a happy holiday for many associates. By “happy holiday” we mean there will likely be bonuses for most associates at the end of December. But it may not be exactly what some people thought they’d get when they decided to become lawyers....

If you talk to a lot of ex-law firm employees, they’ll typically blame the firm, high billable-hour requirements, or lack of control over their calendars as reasons they failed at the firm (and yes, it is a failure). But in reality, many former law firm employees can more likely blame their own personalities for their failures, and not anything the firm did. Law firm life is not for everyone. Everyone knows this....

Justice Samuel Alito thinks the U.S. News and World Report’s Law School rankings are crap, in large part because of the publication’s reliance on LSAT scores. “Law schools put too much emphasis on this one multiple choice test,” he told the American Spectator in an interview. “What in life is a multiple choice test? But those rankings are very heavily influenced by LSAT scores.” Maybe, then, he’ll be more impressed with Above the Law’s law school rankings, which focus more on outcomes (quality employment), rather than incoming measures (the LSAT)....

A California atheist who sued after being jailed for complaining about being forced to participate in a faith-based drug rehab program has settled his case for nearly $2 million. Barry A. Hazle Jr. was convicted of possession of narcotics and served a year in a California prison, reports The Sacramento Bee. He was released on parole but his parole was revoked after he complained to parole officials about having to participate in a recovery program that required him to acknowledge a ‘higher power....

Having your license suspended 15 times over a 15-year driving career is pretty impressive. Most of us could never come close to that suspension-a-year pace. But instead of rewarding Rahman Keith Idlett for his consistency and tenacity, a New Jersey judge has denied him a gun permit. All because he has an “atrocious” driving record. So how bad was it? After all, this is America, where, last I checked, the Second Amendment was alive and well....

Securities Fraud Action Against Bank In Bender v. Jordan, No. 08-7150, a securities fraud action against a bank, its then-directors and its president and CEO, the court affirmed the district court’s order requiring the ex-directors to reimburse the bank for their defense costs, holding that, as the former directors satisfied neither the conditions for mandatory nor those for permissive entitlement, and the board made a determination embodying that fact, the former directors were obligated under the agreements to repay the bank for the cost of their legal defense....

Ed Forchion, a New Jersey resident, has managed a Rastafarian temple in Los Angeles and operated a medical marijuana dispensary since 2009. He has devoted his adult life to promoting the legalization of marijuana. Forchion has a national reputation as a marijuana advocate and is popularly known as NJWeedman. He is perennial candidate for various New Jersey elected offices, where he campaigns on a single issue, marijuana legalization, as part of the subtly-named Legalize Marijuana Party....

California Democratic Assemblyman Kevin McCarty has proposed AB2459, a bill he says would eventually help get firearms “out of the wrong hands,” reports the Associated Press. If the bill passes to become law, it would also make it a statewide crime for licensed dealers to sell their guns out of their homes, a practice that is already outlawed by many municipalities. California has been criticized by many gun advocacy groups as having some of the strictest gun laws in the nation....

A note to all the J.D.’s who just sat for the California bar exam: you’re chumps. The State Bar Board of Trustees has unanimously approved dropping the bar exam’s notorious third day. That brings California in line with pretty much every other state bar exam. Had you waited just two more years, you would have had a third less to do. California’s bar exam is hard. It’s ranked as the most difficult bar exam in the nation....

The California Supreme Court said dissolving law firms cannot claw back fees on unfinished hourly matters that departing partners take to new firms. It was a closely-watched case, especially since it involved the bankruptcy of a BigLaw firm and the administrator’s claims against more than a dozen other law firms for profits in ongoing cases. The decision may help settle similar disputes between law firms and exiting partners. But it was also a lesson for the bankruptcy administrator who could not get several law firms to settle in the case....

We’ve all been told to call 911 if drunk drivers are seen on the road. But calling the police to report yourself as the drunken driver seems a little strange. Clark County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Jim Backus agreed. “Drunken drivers reporting themselves is rare,” he said in an Associated Press article. On October 24th, a 911 dispatcher in Neilsville, Wisconsin received a call from Mary Strey, 49. “I don’t want to hurt anybody....

Like most everyone else, you graduated law school with six figures of student debt. Like most everyone else, you didn’t end up with a job where you could pay back those loans in a few short years. You might even be struggling to make your monthly payments right now. You may be on an income-based repayment plan and hoping for future loan forgiveness. Now that Donald Trump has been elected, on a promise to shake up Washington (among other things), what does that mean for your law school loans?...

Unlike many of President Barack Obama’s nominees for the federal bench, this one did not face delays or opposition. The White House announced today that 46-year-old Todd Hughes was confirmed unanimously by the Senate, filling a long-standing vacancy on the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. Hughes’ confirmation marks the first time an openly-gay judge has served on a Federal Court of Appeals. Interestingly enough, the president’s former nominee for the seat, Edward DuMont, whose confirmation was stalled for years before he withdrew, is also openly gay....