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This case should’ve been simple. The University of Utah sues the University of Massachusetts in a patent inventorship dispute. 28 U.S.C. § 1251(a) quite clearly states, “The Supreme Court shall have original and exclusive jurisdiction of all controversies between two or more States.” Utah versus Massachusetts. Why is this a question? And yet, after some party-swapping, the Federal Circuit allowed the case to proceed in the District Court, over the dissent of Judge Moore....

For charging his cell phone in a public park, a homeless man in Florida had to spend a night in jail because he couldn’t pay his $500 bail. Sarasota Police Sgt. Anthony Frangioni arrested Darren Kersey, 28, on suspicion of public utility theft for using a picnic shelter’s electrical outlet. In his arrest report, Frangioni noted that “theft of city utilities will not be tolerated during this bad economy,” the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports....

Anyone who has purchased airplane tickets has likely gone through the shock of thinking they’ll pay one price and seeing another price at checkout. Usually, the culprit in the difference is government taxes and fees. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) thinks you should know these costs upfront, while – unsurprisingly – several airlines think you shouldn’t. In the fight over controlling sticker shock for airline customers, several airlines - including Southwest, Spirit and Allegiant - have asked the D....

An Idaho man who allegedly had sex with his cat for a year was arrested last week on charges of animal cruelty and crimes against nature. Ryan Havens Tannenholz, 28, of Boise, isn’t just a questionable cat guardian, he’s also a self-proclaimed “furry” who takes on the fursona of a “sparkly” anthropomorphic dog he calls “Bubblegum Husky” (which sounds suspiciously like a porn name for a cartoon dog), reports The Huffington Post....

Juvenile court’s order denying the minor-plaintiff’s motion to require the County Probation Department to pay his father’s transportation costs to and from monthly visits is affirmed as plaintiff failed to make a threshold showing that his father was unable to afford the cost of the trips. A juvenile court hearing a delinquency case has the power, under appropriate circumstances, to order a supervising agency to financially assist a parent who lacks the financial means to travel to and from visitation....

Trial court’s child support portion of the judgment in the parties’ marital dissolution action, on the ground that it lacked jurisdiction over child support because the wife and the child had been residing in Japan since 2007, is reversed and remanded as the trial court’s exclusive jurisdiction to order support was unaffected by the child’s home state. Read In re Marriage of Richardson, No. B214768 [HTML] Read In re Marriage of Richardson, No....

Biting on the playground among kids – somewhat expected, right? Or at least more so than a lawyer biting his own son. Ah, yes. Another day that ends in “y,” can only mean another problematic lawyer to report to you all. This one comes to us from Albuquerque, reports Santa Fe’s KRQE News. An attorney (of course), Geoffrey Scovil has been charged with a number of things, including child abuse for biting his own 3-year-old son’s cheek....

If there is a silver lining in the insane, disturbing, and inexcusable rant of Taylor Chapman, a woman purportedly denied a receipt at a Dunkin’ Donuts, it’s this: you’ll almost certainly never face her in court. As a lawyer. Yep. The woman behind “Taylor Chapman Dunkin Donuts Rant,” is, according to The Smoking Gun, working towards her “JD in Law.” (Complete redundancy. Someone please call Bryan Garner.) And where might she be studying?...

The Law School Admissions Test will soon be given in a digital format. According to the Law School Admission Council, examinees will be able to take the test digitally for the first time in September 2019. The new format will be offered only in North America; paper tests will continue to be available everywhere. For students, the best feature is they will be allowed to see their scores before deciding to send them to a law school....

In plaintiff’s suit against his former employer for retaliatory termination, judgment pursuant to a jury’s verdict in favor of defendant and denial of plaintiff’s motion for a new trial is affirmed where: 1) the trial court did not err in excluding evidence of plaintiff’s alleged disability as he failed to make known to the court the purpose and relevance of the evidence to any other issue; and 2) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that a proposed settlement agreement fell within Evidence Code section 1152’s broad scope....

Trial court order revoking defendant’s probation and sentencing him to state prison is reversed where defendant did not violate his probation as the court mistakenly ordered him to appear for a probation violation hearing. Read People v. Cervantes, No. B209350 in PDF Read People v. Cervantes, No. B209350 in HTML Appellate InformationVentura County, Super. Ct. Nos. 2005006623, 2007005712SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT, DIVISION SIXFiled June 25, 2009 JudgesBefore GILBERT, P.J., YEGAN, J., PERREN, J....

A Pennsylvania mother’s poppy seed bagel drug-test mishap has led to a six-figure settlement with the hospital that performed the test and the county that took her newborn into protective custody. When Elizabeth Mort was at Jameson Hospital giving birth in April 2010, she tested positive for opiates. That prompted child welfare workers to take Mort’s 3-day-old baby from her, reports The Associated Press. Mort insisted the drug-test result was due to her eating a poppy seed muffin....

Lawrence Brown challenged a court order denying his motion to dismiss a commitment petition filed against him pursuant under the Sexually Violent Predator Act. He argued that the court erred because the SVPA commitment petition was not filed while he was in lawful custody. When the SVPA commitment petition was filed, Brown was in custody pursuant to a 45-day hold. Brown claimed the hold was invalid because it was issued without the requisite good cause, and it was not the result of a good faith mistake of fact or law....

Green is the future, and the Tesla Model S electric sedan might just be a part of yours. Tesla Motors opened up its Fremont, California factory this weekend to customers who have already preordered the car. Buyers were treated to a sneak peek along with a much-coveted test ride in one of the company’s prototypes. And lucky for you, reports from the event paint a picture of a car perfect for the BigLaw associate....

While a divorce may be an emotional decision, that doesn’t mean it comes without financial considerations. And those considerations can be significant if you’re self-employed. Your time and your bottom line may be stretched pretty thin as it is – how will the added emotional and dollar expense affect your clients and your business? Here are a few things to think about if you’re considering a divorce while you’re self-employed:...

Halloween is quickly approaching, and the closer it gets, the harder it’s going to be to find that “Iron Man” costume you desperately wanted. But being that you’re a lawyer, you should make your costume legal-themed. Because why not? When everyone else is coming as a sexy velociraptor*, you’ll win the prize for originality. Author’s note: “sexy velociraptor” was initially written as a joke, but I Googled it out of curiosity and, sure enough, this online costume store offers five “sexy dinosaur” costumes, including a “sexy Barney” costume....

If the tail seems to be wagging the plane, it’s something airlines must be getting used to. A blind man says Frontier Airlines refused to let him board with his granddaughter because he was a “liability.” It wasn’t a “no shoes, no shirt, no service” policy, but it just sounds wrong. If there were a video – like the cell phone video that pinned United Airlines for dragging a passenger off the plane – this case would have settled already....

Southern churches are said to have more fun, and New Welcome Baptist Church in Grand Bay, Alabama seems to be no exception. A laid-off music director instigated a no-holds-barred church brawl on Sunday, leaving a pastor tased, a woman stabbed, and a warrant out for the arrest of a church deacon. To add fuel to the weird fire, the music director claims to be an R&B artist, and ran for the U....

Just a few months ago, young law students and aspiring future lawyers sat down for the ritualized torture that is the state bar exam. Now, the results are starting to come in and things aren’t looking good. Scores on the Multistate Bar Exam multiple-choice questions tanked, dropping even lower than last year’s disappointing results. They were the lowest scores in over 25 years, dropping to a mean score of 139.9, compared to 2014’s 141....

As more football players are trademarking their names and catch phrases, one team has been losing its battle to keep the trademark on its controversial mascot. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) cancelled the Washington Redskins’ trademark last June, based on the mark being “disparaging to Native Americans.” On Monday, the Department of Justice threw its support behind the decision, saying the perspective of Native Americans to the team name outweighed the NFL franchise’s alleged intent to honor them....