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Seasoned prosecutors and defense attorneys know that, despite what many courts have held over the years, jurors don’t follow jury instructions. They just don’t. And they especially don’t pay attention to the admonishment that they can’t take into account a defendant’s failure to testify. Yeah, right. Though Sarah Koenig may have been shocked to learn that on a previous episode of the “Serial” podcast, the rest of us know that taking the Fifth raises jurors’ suspicions....

Brittani Colleps first day on trial took an exciting turn when the jury was instructed to watch a video of Colleps allegedly having sex with several students. Sadly for the courtroom observers, the video was only shown to the jury. Colleps is a former Texas high school teacher who stands accused of having sex with some of her students. The sex video the jury saw allegedly shows her engaging in group sex with four students....

Even if you’re not in court, your office may have a suit-and-tie dress code. These are recipes for blandness; basically, you’ve got three possible colors of suit, unless you want to get into plaids, stripes, and windowpanes (which you should). In the absence of awesome suit patterns, though, there are some cheap and easy ways to add a little bit of flair, color, and personality to an otherwise suffocating “Mad Men”-esque dress code....

An unusual law school controversy is taking place in Connecticut. Sixty-eight-year-old Geoffrey Akers, highly accomplished both academically and professionally, has sued the University of Connecticut Law School over the school’s denying him twice into its 2012 and 2013 classes. Round One Geoffrey Akers is an older gentleman who holds many academic degrees (seven, in fact) including a doctorate from the University of Connecticut. Back in the 1990s he applied to the law school and was placed on the wait list....

When Ashley Turnbull gave her five-year-old son, Phoenix, baby chickens and ducks for his birthday earlier this year, she wasn’t aware they were against the law. But that was no reason for Police Chief Trevor Berger to come onto her property and decapitate a small red hen with a shovel, she said. The chief of police for Atwater, Minnesota said he was merely enforcing the city’s ordinance prohibiting keeping fowl. He told the West Central Tribune he was responding to neighbors’ complaints, including one that the chickens were on the loose, which led him to Turnbull’s house on that fateful August 16 day....

When you think of baseball players, you think of the famous ones, the ones on your favorite team, the ones who made baseball history. But you rarely think of the little guys – those still in the minors, hustling and struggling to make it to the big league. These are the players at the center of both a class action lawsuit and recent legislation exempting them from minimum wage law protection....

On April 17, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction against the National Labor Relations Board, preventing it from implementing its new posting rule. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace requested the injunction. Their legal challenge to the posting requirements was dismissed last month by a district court. The posting requirements were to take effect nationwide on April 30. But after challenges by critics and opponents, the power of the NLRB to enforce the display of these posters was questioned....

Paul Ceglia claims that he owns half of Facebook. And, to get his fair share, he has a veritable army behind him: the attorneys of DLA Piper, a 4,200 attorney firm with global presence. BigLaw’s got your back, Ceglia! Wait, BigLaw doesn’t have your back. DLA Piper has withdrawn from representing Ceglia in his Facebook suit. DLA Piper hasn’t said why they have withdrawn from the case due to attorney-client privilege, reports CNet....

In another story of psychic powers gone wrong, Jackeline Lopez of Palmdale, Calif. is accused of concocting an evil curse for even eviler purposes. Police believe she encouraged a 12-year-old girl to steal $10,000 worth of jewelry from her parents. The jewelry was supposed to help remove the faux curse, but instead ended up in local pawn shops. That, of course, was after the victim placed it in a cauldron and Lopez would perform a made-up ritual....

If you’re a 3L, then the last year of law school can seem like a waste of time … that is, unless you are applying for a clerkship. Then, it feels like you never have enough time. Take it from someone who spent weekends printing out cover letters and resumes, and sending them to district and circuit courts from New York to Guam. I did get a clerkship, and it was the best legal job I’ve ever had (sorry FindLaw – you’re a close second)....

You know that feeling – you’re eight years old and craving that McDonald’s cheeseburger, and you’re four-year-old sister wants one too, but your parents are asleep and can’t get you to the drive thru. Now, some of us might’ve just suffered with our hunger pangs, or tried to cobble together some cheeseburger substitute. But that’s only because we lacked the ambition of one Ohio boy, who hopped into the family van with his baby sister and headed for the Golden Arches....

Last night’s episode reminded us why we fell in love with How to Get Away With Murder in the first place. There were ridiculous plots, a few jaw-dropping moments, and even some good acting – on Viola Davis’ part, at least. Oh, and all that matricide. We just had to go all the way to Ohio to find our love again. Here’s your spoiler-filled lawyer’s guide to How to Get Away With Murder....

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has settled a lawsuit that accused him of raping a hostess at a Lake Tahoe hotel in 2008. Lawyers for Roethlisberger’s accuser, Andrea McNulty, confirmed the settlement Friday but would not discuss its terms, the Reno Gazette-Journal reports. Neither party would say if the settlement included a payout. A judge in Reno, Nev., dismissed the Ben Roethlisberger rape lawsuit on Dec. 27 after both sides agreed....

California wants to protect actors from age discrimination – a noble goal, certainly. But the state’s way of going about it has raised some eyebrows. Under AB 1687, certain “online entertainment employment service providers” would be prohibited from publishing information about entertainers’ ages. The law would apply perhaps exclusively to IMDb, the Internet Movie Database, who has sued, alleging that the law violates the First Amendment. Now, IMDb has won its first battle....

Trial court judgment sustaining demurrer filed by defendant without leave to amend and dismissing the action is affirmed where the court properly found it lacked jurisdiction to review the propriety of plaintiff’s regional housing needs assessment allocation as the administrative procedure established under Government Code sect. 65584 to calculate a local government’s allocation of the regional housing needs assessment is intended to be the exclusive remedy for the municipality to challenge that determination, and reflect a clear intent to preclude judicial intervention in the process....

It’s not enough to notify a competitor that its design infringes on your patent, and then forget about the claim for years. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that equitable estoppel applies to block a patentee from alleging patent infringement following a five-year delay in pursuing its claim, Patently-O reports. For more than four years after Innotek’s response, Bumper Boy didn’t do anything significant to act on its patent infringement claim....

Some days, it just seems like we should burn down our entire patent system and redesign it from the ground up. Today is one of those days. How complicated is venue in a patent case? Take a look at Apple. They’re in Cupertino, California, right? Except, they have a one-person subsidiary in Luxembourg, which itself has a six-person subsidiary that does nothing but patent work, and is located in the patent plaintiff-friendly Eastern District of Texas....

Things can get a little juvenile when one plays lawyer for long enough, as this recent Florida incident aptly illustrates. In this case, an attorney falsely accused opposing counsel in a big case of essentially intentionally battering his law clerk with peanuts and pistachios knowing she was allergic to nuts. The problem is, that isn’t how it happened at all. Florida Bar Complaint The State Bar of Florida has begun a formal complaint against Miami attorney Bernardo Roman on a host of ethics concerns ranging from dishonesty during his representation of the Miccosukee Tribe to making false claims – including this most recent claim that opposing counsel attacked his nut-allergic law clerk with peanuts and pistachios....

Amidst reports of falling educational standards and profits, three for-profit law schools are reaching out for help and may be headed to a fire sale. InfiLaw Systems – which operates Arizona Summit Law School, Florida Coastal School of Law and Charlotte School of Law – is reportedly taking steps to sell the law schools. All three have announced plans to join other educational institutions after failing American Bar Association standards....

In a patent case involving a hemodialysis machine integrated with a touch screen user interface, district court’s ruling that plaintiffs infringed claims of three patents asserted by defendants is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and vacated in part and remanded where: 1) plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the structures corresponding to certain means-plus-function claim limitations were present in the prior art, and thus they failed to prove that certain patent claims were invalid; 2) judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) as to all other asserted claims required reversal; 3) although the district court did not abuse its discretion when it permanently enjoined plaintiffs, the injunction is nevertheless vacated for reconsideration in light of the prior rulings; and 4) the royalty award is also vacated for reconsideration....