Posts

Don’t mess with the bacon. A Michigan woman will soon be going to jail for shooting at a McDonald’s that forgot to give her bacon not once, but twice! Shaneka Torres was recently convicted of felony use of a firearm, shooting at an occupied building, and illegally carrying a concealed weapon. She was so incensed by the lack of bacon in her bacon cheeseburger that she shot at the McDonald’s drive thru window, narrowly missing the worker who had stood there moments earlier....

No, this isn’t a horror movie, but a Florida woman did claim that her neighbor’s undiscovered corpse “exploded’ and damaged her property, so State Farm, her insurer, should cover the damages. State Farm disagreed with Judy Rodrigo’s exploding corpse claim. At trial, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal sided with State Farm, according to the Orlando Sentinel. For insurance purposes, the court ruled that a decomposing body was not an insurable explosion....

Challenge to the Governor’s reversal of parole board’s suitability for parole finding In re Gomez, G043001, concerned a defendant’s request for habeas relief, challenging the Governor’s reversal of the findings of the Board of Parole Hearings that he was suitable for parole. In granting the relief, the court held that twice, the Governor has reversed the Board based solely on the existence of two “immutable factors” which are unsupported by the record, and which amount to a rote recitation of factors the Governor believes are suggestive of risk....

It’s probably minimizing things to say so, but a dispute over a new coffee regulation seems like a tempest in a teapot. California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment says coffee does not pose a cancer risk. It’s controversial because California Superior Court recently said retailers must include cancer warnings on coffee products. Naturally, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are upset. But for the millions who line up for Starbucks everyday, it’s really just another day....

Last week, we wrote about a fight between Donald Trump and Tony Schwartz, co-author to “The Art of the Deal,” Trump’s famous biography. Here’s the story in a nutshell: Schwartz speaks out against Trump, calling him “impulsive and self-centered.” Sparks and legal demand letters fly, leading to a pretty entertaining exchange between Trump and Schwartz’s lawyers. Inspired, a reader wrote in to remind us of what could be the best legal response letter ever, the 1974 exchange between a lawyer for the Cleveland Browns and a season-ticket holding attorney who disliked paper airplanes....

NFL offensive lineman Jonathan Martin (who will unfortunately always be known as the guy who quit football temporarily after being bullied by a fellow teammate) is back in the news, but this time he wasn’t a victim – he was the man. According to Yahoo Sports (and Martin’s own tweets), Martin subdued an alleged shoplifter in a Versace store last week. Martin said that he saw the shoplifters and reacted without thinking – pummeling one of them until he was sufficiently subdued to be taken care of by security....

The Judicial Council of California announced changes this week that will make the Council more open and accessible to the public. Court of Appeal Justice Douglas Miller, the newly-appointed chair of the council’s Executive and Planning Committee, explained that the changes were adopted in response to Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye’s request that the council take a “fresh and thorough look at every aspect of how the council operates and governs.” As a result, several new procedures have been established....

Sometimes, you no longer want The Law. And sometimes, The Law no longer wants you. For many recent graduates, the latter is the case, thanks to that whole “tens of thousands of graduates into an oversaturated job market replete with failing firms” nonsense. Alternative careers: That’s the ticket. That’s what keeps popping up in our most popular posts lists, and why our “Law Sucks. What Else is There?” series continues. In today’s installment, we look at a USC law grad who left the confines of BigLaw to make ugly Christmas sweaters....

It’s not exactly the glamorous legal work shown on “The Good Wife” – or even “Night Court” – but document review makes up a fair share of many attorneys’ work. In fact, document review is one of the great unifiers of the legal profession. Highly paid associates at BigLaw firms often slog through tedious document review just like their poorly paid contract attorney counterparts. But is document review even the practice of law?...

If only legal skill and acumen were all it took to build a firm! Instead, those looking to grow a practice soon realize that marketing and business development are essential to success – and sadly, these aren’t skills typically taught in law school. Women lawyers, in particular, can face unique challenges in building a practice and making it rain. Thankfully, Thomson Reuters, FindLaw’s parent company, is here to help with “The Woman Lawyer’s Rainmaking Game: How to Build a Successful Law Practice....

A federal appeals court let stand a decision upholding net neutrality rules, staying the course in a three-way race among internet service providers, government and consumers over the fate of the controversial rules. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refused to rehear last year’s ruling, which held that internet service providers were common carriers and could not regulate internet traffic. The decisions are a setback to ISPs that sued the Federal Communications Commission, but the court pointed out that the contest over net neutrality is far from over....

Ex-Ohio State linebacker Andrew Sweat is giving up on his tryout with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, and will instead tackle the rigors of law school. The reason: fears about the effects of concussions. “Concussion symptoms didn’t want to risk it,” Sweat, 23, explained via Twitter on Sunday. “Health trumps football any day.” Sweat’s announcement comes as more than 1,700 former NFL players pursue lawsuits against the league alleging a cover-up about the dangers of concussions, CNN reports....

In a perjury prosecution, dismissal of the information against defendant is affirmed where an alleged loan defendant had failed to disclose on a government form relating to political contributions was not in fact a loan, but rather an obligation for past due rent. Read People v. Thrasher, No. B209219 Appellate Information Filed August 21, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Rubin Counsel For Appellant: Phyllis Asayama, Deputy District Attorney, Los Angeles, CA...

Buffalo Bills defensive lineman Marcell Dareus was arrested Monday on charges of drug possession. The 24-year-old Pro Bowl athlete was arrested in Alabama on drug charges after state troopers stopped him for speeding, reports ESPN. Dareus was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. What do these drug charges mean for Dareus? Although Alabama State Troopers released a statement that Dareus was stopped for speeding, he was charged with possession of a controlled substance, which is a felony in Alabama....

The legal industry has seen plenty of technologically induced changes over the past decade, as e-discovery, online marketing and advances in legal research reshape the way lawyers work. As part of a symposium on the “legal profession’s monopoly” last year, legal scholars argued that “machine intelligence” is on the verge of further revolutionizing the legal industry. The changes could be similar to the undoing of print journalism following the rise of Internet media....

Lakers fans seem to be on board, and he’s already launched a media blitz, appearing on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, but the Ron Artest name change isn’t yet official, as he still has to get it past the judge. Opting for the name Metta World Peace, one can’t help but wonder whether Ron Artest, who has been known for his (to put it kindly) personality fluctuations, has lost his mind....

Law schools tend to have a limited reach. If you didn’t attend a top ranked school, say anything between Yale and Georgetown, your school’s reputation is often limited to the immediate geographic area. Cardozo may be a great law school, but not many Angelenos will know that. So it can be nice to hear that your small school is actually, literally, underrated. Bloomberg Businessweek is here to give a small handful of indebted grads the warm and fuzzies, having just released its list of the 10 most underrated law schools....

An already strange case of a suspected bank robber got down right stinky last week, when the defendant began eating his own feces while on the witness stand Wednesday. Andrew Gilbertson of (shockingly) not Florida, is on trial for robbing a bank in San Luis Obispo. Gilbertson’s sickening snack brought his trial to a temporary halt while the judge called for a recess, presumably to clean the courtroom. Divine Doo-doo Inspiration Gilbertson claimed the Virgin Mary told him to eat his own poo during his testimony....

In plaintiffs’ petition for confirmation of an arbitration award against defendants, trial court’s grant of plaintiff’s petition is reversed as plaintiffs failed to prove a basic prerequisite of private arbitration, the existence of a valid arbitration agreement, and the signature of defendants’ attorney on the arbitration stipulation, standing alone, did not constitute substantial evidence that defendants agreed to arbitrate the dispute. Read Toal v. Tardif, No. G040112 [PDF] Read Toal v....

In plaintiff-homeowners’ suit against defendant-homeowners association (HA) arising from its application of architectural guidelines, trial court’s grant of HA’s motion to strike is reversed as, whether or not the subject matter of the underlying dispute was a matter of public interest, the trial court erred in granting the HA’s motion because the HA’s actions that formed the basis of plaintiffs’ causes of action were not taken in furtherance of the HA’s right of free speech....