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If you went to Thomas Jefferson Law, a class action lawsuit that was recently filed may mean that you can recover something to compensate you for your $150,000 in student debt. Lead plaintiff in this newly-filed class action is Anna Alaburda, a graduate of the prestigious - though completely unranked - law school. She graduated with honors in 2008, and went on to secure legal employment post-graduation, where she felt rewarded for slaving away through 3 years in law school and paying thousands of dollars worth of tuition with a glamorous life in BigLaw, earning six-figures....

Jinesh Varia is renting out a luxury three-bedroom townhouse with whirlpool bathtub, fireplace, and backyard. If you prefer veggie burgers and think meat is murder, he’ll give you a deal. A landlord in Bethel, Washington, Varia is offering a rental discount to vegans and vegetarians. He wants to encourage environmental activism and start a trend by knocking $200 off the rent for non-carnivores. But is that legal? Fair Housing Act Requirements Varia’s vegetarian orientation is a clear expression of a preference in a rental advertisement, which is prohibited by the federal Fair Housing Act....

A California appeals court recently affirmed a juvenile court’s probation order that conditioned a young man’s probationary status on warrantless searches of his “electronics including passwords.” The decision relies on a broad court reading of a 1975 California case called People v. Lent and its stance on Fourth Amendment rights. Under the applicable law, conditions of probation need to be pretty darn broad in order to be invalidated. The petitioned defendant in this case was a young man at a Pleasanton High School in California who had taken drugs earlier in the day and was stopped by his principal....

“Does size matter?” That’s what a Texas judge pondered in a case about strippers and their “itsy bitsy pasties.” (Spoiler alert: The answer is yes, according to the judge.) In a ruling that’s gone viral, Judge Fred Biery affirmed an ordinance in San Antonio, Texas, that requires strippers at clubs that aren’t defined as sexually oriented businesses to trade in their itsy bitsy teeny weeny pasties for itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikini tops....

Here at FindLaw, we understand the pressures of being a legal professional - most of us are recovering lawyers - so we want to help by tossing you that preferred life preserver of the legal profession, the short list. Today’s offering: The Federal Circuit’s latest addition, Richard Taranto. The Senate is slowly filling the vacancies (and pending vacancies) on the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. Last week, senators confirmed Richard Taranto as the appellate court’s newest judge....

If you’ve been wondering whatever happened to California’s high speed rail, you’re not the only one. The latest news is that it’s back in court. So far, the project hasn’t been very “high speed” at anything except rustling up legal issues. $68 Billion Dollars … and Little to Show for It The project was approved by California voters in 2008 and was supposed to be the Nations first high-speed rail system in the same league as that seen in Japan and now even China....

Though she managed to graduate from law school, Anissa Bluebaum apparently never managed to master elementary school grammar. Or at least that’s what her fellow attorney had to say when he responded to a complaint in a civil lawsuit filed by Bluebaum. Her egregious use of apostrophes made it impossible to tell who she was referring to and when. Anissa Bluebaum is representing Alison Peck (a teacher who was busted for sleeping with her students) in a lawsuit against her former probation officer, Rebecca Martin, reports the Springfield News-Leader....

The ringleaders of a group accused of stealing over $20,000 worth of baby formula entered guilty pleas for their criminal enterprise. The Denver couple, dubbed the “Enfamil Bandits” by investigators, organized and recruited people to steal shopping carts full of baby formula, the Denver Post reports. Tam Huynh entered a plea guilty to racketeering. In general, racketeering involves obtaining or extorting money illegally or carrying on illegal business activities, usually by organized crime....

There’s about three weeks left before the bar exam. You know how to write an essay. You’ve studied all the black letter law. You’ve got the MBE under your belt. Or you would, if only you could remember whether singing the curtains is enough to get you charged with arson. Here’s where simple, brute memorization comes in to play. You won’t be able to fully rewire your brain in time for the bar exam, but there are certain tricks that might help....

For law students, being able to maintain focus while studying is critical. Cases are long and complex, and losing your place, or drifting off into a daydream, results in wasted time or worse, a failure to retain information. Fortunately, if you prep your studying environment properly, you’ll be less likely to let your mind wander off onto a tangent, or to pick up your phone, or open another web-browser tab. And when it comes to creating the right studying environment, one often overlooked component is background music....

Yesterday, California’s Secretary of State announced that the recreational marijuana measure had obtained more than enough signatures to be included on this November’s ballot. The amount of money supporters have raised is $3.53 million according to the Sacramento Bee – 31 times more than opponents have raised to block the measure. The development is consistent with increased acceptability by various jurisdictions within the union of the recreational use of a drug that still enjoys controlled substance status under Schedule I....

A lawyer by trade, Scott Boras turned his skills to negotiating sports contracts. In the process, he landed billions for his clients and earned hundreds of millions for himself. Forbes named him back-to-back “The World’s Most Powerful Sports Agent.” But that’s not important to you right now. What you want to know is, how do you get there. As a wise man – not Jerry Maguire – once said, “No matter where you go, there you are....

Also, Contract, Employment Class Action, & Tort Matters Baker v. Am. Horticulture Supply, Inc., No. B212975, concerned an independent wholesale sales representative’s suit for breach of contract, promissory fraud, and a violation under the Independent Wholesale Sales Representatives Contractual Relations Act of 1990. In affirming in part, the court held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting a new trial on the breach of contract and promissory fraud claims in concluding that the award of damages was excessive and that plaintiff was not entitled to a 10% commission in alleged sales....

Thomas M. Cooley Law School recently announced that it would be opening the doors of a new campus at Western Michigan University’s Kalamazoo campus. And while the news is rather exciting, it comes with a bit of an odd catch, students can only complete up to 60 (out of 90 required) credits at the Kalamazoo location. In order to complete their J.D., they’d have to go to another campus. Nevertheless, the national law school, that apart from its main campus in Lansing, Michigan, also has campuses in Auburn Hills and Grand Rapids, Michigan, as well as Tampa, Florida, is happy to finally be opening the Kalamazoo campus given the school’s recent trouble with the ABA Accreditation Committee....

Worldmark, The Club v. Wyndham Resort Dev. Corp., C061019, concerned a challenge to the trial court’s denial of a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation’s petition to set aside a member’s section 8330 demand on the ground that it had satisfied its statutory obligations in proposing an alternative. In affirming the judgment with modification, the court held that the information the member seeks, including email addresses, shall be made available to him in electronic form at his option and no further written demand is necessary....

Accused of throwing peanuts at a flight attendant, Utah native Pogos Paul Sefilian was arrested this week after disembarking a Southwest plane that had traveled from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City. According to the complaint filed in federal court, his mission was not to assault airline employees or other passengers, but instead to protest the airline’s heinous policy against in-flight use of electronic cigarettes. How dare they. For those who have never encountered such an item, e-cigarettes simulate smoking by electronically heating liquid nicotine to the point where it turns into a vapor....

The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that a repeated dog molester won’t have to register as a sex offender as thought to be required under state law. The man, Joshua Coman, has twice been convicted of molesting a dog. The second time, his roommate walked in on him “penetrating” her female Rottweiler with his finger. Imagine if the dog had fought back. This disturbing incident happened while Coman was on probation for an earlier conviction involving a dog, reports The Wichita Eagle....

You know the saying: a penny saved is a penny earned? Well, when it comes to your law firm’s operations, a penny saved lowers overhead and increases profit. It can also help with marketing. Luckily for solo practitioners and other firm owners, there’s an easy way to be greedy: Turn off the lights and other electronic devices when you leave for the night/weekend. Basically, you can be greedy and green at the same time....

This is backwards. This is really backwards. Last week, “Liberty Speaker” Gav Seim posted a video of himself pulling over an unmarked patrol car. In the video (embedded below), the activist lectures the visibly annoyed sheriff’s deputy on the illegality of unmarked police cars, asks to see his identification, tells him that he could be arrested for going on patrol in an unmarked car, and eventually lets him off with a warning....

In a patent case involving a method for treating Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, district court’s conclusion that the claims of the patent ‘318 were invalid is affirmed as the patent’s description of using galantamine to treat the disease does not satisfy the enablement requirement because the patent application did not establish utility. Read Janssen Pharm. N.V. v. Teva Pharm. USA, Inc., No. 08-1594 Appeal from: United States District Court for the District of New Jersey...