Ex-NBA star Allen Iverson’s bank account is set to take a huge hit, after a judge ordered the account seized to pay off Iverson’s debt to a jewelry store. How much bling brought down the 11-time NBA all-star? The answer: About $860,000 worth, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. You may think that’s chump change to Allen Iverson, 36, who earned more than $150 million while playing for the 76ers, according to the Inquirer....
Unless you graduate at the top of an elite law school, statistics say you are not going to get a clerkship at the U.S. Supreme Court. The vast majority of Supreme Court clerks come from a handful of law schools – mostly Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, and a mixed litter of others. So how did Tiffany Wright – a Georgetown night-school graduate – get the job? Her story shows it’s not just about who you know or what you know....
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the District Court’s ruling in favor of Exxon Mobil Corporation, in a suit brought by one if its former franchisees. Metroil was a gas station franchisee and operated a gas station located next to the Watergate in Washington D.C. The gas station was owned by Exxon and in 2009, the company sold the station to Anacostia, a gasoline distributor. Metroil continued to operate the station....
The EPA’s newest change to ozone standards was upheld by the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday, with both environmentalists and industry heads failing to convince the court to revoke the agency’s rule. In Mississippi v. EPA, the court reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) guidelines for the amount of ozone (O3) that is acceptable under the Clean Air Act. The EPA was being criticized for the standard being too low … and too high, but the court found their judgment good enough for government work....
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals nixed new graphic warning label requirements for cigarettes on Friday, reports The Wall Street Journal. Because the government didn’t provide evidence that the graphic warning labels would lower smoking rates, the appellate court found that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) failed the Central Hudson intermediate scrutiny test. The new warning label requirement mandated images – such as photos of rotting teeth, diseased organs and a dead body – in addition to the standard textual warning....
Lan Cai was driving home from her job as a waitress when she was hit by a drunk driver. And, like many car accident victims, Cai, a 20-year-old nursing student in Houston, felt like she needed the help of attorneys afterwards. Enter the Law Offices of Tuan A. Khuu, whose lawyers were so eager to sign Cai up that they allegedly came into her bedroom while she was undressed and sleeping, in order to get her business....
Tarra Simmons was troubled on every side, locked in a prison of her own making. Incarcerated on drug and theft charges, she stared at the walls for almost two years. She never imagined what she recently experienced when she passed the bar exam. “This day is the finale of a really long and hard journey that started when I was in prison,” Simmons told the Associated Press. “When I was at my lowest moment, I never thought that it would be this amazing....
Groundwater and taxes. If it were a class in law school, it would be cancelled for lack of interest. Just add a constitutional issue, however, and you get case law worth reading. In City of San Buenaventura v. United Water Conservation District, the California Supreme Court said water district fees for groundwater conservation are not prohibited taxes under the California Constitution. The decision clears the way for water agencies to charge for conservation services, and gets around voter-approved tax restraints on real property....
In case you missed it, Jim Harbaugh appeared on “Judge Judy” this week, but he didn’t get a word in. Instead, the San Francisco 49ers coach sat silently on the sidelines with his dad Jack – in the front row, no less – as his favorite TV judge laid down the law. Judge Judy’s version of the law, anyway. Jim Harbaugh is a die-hard “Judge Judy” fan, as the NinersNation blog explains....
In proceedings involving an arbitration petition by one co-trustee of a family trust and plaintiff-co-trustee’s petition to enforce a no contest clause, appellate court’s judgment against defendant-co-trustee is reversed as a challenge to a surviving spouse’s mental capacity to transfer trust assets and appoint a successor trustee did not violate the no contest clause in a family trust. A proceeding contesting a settlor’s mental competence to exercise rights under a trust does not amount to an attack on the trust itself, unless it seeks to thwart the estate plan established by the trust....
There’s a fair amount of verbal abuse that comes with being a lawyer but you don’t expect it to come from a judge. Well, at least not a judge threatening to wring your neck. Attorney David Barron was certainly surprised by the threat made from the bench by Judge Martin McDonald. Barron apparently called the Judge McDonald on his cell phone without opposing counsel’s participation, reports The Courier-Journal. In addition to the strangling threat, McDonald called the case ‘ridiculous’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘a huge waste of time....
Ah yes. Law school lawsuits. If you guessed they were going to fail, it would seem you guessed right. A New York state judge has thrown out the first of 15 pending lawsuits accusing the nation’s third-tier law schools of misleading their students. The honor goes to New York Law School, which stands by its employment data. It may have claimed post-graduation rates between 90% and 92%, but its marketing materials told applicants that the numbers “weren’t representative of the whole class....
In the litigation following the destruction of the fourth largest securities firm, Lehman Brothers, some weird and wonderful stories have emerged. In cases such as the litigation around Lehman Brothers’ demise, one of the key questions is always, “who know what, when?” It is rarely easy for the attorneys reviewing the literally millions of pages of emails, reports and other documents to find evidence of that crucial question. Well, one man has found a way....
When it comes to helping close friends, family, or colleagues, attorneys can often be tempted to get around the law, rather than follow the law. The line between zealous advocacy and criminal activity is usually pretty clear. But, so long as that activity doesn’t add up to moral turpitude, it’s all good, right? Sadly, no matter how difficult it is to find a good legal assistant, paying someone to lie to the immigration authorities and to marry your legal assistant clearly crosses the line of turpitude....
California has been known for going it’s own way when it comes to law and politics. Here’s a new first: 40 Oakland, California, medical marijuana growers joined a Teamsters union. The new Teamsters work in the medical marijuana gardens in Oakland. They perform work trimming, cloning, watering and gardening the marijuana at Marjyn Investments, LLC. Marjyn contracts with California medical marijuana patients to grow pot on their behalf. Under the Teamsters contract, the marijuana growers will receive $25....
In plaintiffs’ protest to their termination as franchised dealers of Volkswagen of America, Inc., and Audi of America, Inc., dismissal of the protest by the New Motor Vehicle Board (Board) is affirmed where: 1) Vehicle Code section 3050.2(b) is constitutional on its face and as applied; and 2) substantial evidence support the Board’s findings of plaintiff’s failure to comply with authorized discovery. Read Nader Auto. Group, LLC. v. New Motor Vehicle Bd....
Trial court judgment holding that plaintiff was not unlawfully denied vacation pay when her employment ended is affirmed where: 1) the express written company policy forewarned new employees that their compensation package did not include paid vacation during their initial employment; and thus 2) plaintiff cannot claim any right to vested vacation during the initial employment because she knew in advance that she would not earn or vest vacation pay during this period....
They were two great tastes that went great together: Kwan Dixon’s Pop’s Popcorn and Koosier Daddy’s Food Cart filled that niche of the one-stop-shop to get your hot dogs, nachos, and sex toys. But alas, as Robert Frost warned us, nothing gold can stay. And the city of Evansville, Illinois shut down the most magical food cart in all the land. So how come Kwan was forced to close up shop?...
This sounds like a made-up or exaggerated headline, but Hall of Fame baseball player Robin Yount did in fact shoot Chicago Cubs manager Dale Sveum in the head. But don’t expect any criminal charges or even a lawsuit in this case. The two are friends and were reportedly hunting quail in Arizona. Yount saw a bird in front of him and took a shot. He ended up bagging the bird. But he also bagged his friend too, accidentally hitting him with shrapnel in the back of the right ear, reports ESPN....
In Conservatorship of John L., No. S157151, the Supreme Court of California dealt with whether the trial court committed any statutory or due process violation in granting a petition to appoint a public conservator under the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (LPS Act). In upholding the decision of the trial court, the Supreme Court held that the LPS was not violated when it excused the conservatee’s production and proceeded with the hearing without his attendance....
