Ah yes, the “the beer-battered fish did it” defense. A classic legal ruse. Only this time, the jury didn’t bite. 76-year-old Wisconsinite John Przybyla was convicted of his 10th OWI (operating while intoxicated is the state’s version of a DUI) this week, when a jury rejected his claim that he had been intoxicated by eating beer-battered fish. I guess when you see the “my body is a brewery” defense work, you’re willing to try anything....
When a Florida woman couldn’t find her missing ring, she apparently went nuts. As in, she grabbed her husband’s testicle and refused to let go. For two. Agonizingly. Long. Minutes. Maryann Scott, 49, of Vero Beach, was arrested after her acutely-injured husband called 911, WTVJ-TV reports. She was released from jail a day later. It seems Scott and her husband were having marital problems. Her husband told police he was lying on a couch when his wife confronted him about a missing ring – a gift from him valued at $15,000....
In plaintiff’s wrongful death suit against the defendant, arising from an accident where a pickup truck driven by plaintiff’s deceased husband collided with a tractor-trailer driven by defendant’s employee, a jury verdict for plaintiff is reversed and remanded where: 1) as a matter of law, the employee owed no duty to the decedent to avoid stopping in the emergency parking area; 2) the employee’s negligence did not proximately cause the accident, and notwithstanding the conclusion that the record does not contain substantial evidence that the employee’s negligent act or omission caused plaintiff’s injuries, plaintiff cannot recover against defendant based on the facts in the record as a matter of public policy; and 3) the trial court erred in admitting the testimony of plaintiff’s expert on causation and as such, the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict....
We in the law like cases to settle. We like settlements so much that if a party makes a reasonable offer to settle, and the other side declines, and doesn’t land a more favorable verdict at trial, we’ll make them pick up part of the tab, specifically for expert witness testimony. You might know this as Section 998, though old-timers might recall that it was previously known as Section 997....
In Legacy Vulcan Corp. v. Superior Court, No. B215713, the Second District dealt with a petition for a writ of mandate, challenging a pretrial order that decided three stipulated legal questions concerning the scope of the duty to defend under a liability insurance policy issued by the insurer. In granting the petition, the court first held that the umbrella coverage was primary coverage and the existence of a duty to defend with respect to that coverage did not depend on the exhaustion of any underlying coverage....
It looks like pot. Smells like pot. But cops call K2 – or “Spice,” Genie" and “Zohai” imitation pot. So, is K2 is the new fake pot? Authorities in Kansas say they have found everyone from ex-convicts on probation to high school students using the substance. It can be rolled up in joints or inhaled from pipes, just like the real thing. However, the drug does not show up on marijuana drug screens, experts say....
Reddit user Elizabeth Robinson uploaded video footage of a burglary at her house in the hopes of finding the people responsible for ruining her vacation. Before going on a Christmas trip, Robinson and her husband set up eight cameras to keep an eye on their dog. But while checking in one day, they saw something no homeowner ever wants to see: their own home being burglarized. The break-in happened Dec. 29, and Robinson posted the video to Reddit on Jan....
As if working in law wasn’t tough enough already, now you’re at the office facing the prospect of another day of subtle (or not so subtle) verbal abuse from your superiors. You figured that this was part of the tacit hazing-slash-training that came with the new-associate territory. But now you’re beginning to wonder: “Is it worth it?” The Privilege of Power There’s something nice about being in the position of power: it allows you to be unreasonable....
They painted an enticing picture. The law firm equivalent of blue-water beaches or endless rolling hills. But here, the picture offered job security, leadership opportunity, hefty compensation, and maybe a corner office. Ah, to make partner. But for hardworking associates in the mix the question may arise, is the pinnacle of ‘making partner’ still the ultimate be-all end-all goal? Surprisingly, or maybe not at all, it depends. The game of BigLaw has changed since the 1950’s structure of entry-level associates who ‘put in their time’ before being anointed with the title of partner....
The recent partner promotions over at Cravath are being celebrated by many because all the new partners are women. Despite the not-so-recent (and continuous) uptick in women enrolling in law school and becoming lawyers, gender parity at the top levels of BigLaw and corporate legal departments has lagged severely, though not as badly as in smaller firms. However, Cravath, Swaine and Moore, this year, and in 2016, announced all women classes of new partners, and in 2017, a third of the six new partners were also women....
Kurtis Thorsted made several distress signal calls claiming he was stranded at sea, when in fact he was safe inside his Salinas, California home. Kurtis Thorsted , 53, made multiple “mayday” calls and broadcast more than four dozen of these hoax distress signals over six months in 2008, the Associated Press reports. The false distress signal mayday calls cost the Coast Guard more than $102,000 for attempted searches, officials said....
Big data is making it increasingly easy to gain insight from unstructured information, to use satellite imagery of big box parking lots to predict stock performance, say, or to identify potential human traffickers based on bank deposits. And companies can also turn those analytic abilities inward, looking for insights into the data their own employees create. But what ethical restraints should be placed on such data? When is using employee data a valid management strategy and when is it a step toward an Orwellian corporate dystopia?...
Although Stewart Hauptman and Helen Cherry have found a way to keep business rolling for their Pace Arrow motor home medical dispensary, they face a tough legal road ahead. As previously discussed, the couple travels in their RV pot shop around Southern California and Las Vegas, serving about 700 members of their marijuana collective. They recently relocated to an unincorporated area of Riverside County, California, after an unsuccessful fight with zoning laws in Norco....
A bill passed by New York legislators seeks to outlaw so-called “tiger selfies” increasingly popping up on dating sites such as Tinder. The bill actually wasn’t drafted with these photos in mind. In fact, the bill’s author, New York State Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, hadn’t even heard of the “tiger selfie” trend until after her bill was passed, reports CNET. What are tiger selfies, and how would they be affected by this proposed law which awaits the governor’s signature?...
Lawyers don’t just carry their clients troubles on their shoulders – we also have to drag along notebooks, filings, legal pads, computers and even the rare law book. Some days it’s enough to make you feel like a highly-paid Sherpa. That’s no excuse for wearing a backpack, though. Or even a bad briefcase. As a lawyer, you need to look the part – back pain be damned.* We’ve all seen the women in business suits and nurses’ shoes, riding the train or bus into the office with their heels in their bag....
MBO Lab., Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson & Co., No. 08-1288, involved a patent infringement suit relating to a patent design for a hypodermic safety syringe. In rejecting the plaintiff’s claim that the district court erred in holding that RE ‘885 claims 27, 28, 32, and 33 violate the rule against recapture, the court held that under step 2 of the three-step recapture test, the plaintiff violated the rule against recapture by claiming relative movement between the guard body and needle in the ‘885 patent....
False confessions may be a recurring problem in our criminal justice system, but the problem is especially pronounced in interrogations of juvenile suspects. In a series of studies cited by State Sen. Ted W. Lieu, the author of Senate Bill 569, research showed the following: Out of 125 false confessions in one study, 33 percent were from juveniles, most of whom confessed to murder; In a review of exonerations between 1989 and 2004, 42 percent of juvenile exonorees’ cases involved false confessions (compared with 13 percent of adults); Among the youngest of those exonerees, ages 12 to 15, 69 percent confessed to homicides and sexual assaults that they did not commit....
Everyone’s least favorite former pharmaceutical executive, Martin Shkreli was just sentenced to seven years in prison stemming from his conviction for misleading investors in two hedge funds. Apparently, the “junior varsity” prosecution, as the disgraced executive called it, was good enough. Interestingly, Shkreli will receive six months credit for time served as his bond was revoked after his conviction because he put a bounty on a lock of Hilary Clinton’s hair using social media....
There was a very interesting case out of the Ninth Circuit recently on whether killing an opossum constitutes a crime. While this is a Ninth Circuit case and we have a separate blog for that, the case presents some interesting issues of California law. Is killing an opossum a crime in California? What are the limits on animal cruelty in California, when the animal is a “pest”? Back in 2002, the Los Angeles Times had a long article on this question, showing two cases of people arrested for killing opossums....
The Internet makes everything easier, even getting a diploma. What it doesn’t do is make that diploma legit. While some legitimate universities offer online coursework and some for-profit schools operate exclusively on the web, there are some more nefarious institutions out there, pandering to those looking for illicit degrees and preying on others looking for a legitimate education. So how can anyone tell the good guys from the bad when it comes to online degrees?...
