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An enemy can be a motivator. Many public defenders can fight harder for their clients because they believe that most prosecutors are awful. Corporate counsel can try to destroy employment discrimination lawyers – in court, of course – because they think they’re pesky opportunists. Viewing the other side as the other side isn’t always the worst thing. The law is an adversarial system, after all. But of course, no one wants adversaries on their own side....

Now that’s an incentive plan. But don’t you think an American version of the recently-reported German insurance orgy would run into, uh, regulatory problems. A German insurance conglomerate has confirmed that in 2007 it rewarded its 100 best salesmen with an orgy at a Hungarian spa with 20 high-class prostitutes, reports the Daily Mail in London, quoting Handelsblatt. We think we can safely say salesmen in this case. German reinsurance giant Munich Re, now owner of the German insurer Ergo and its subsidiary Hamburg-Mannheimer, says Ergo event organizers even issued color-coded wrist bands to indicate which services partygoers could enjoy, reports the Mail....

When it comes to judicial campaigns and suing judges, there’s going to be some gray areas. One lawyer, and political hopeful, is learning the hard way that judges will almost always protect their own (Facebook pages). The decree that a judge’s campaign’s Facebook page is not a public record subject to a public records request came as a result of litigation over horse slaughtering turned document vendetta. The lawyer that represented a slaughterhouse that was sued for using a facility to slaughter horses believed that the judge ruled based on political, and social media, pressures rather than the case’s merits....

In plaintiff’s suit against defendant alleging undue influence on the trustee to breach a trust of which plaintiff was a beneficiary, judgment in favor of defendant is reversed and remanded where: 1) the court erred in determining that plaintiff did not have standing to sue defendant for her role as a third-party participant in a trustee’s breach; 2) the trial court erred in failing to consider and make the necessary findings as to whether plaintiff could recover from defendant under a theory that, after the trustee’s death, defendant became a trustee de son tort, and thus had duties to the trust beneficiaries, which she breached; and 3) plaintiff may recover from defendant for defendant’s breach of trust after the trustee’s death....

Fans of legal adult pornography may never view an X-rated movie the same ever again, after Los Angeles County voters passed a ballot measure requiring condom use by porn stars. Almost 56% of voters in Los Angeles County cast their ballots in favor of Measure B. The measure requires all porn actors to wear condoms, and requires porn producers to pay for a permit to shoot pornographic scenes, reports Business Insider....

A recent law graduate has been named as the only suspect tied to the death of a doctor. Ted Hoffstrom, 30, allegedly murdered Dr. Stephen Larson over the weekend in his home, WCCO-TV reports. Hoffstrom also died himself in the incident. Larson was a 74-year-old obstetrician who had delivered Hoffstrom. Hoffstrom, who was born prematurely and endured mental and physical ailments because of it, had always allegedly traced his issues to his delivery....

Should California inmates fight for their right to party? Not if a California Appellate Court will hear their grounding appeals. This week, the Second Appellate District upheld two prisoners’ convictions for possessing and knowingly bringing alcohol into a prison camp. The facts sound like a scheme that your little brother might have attempted in high school … except in prison. An officer was monitoring the front entrance of a minimum security prison when he saw a car drive through the entrance and stop near a trash can....

For some people, their business is stocks. For others, it’s cars. Teaching, science, acting – everyone has a different job. For David Neal, it’s urine. And not just any urine. Fake urine. Neal, of Middletown, Ohio, dabbles in selling fake pee to help people pass drug tests. Unfortunately, he meddled with the wrong people: the U.S. government. Neal pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to defraud the federal government and introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce, The Associated Press reports....

FERC properly allowed premium rates to be applied in the sale of a pipeline connecting Missouri and Illinois, the D.C. Circuit ruled this week. After MoGas, a pipeline operator, purchased a 5.6 mile natural gas pipeline running under the Mississippi River, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) allowed it to charge premium rates as a “benefits exception” to usual limitations. The Missouri Public Service Commission sued, arguing that purchasing the pipeline served no public benefit and ran counter to FERC precedent....

It appears as though desperation isn’t a new trend amongst law students and lawyers. New Jersey attorney and Rutgers Law School graduate Philip Prothro has been censured by the state’s highest court. His misdeed? Forging his law school transcripts in 2002, and again in 2008. His Constitutional Law grade went from a C+ to an A, and his Torts and Legal Research grades migrated from B to B+. Philip Prothro first altered his transcripts while a summer associate at Sills Cummis & Gross....

Sentence for kidnapping, rape and various other crimes is reversed and remanded where sufficient evidence does not support the trial court’s finding that his prior conviction was a serious felony under the Three Strikes laws sentencing provisions. Read People v. Ulloa, No. B201072 in PDF Read People v. Ulloa, No. B201072 in HTML Appellate InformationAPPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Richard R. Romero, Judge. Affirmed in part with modifications, reversed in part, and remanded....

You won’t find many people who will shed a tear over city and county ordinances that ban sex offenders from parks, except with prior written permission from the sheriff. We’d venture a guess that most people would support such a law, though much like city-specific gun ordinances, the laws face a major obstacle: state preemption. Hugo Godinez is a registered sex offender. He attended a “mandatory” company picnic on Cinco de Mayo in 2010, at the Mile Square Regional Park....

“I went to the Playboy Mansion but all I got was the flu, a fever, respiratory illness, pneumonia and violent headaches.” That’s one idea I had for a very lame Playboy t-shirt, after over 100 people fell ill after attending a party at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion. They were in Santa Monica for the DOMAINfest Global conference, which featured an evening at the mansion. Despite what you might think, the outbreak was not related to any venereal diseases....

In 1989, Steven Randall “Randy” Jackson, one of the famed musical Jackson children, impregnated Alejandra Loaiza. She filed a complaint for acknowledgement of paternity and child support, along with a proof of service. Jackson does not deny that he is the father of the child, Genevieve Katherine Jackson, or of their second child, Steven Randall Jackson, Jr. But, he claims that he was never served in the initial lawsuit. A proof of service claims otherwise....

The Supreme Court is digging intellectual property this term. The Nine have already have four IP cases on the calendar for the year, according to Patently-O. One of those cases came from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. “Big deal,” you say. “Four cases? That’s only 5 percent of the approximately 70 cases the court will hear this year.” True, but it’s a significant number considering that only 51 petitions have been granted so far in the 2012 term, and the Court is still expected to grant more IP cases....

The Oxford Dictionary Online – not to be confused with the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary – proclaimed “selfie” as the word of the year. Per The New Yorker, a “selfie” is an informal noun (plural: selfies) defined as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.” From the Mars Rover to the “Bling Ring” cinematic trope, selfies have taken our lexicon by storm....

We often warn people going on vacation to not be so busy on social media, for fear of tipping off potential burglars. Well, the same advice might apply to criminals on the run from Johnny Law. Texas police tracked down a man on their most-wanted list, all thanks to an Instagram post. Guns on the ‘Gram It’s one thing to get arrested for a crime you stream on social media. It’s quite another to draw the attention of law enforcement by posting a GPS-tagged video of your arsenal of weapons while currently hiding out from said law enforcement....

A grand jury has declined to indict NASCAR racer Tony Stewart for the death of Kevin Ward Jr., for the moment leaving Stewart free of criminal liability. According to Fox News, prosecutors presented evidence that Ward was “under the influence of marijuana” on the night of the racing accident, which may partly explain why the grand jury let Stewart off the hook. But Stewart isn’t exactly out of the woods yet....

It’s less than a month until the America Invents Act (AIA) changes shake up the world of intellectual property law. The big day — in case you don’t have it marked on your calendar — is September 16, 2012. If you’re nervous or scared about the end of the (patent) world as we know it, the U.S. Patent and Trade Office wants to put your mind at ease with a free discussion about the changes this week....

There aren’t any rules about when you can ask for a raise, which makes your year-end review about as good a time as any to start your salary negotiation. No matter when you decide to ask your boss for better compensation, it’s important to start the process before you ask for that meeting. Asking for a raise is like any other negotiation; you have to be prepared before you go into it....