It is surely a sign that our society has hit hard times when bank robbers pretend that their canned goods are explosives. But Ophelia A. Neal must have been cleaning out her pantry when she allegedly robbed a Michigan bank armed with two cans of pasta sauce. The saucy suspect did not have time to hit another bank (perhaps armed with a baguette painted to look like a bazooka), and was arrested for bank robbery and parole violations....
Trial court order denying plaintiff’s petition for an order correcting her original birth certificate is reversed where: 1) plaintiff qualifies as an interested person who may bring an action to adjudicate her parentage, and thus the trial court has the authority to adjudicate the facts concerning a possible biological relationship between mother and daughter; and 2) the trial court has the authority and the obligation to order the issuance of a new birth certificate if its determination of the existence of a biological mother-child relationship differs from that shown on the child’s original birth certificate....
This is what happens when you punch a stranger in the face – and then leave your homework behind at the scene of the crime. Police in Orem, Utah, arrested Dallas Naljahih, 18, for allegedly breaking into an elderly man’s home and punching the man in the face before running away, Salt Lake City’s KSL News reports. The alleged burglar’s carelessness apparently led to his arrest, as he left his backpack behind in the victim’s lawn....
“Making a Murderer,” the Netflix documentary, has been a twisted tale from the beginning. It follows the convictions of Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey in the murder of a Wisconsin woman in 2005. Dassey, a 16-year-old with “intellectual deficits” at the time, said his uncle pulled him into the gruesome crime. Now the true-crime story has taken another turn. A detective in the case is suing Netflix for defamation....
The writing had been on the wall for health care insurers for some time. Citing anti-trust violations, a federal judge had blocked Aetna’s plan to merge with Humana last month. Anthem had to see it coming for its deal with Cigna this week. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson blocked Anthem’s planned merger for similar reasons – the companies are just too big for the competition. Together, the rulings snuffed out nearly $100 billion in deals between the health-care insurance companies....
What’s worse than getting caught on the kiss cam? A fan caught by ESPN’s cameras sleeping at a Yankees-Red Sox game is suing ESPN and the Yankees for portraying him as “fatty, unintelligent, and stupid.” Andrew Robert Rector is wide awake now, and he’s suing for $10 million in damages for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress after the network broadcast him sleeping at an April 13 game. Rector is also suing ESPN announcers Dan Shulman and John Kruk for allegedly unleashing an “avalanche of disparaging words” against the snoozing fan, reports Courthouse News Service....
What does California law say about non-competition agreements when a high-level executive from one company moves over to the competition? If you’re in the Silicon Valley, you know where this conversation is going. Yahoo finally named a new CEO. And here’s the kicker– they snatched up a high-level executive from the company that was driving them into the ground: Google. Yahoo announced that the new CEO will be Marissa Mayer, formerly Employee Number 20 and a Vice President at Google, reports The New York Times’ Dealbook....
The South Carolina Highway Patrol is giving a whole new meaning to the phrase, “do you want fries with that?” As part of a new program, the SCHP is handing out certificates for free fast food at Chick Fil-A during traffic stops, at checkpoints and at other opportunities, provided of course, y’all have your seatbelts on. Believe it or not, South Carolina is one of 12 states handing out free fast food coupons and other rewards to encourage drivers to wear their seatbelts....
It ‘beggars all belief,’ attorney Paul Clement told the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawyer dragged out the medieval phrase to rail against a centuries-old law, the Alien Tort Statute. It was enacted in 1789, and Clement said it was unbelievable that his corporate client was being sued for torts abroad under the statute. Corporations may have to become believers, however. Even though the Supreme Court has scaled back corporate liability recently, the justices listened carefully to arguments in Jesner v....
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated two patents held by Paris-based Sanofi. In a ruling earlier this week, the appellate court concluded that the patents on the Taxotere cancer treatment drug were invalid. The patents in question are patent numbers 5,714,512 and 5,750,561. The ruling upholds a lower court ruling invalidating the patents and holding them unenforceable. The reasoning behind the lower court decision was that Sanofi obtained the patents improperly, reports Reuters....
An Iowa man stopped for drinking and driving on Sunday tried a unique approach to alcohol absorption. After initially refusing a breathalyzer test, the man swallowed some toilet paper and agreed to blow, The Smoking Gun reports. Ross McDonald, 39, was pulled over when officers spotted him driving the wrong way down a road at around 3 a.m. Police pulled the driver over and discovered that he was “extremely confused.” McDonald could not tell them where he was coming from, although he insisted he only had two drinks....
If you’re going to sue your former law firm for discrimination, make sure you didn’t abuse your perks first. That’s about all you can learn from Rita Gordon, a former litigation attorney at Skadden Arps. Gordon sued the firm for gender and age discrimination after she was fired in 2005. But the firm claimed it was her “liberal” use of its car service that led to the firing. And as of this week, that reason stands....
Principal George Kenney hypnotized his students, defying orders to stop the practice - and then he lied about it. Kenney, the principal at North Port High School in Florida, reportedly hypnotized up to 75 staff, students and parents at the school, reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Kenney’s hypnosis sessions came under scrutiny when reports surfaced that he hypnotized Wesley McKinley, a student at the school, who later committed suicide, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports....
2016: the year Californians declared their independence from each other. What in the heck am I talking about? There’s a proposition, apparently headed for the ballot in 2016, that would do just that: Split the state into six new states – Jefferson, North California, Silicon Valley, Central California, West California, and South California. It’s the scheme of venture capitalist Tim Draper, who has sunk $1.3 million into getting the necessary signatures....
Thanksgiving traditions range from simply carving a turkey to driving halfway across the country to visit relatives you barely know. However, there may be no tradition that leads to more Thanksgiving injuries than the annual family football game. This may be the only holiday in which grown-ups and children get together to play what’s arguably a young man’s game. It’s this combustible mix that leads to a spike in ER visits....
Johnny Manziel’s legal problems are no secret. And when it’s not the 23-year-old former Browns quarterback getting himself in trouble, it’s his lawyer. Already facing misdemeanor charges for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Manziel was allegedly the victim of a hit-and-run last week. And when the AP reached out to his lawyer for comment, Robert Hinton spilled a whole lot of beans about his client. “Heaven help us if one of the conditions is to pee in a bottle,” the attorney texted the AP last week, before going into detail about a receipt allegedly detailing thousands of dollars worth of merchandise purchased from a Dallas marijuana shop....
Ever the lightning rod for controversy, former federal judge Richard Posner recently described his vision for lawyer-less civil trials. According to a Chicago Tribune piece, Posner would like to see real litigants go to trial like on Judge Judy. Not only would he like to see this, he believes that a judge could in fact order parties to go to trial without attorneys. That, because there is no constitutional right to an attorney in civil cases, all it would take is for a “judge who’s willing to say ‘I’m not going to let either side have any lawyers....
Being a law student may come with quite a bit of added stress, but that didn’t stop one brave legal scholar from jumping into action during the recent shooting at a hot yoga studio in Florida. And while he risked his life and did get pistol whipped, he also saved several people’s lives. Joshua Quick was at the hot yoga studio and took cover when gun fire erupted. When he heard a break in the gun fire, he saw a vacuum cleaner, grabbed it and hit the gunman over the head with it....
Despite warming relations between America and Cuba, the annual meeting of the Inter-American Bar Association has been relocated from Havana to Miami. An abundance of caution, apparently, is to blame. If the conference had moved forward, it would have been the first time IABA had met in Cuba since the organization’s inaugural conference in Havana. According to Daily Business Review, the Cuban officials decided to cancel the annual meeting of the Inter-American Bar Association in Havana over concerns of the scheduled speakers and fear that they might start either discussing the communist regime or the controversy over the communist sympathizers in Venezuela....
Store break-ins are not unheard of, but one would-be burglar’s head wasn’t totally in the game. The man’s head got caught under a stubborn garage door, which pinned him to the ground for nine hours overnight. A manager at the Rent-A-Center in Brockton, Mass., noticed the intruder’s body and legs protruding from the garage Tuesday morning, The Enterprise reports. Like any good witness, the manager pulled out his smartphone and started recording....
