On the great list of party fouls, wasting beer is not at the top of the list. No, expelling bodily fluids in inappropriate places, or spilling beer on people and/or furniture ranks far higher. Nonetheless, at every great law school party, there are those who cannot finish their beers. And when morning clean up time arrives, the forgotten and abandoned brews are typically wasted, as no one wants to drink flat beer....
Defendant’s murder conviction is reversed where allowing a physician, who was not present at the victim’s autopsy, to testify based on the facts in the report of another doctor who did not appear at trial violated defendant’s right of confrontation under the Sixth Amendment. Read People v. Dungo, No. C055923 Appellate Information Filed August 25, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Blease Counsel For Appellant: Ann Hopkins, Sacramento, CA For Appellee:...
An Election Day dispute has sent one man to the hospital and another to jail. Police say a poll worker in Cleveland head-butted a voter and took a bite of his nose. The argument began when poll worker James Williams tried to lay down the law – telling a woman her campaign signs were too close to the polling place doors. That’s when bystander Greg Flanagan stepped in. “I told him he didn’t have to be such an ass,” Flanagan, 49, told The Plain Dealer....
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) has boldly gone where no state government office has gone before by translating its entire site into Klingon. No one would dare call the IDES p’tak (a colorful Klingon insult, in case you didn’t know) after May, when the organization offered its online resources in the fictional language in order to coincide with the release of “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” reports the Chicago Tribune....
Another Tuesday, another Kyle Busch speeding ticket. Or shall we say another ticket for reckless driving? Kyle Busch was cited on Tuesday afternoon after an officer near Mooresville, North Carolina clocked him going 128 in a 45 mph zone. That’s nearly three times over the legal limit. Officers found Kyle Busch speeding in a 2012 yellow Lexus LFA, which Fox News reports is a concept car and production model that just begs for speed....
The California Court of Appeal for the Second District decided a criminal case involving conviction for a gang-related first-degree murder and a case involving an insurance company seeking equitable contribution. In People v. Arias, No. B215566, the court faced a challenge to the trial court’s imposition of life sentences for two attempted murder convictions claiming violation of federal due process requirements because the prosecution failed to allege those offenses were committed willfully....
After every major sporting event, it seems that a few fans take things too far and celebrations turn violent. That was no different this Sunday when the Seattle Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers and hours later a man was killed in a bar shooting. Several Seahawks players and other celebrities gathered at the Munchbar in Bellevue, Washington, to celebrate Seattle’s win. During the celebrations, police believe that 19-year-old Ja’mari Jones got into an altercation with an unidentified man and fatally shot him, reports CNN....
Perhaps Chicago Judge Morton Denlow put it best when he opened the Sara Lee/Kraft lawsuit with the words, “let the wiener wars begin.” Kraft, maker of Oscar Mayer, and Sara Lee, which makes Ball Park, are suing each other over hot dogs. Their beef with each other? Deceptive advertisement practices. Both sides allege that their hot dogs are the best. But, like most superlatives, the “best” indicates that there should only be one top dog....
An Iowa woman is facing drug charges after police helped her regain entry into her locked apartment and allegedly found a miniature marijuana operation inside. Jailin A. Turner, 19, was charged possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, failure to affix drug tax stamp, and disorderly house. That last charge is likely due to allegations that when police arrived at Turner’s house early Friday morning she was “yelling and kicking the window,” reports the Iowa City Press-Citizen....
At least one Facebook employee couldn’t put down her cell phone in June, even when the yoga teacher made a point of asking students to stop texting during class. Alice Van Ness was teaching a yoga class at Facebook’s Menlo Park campus when she asked students to put away their cell phones. During the class, a female student took out her phone and started texting while doing half-moon pose. Van Ness gave her a stern look for breaking the no-cell-phones rule but said nothing reports New York Daily News....
Brendan Dassey’s court appointed attorney, Len Kachinsky, was recently acquitted on felony stalking charges. And while it’s rather shocking he faced those charges to begin with, particularly as he had become a municipal judge in Fox Crossing, Wisconsin, one of the allegations just defies all credulity, unless you know more about Len. Apparently, the now infamous former attorney has a habit of meowing, and he admitted it. While this sounds funny from the outside, for the victim of it all, the conduct certainly had to be alarming, or, at the very least, creepy....
On April 19, 2017, Aaron Hernandez was found hanging by his bed sheets in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, Massachusetts. The former Florida Gator and New England Patriot had been serving a life sentence for the murder of Odin Lloyd. Hernandez’s asked that his brain be studied for signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and doctors at the Boston University CTE Center confirmed Hernandez had Stage 3 (out of four) brain injuries, allegedly “the most severe case of [CTE] medically seen” in a person at his age....
A Florida man accused of killing his roommate used his iPhone to ask Siri how to hide the dead body, according to evidence presented at trial. Strangely, the Palm Beach Post reports that Siri actually responded to Pedro Bravo’s request, giving suggestions like: “Swamps. Reservoirs. Metal foundries. Dumps.” Bravo is accused of murdering his roommate, University of Florida student Christian Aguilar, on or around September 20, 2012. The Post reports that prosecutors presented evidence that Bravo was using his cell phone in locations and times that contradict Bravo’s alibi....
You’ve done your outlines. You’ve met with your study groups. You’ve reviewed past exams. But you still don’t feel confident. Or, maybe you didn’t do much prep and you need to cram all your studying in to exam week. Don’t worry – there’s still a chance to learn what you need in time for your law school final exams. Here are our best, last-minute cramming strategies from the FindLaw archives....
Anyone who knows and loves “Any Given Sunday” remembers how frustrating it was to watch the Miami Sharks play the Minnesota Americans for the right to win the Pantheon Cup Championship, when we all knew the movie was about the NFL. So there had to be some relief when HBO’s NFL-based show “Ballers” premiered on Sunday, featuring actual logos of the Miami Dolphins, Green Bay Packers, and others. So wait – why does HBO get to use the real thing and Oliver Stone has to make cheap team knockoffs?...
While we might like to believe that our personal lives are separate from our professional lives, that’s rarely the case. When Tom Cruise started jumping on couches to celebrate his personal life, his movie career suffered. When General David Petraeus’ affair with Paula Broadwell was exposed, he stepped down from his post as CIA Director. Did either man’s work actually suffer? No. But there were consequences nonetheless. Lawyers are subject to even stricter standards....
Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alan Lourie recently mentioned that he hates reading headlines about the Supreme Court reversing the Federal Circuit. This week, Judge Lourie has one less headline to dread: On Monday, the Supreme Court denied cert in Barr Laboratories v. Cancer Research Technology. The case involved a patent challenge to Merck’s brain cancer drug, Temodar. Barr, a division of generic giant Teva Pharmaceuticals, contested Merck’s patent on the drug, alleging that the patent was unenforceable....
A holiday craft fair turned violent over the weekend, when a woman accused of stealing Christmas ornaments stabbed a bystander who tried to block her getaway. Her alleged weapon: a seashell Christmas ornament. Ruth Wagner, 55, of Southington, Conn., faces felony charges in connection with the alleged Christmas ornament stabbing and shoplifting, the Hartford Courant reports. That’s when Wagner made a break for it. A woman standing by the door blocked Wagner’s exit, but Wagner got crafty – and stabbed the woman’s forearm with the ornament she was trying to steal, the Courant reports....
It’s been a busy summer for the Thomas M. Cooley School of Law, with cut campuses, layoffs, and today, lost litigation. What was the law school litigating? Oh, just some defamation claims brought against two lawyers that were trying to sue the school over allegedly inflated employment statistics. Way back in 2011, we reported on the school’s efforts to silence their litigious critics through a defamation action. Those efforts failed when a district court found that Cooley was a limited purpose public figure for purposes of discussing the value of a law school degree....
A federal appeals court has breathed life into a doctor’s patent claim for a scalpel that helps surgeons repair torn knee ligaments and other injuries. The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals said the Patent and Trademark Office wrongfully denied the doctor’s patent by shifting the burden on him to continue his claim. The trademark examiner and board said that a prior invention could perform the same function, but the appeals court said the doctor had done enough to show his scalpel design worked differently....
