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Ever dream of shooting an elephant? No? Me either. But a Polish man did. And he’s now suing a German tour operator for failing to send him to a place where he could live out his dream. Not content with smaller or local game, the plaintiff, a Mr. I., set his crosshairs on an African elephant. And because all dreams don’t come true at Disneyland, the Polish hunter hired a German tour company known for organizing hunting expeditions to find him some elephants to kill, reports Reuters....

If you’re a big fan of David E. Kelley legal dramas like Ally McBeal, The Practice, and Boston Legal, then you are in for some good news. Actress Kathy Bates will star in a new legal drama called Harry’s Law, Reuters reports. The new television drama centers on how an older patent attorney gets fired from her big law firm job and has to set up her own practice in an abandoned shoe store in Cincinnati....

Wait, Manuel Noriega is in court and he’s the plaintiff? It’s more likely than you think. Apparently following on the heels of Lindsay Lohan, Noriega – yes, the same one who was the military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989 – sued Activision, maker of the game “Call of Duty.” Noriega – currently in prison in Panama – claimed that “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2” portrayed him by name and likeness “as the culprit of numerous fictional heinous crimes” in the game....

Trial court’s denial of plaintiff’s petition for a writ of mandate seeking an order directing the DMV to rescind its suspension of his driver’s license is affirmed as Veh. Code section 13557(b)(2)(C)(i) is construed as including a provision that allows the DMV to sustain an order of suspension imposed under section 13353.2(a)(3) on a person for driving a vehicle that requires a commercial driver’s license with a blood alcohol content of 0....

It seems a nice Bay Area home and executive compensation weren’t enough for Thomas Langenbach, a vice president at SAP Labs, a German software company. The Silicon Valley exec is accused of going on a massive Lego theft spree, netting him upwards of $30,000 in profits. Prosecutors believe Langenbach stiffed four local Target stores out of thousands of dollars. He allegedly put fake bar code stickers on Lego sets and would then purchase them at a major discount....

Within the legal community, a sure-fire way to boost the prestige of a firm is to argue before the Supreme Court of the United States. The legal community and general public treat the Court with hallowed reverence (although this may be changing). Even proximity to Washington DC can do wonders for your bottom line. Many lawyers will go through the trouble of earning their license in DC simply because it will allow them to charge up to 25 percent more per hour than they otherwise could....

Is spanking a child, even with a shoe, child abuse? Not always, according to the California Court of Appeals, which recently reversed a juvenile court’s finding that a mother’s sandal-aided spanking was physical abuse. The categorical view that “hitting children with shoes” is forbidden physical abuse and “not a proper form of discipline” isn’t supported by the law, the court found. But don’t get out the belt just yet, disciplinarians. The court’s ruling is hardly an invitation to spank your children with impunity....

In plaintiff’s breach of contract action against its insurer, trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant is affirmed where: 1) trial issues of fact as to whether defendant is equitably estopped from asserting the contractual limitations provision preclude summary judgment based on the provision; 2) defendant is entitled to summary judgment based on a material misrepresentation in the insurance application; and 3) plaintiff has shown no prejudicial error in the sustaining of the demurrer to the fraud count....

Earlier this year, I suggested that it might be a good time to “buy low” on law school. After all, with plummeting demand caused by abysmal post-graduate employment rates, coupled with schools’ refusal to cut class sizes significantly and obsession with rankings, it’s an applicants’ market – especially if you have “good” LSAT and GPA numbers. Then again, what good is a degree without a job? Since then, we’ve gotten a few more stats and trends, and it seems that the job market could be headed for correction, and optimistically, that correction could happen as early as the Class of 2017 – the students who are applying right now....

You might expect that a group called Conservation Force would be militantly committed to conserving wildlife or plant life. Instead, this “wildlife conservation” group actually wants to preserve hunting, because it “uniquely provides self-actualization, completeness and expression which are complex, higher order needs deserving of protection.” And what better way to achieve self-actualization and completeness than to display an endangered species hunting trophy? The obstacle on this path completeness? The Endangered Species Act....

It’s easy to mock the orange-tinted, double-parking, Tom Ford-wearing, real life incarnations of the flashy Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad. With neon ties, and poor tans, they can often look like clowns, and to the more “white shoe” elements of our profession, they exist as a parody. Then again, after laughing at Stuart V. Goldberg, and enjoying the Internet’s mockery of his appearance, we read about him. And if his autobiographical narrative is even close to reality, perhaps we can learn to admire him, sans the tan....

The author of a book called “Creative Screwing” claims that her publisher not-so-creatively screwed her out of royalties. Nannette Laree Hernandez of Berrien Springs, Michigan – whose 1993 book “Creative Screwing: A Woman’s Guide to Becoming an Erotic Enchantress of Superlustful Sex” was revised in 2011 – claims that her contract with Spero Publishing includes 20 percent royalties on print copies of the book and 50 percent royalties on electronic copies, reports Courthouse News Service....

If you’ve been staying on top of the new fall TV season, you’ve probably heard about The Grinder. It’s a new Fox comedy starring Rob Lowe as an actor who decides to become a lawyer after starring in a long-running legal drama. Basically, someone turned “I’m not a lawyer, but I play one on TV” into its own show. Meanwhile, his putzy younger brother, played by Fred Savage, struggles to deal with his brother’s grandstanding....

A restless student awoke from a dream that the Law School Admissions Test floated away on a cloud. Then he woke up, and found it wasn’t just a dream. The American Bar Association was actually thinking about eliminating the LSAT and all admissions tests for law schools. No more testing! Getting into law school will be so easy! Wait, is everybody getting punked? Standard 503 Wake up, everybody, the proposal to end admissions tests hasn’t even made it out of the ABA’s key committee yet....

California’s Fourth Appellate District recognized the tort of intentional interference with an expected inheritance (IIEI) last week, joining the majority of other states in recognizing the tort of IIEI as a valid cause of action. In addition to expanding California’s tort causes of action to include IIEI, the court outlined the components of an IIEI claim. In the case, Beckwith v. Dahl, plaintiff Brent Beckwith accused his partner’s sister of lying to him about her intention to prepare a living trust, so as to delay the matter until after a risky surgery in order to inherit the entire estate....

Pop it with citron. Wait. The color or the fruit? And if we’re talking about the color, just what exactly is citron? A bright yellow? A yellow-green? The vodka? This blogger likes color, but she also likes to call a spade a spade. Or a yellow a yellow. But if she were to work at Newport Beach, Calif. law firm Cummins & White, she’d probably be obliged to talk citron and leopard print....

‘To Protect and to Serve…and to Overreact’ If you’re a police officer, Hollywood has blessed (or cursed) you with a rich history of role models, decades worth of fictionalized examples to follow on TV and in film. Today, Joe Friday is frowning beneath his fedora. Sonny Crockett just lowered his Ray-Bans to take a second, quizzical look. Even Detective Jimmy McNulty is appalled, and when he isn’t inventing serial killers, he’s drunk....

Dolphins Hall-of-Famer Dan Marino is officially withdrawing from the NFL concussion lawsuit, claiming he did not intend to be included in the first place. Marino released a statement explaining that he had authorized a claim to be filed on his behalf “in case I needed future medical coverage” for future head-trauma-related effects, but he did not know he would automatically be listed as a plaintiff. The Miami Herald reports that Marino officially rebuffed any claims that he suffers from current head injuries....

Silguero v. Creteguard, Inc, B215179, concerned a challenge to the trial court’s judgment after sustaining without leave to amend the defendant-employer’s demurrer to the second amended complaint In plaintiff’s suit against her employer for wrongful termination, arising from former employer’s contacts with subsequent employer to inform it that plaintiff had signed a noncompetition agreement. In reversing the judgment, the court held that, because of Business and Professions Code section 16600’s legislative declaration of California’s settled legislative policy in favor of open competition and employ mobility, plaintiff has a viable claim under Tameny v....

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) enjoyed another appellate victory this week, this time in a cell phone data dispute before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in which the court decided that the government must provide the public with information about how it used cell phone location data to track suspects without providing probable cause for search warrants. Cell phones generate several types of data that can be used to track their users’ past or present whereabouts with various degrees of precision....