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Lawyers living lasciviously. Litigation ensues. Claims and counter-claims are rushed to the courthouse, and the press. Now, the stakes get even higher, as the plaintiff has just amended her sought damages from $7 million to $13 million. Meanwhile, according to Reuters, the firm, Faruqi & Faruqi, has stated that they plan on amending their counter-claims as well, though we have no idea if they’ll ask for more than their initial request of $15 million....

With law school back in session we thought we’d venture into the personal lives of hardworking law students across the land. Behind laptop screens, thick glasses, and under any wanted/unwanted facial hair are the hearts and the minds of law students just trying to figure it all out. While we can’t carry your course loads, or your books, we can offer some tips on things to steer clear of. So this ‘Top 10’ is dedicated to pick-up lines....

If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it follows that ugly is also a subjective thing. It can change with the whim of critics, like those who said the University of Baltimore School of Law was one of the most beautiful one year and then one of the ugliest another year. In the long run, does it matter? It certainly matters to architects, but do aesthetics really matter to law students and lawyers?...

It’s not only high-tech and bio-tech companies that fight patent cases before financial services industry. But if you read many of the posts on this blog, you’ll notice that most of the patent cases we talk about come from either of those two industries. So today for a change, we bring you a patent case from the world of Wall Street. Or close enough. The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) is facing patent infringement claims by the International Securities Exchange (ISE) over a system used for trading options contracts, reports Bloomberg News....

Trader Joes has gone international, though not by choice, and they claim, not legally. The grocery chain’s is suing their most valuable, yet most despised customer, Michael Hallatt, for trademark infringement, unfair competition, false endorsement and false designation of origin, after he purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of the store’s goods and sold them at his own location in Canada, the aptly-titled Pirate Joe’s (now changed to _irate Joe’s)....

Dogs have moved on from eating homework and on to dining on Benjamins. One Montana couple’s dog ate money valued at $500 – how’s that for expensive taste? But as the owner said, “It all comes out in the end” – literally and figuratively. Thankfully, the U.S. Treasury can save the day when your dog eats your homework cash. Wayne Klinkel and his wife briefly left their 12-year-old golden retriever named Sundance in their car last Christmas, mistakenly within reach of six paper bills – five $100 bills and one $1 bill....

In a marital dissolution action, family court’s ruling that a Porche automobile purchased by the wife during the marriage with her separate property funds and gifted to her then-husband was transmuted to his separate property by virtue of the gift is reversed and remanded where: 1) family court erred in concluding that the Porche is the husband’s separate property; and 2) plaintiff is entitled to reimbursement for the contribution of her separate property funds to buy the Porche....

How specific must probation terms be to avoid the overly-broad-and-vague judicial kiss of death? California’s Sixth Appellate District Court ruled this week that a probationer may be restricted from hanging out in a location which he knows to be, or which the probation officer informs him to be, an area of criminal, street-gang-related activity. The court also found that a restriction from loitering in areas “adjacent to any school campus” was not overly vague....

Ulysses, fearing he would heed the tempting Siren’s song, ordered his men to lash him to the mast of his boat. Upland, fearing a prohibited tax aimed at marijuana businesses, kept it off the special election ballot. That’s a slight twist on the California Supreme Court’s mythical reference in California Cannabis Coalition v. City of Upland. “As Ulysses once tied himself to the mast so he could resist the Sirens’ tempting song (Homer, The Odyssey, Book XII), voters too can conceivably make the clear and important choice to bind themselves by making it more difficult to enact initiatives in the future,” the court said....

Facing an extraordinarily troubling set of facts, a California appeals court decided to err on the side of an emotionally damaged killer whose life came spiraling down, culminating in a frenzied murder. Richard Arce Herrera had been sexually abused regularly throughout his life. He grew up in a household where his strict, disciplinarian father would often hit him after periods of drinking. When Herrera was eight, he was sexually molested by his dance teacher....

The Dallas Cowboys’ Jay Ratliff was arrested for a suspected DWI after he allegedly lost control of his pickup truck and struck an 18-wheeler. The 31-year-old nose tackle was not injured in the accident as his Ford F-150 then crashed into a guardrail, reports Dallas’ WFAA-TV. Officers who responded to the scene arrested Ratliff after they reportedly observed “clear indications” that he had been drinking. The football player refused to take a Breathalyzer test and was taken to a police station where a warrant was obtained to draw his blood....

Just so we’re all on the same page, California’s law banning incest doesn’t violate due process rights. And even if it did, Daniel McEvoy would still be in trouble. McEvoy had sex with his adult sister. They both agree that it happened. Their versions of how it happened differ. She says that she was not a willing participant. He claims otherwise. The sister, described as Jane Doe throughout the opinion, told her husband about the incident, and he reported McEvoy to the police....

A citizen’s watchdog group wants a new probe into an incident involving a sheriff’s deputy assigned to DARE. Sex toys and marijuana were found inside the deputy’s anti-drug vehicle – but calls for legal action are hitting the skids. Deputy Bud Cason resigned in March after New Orleans police pulled over his SUV, emblazoned with the DARE logo. Cason wasn’t in the vehicle that Mardi Gras morning, but his friend Kentrell Smith was....

Is it ironic that Chris Brown’s “Forever” is the soundtrack to the latest, greatest viral video to involve a spoof of law. If you have your finger on viral video fads, you may have seen the JK Wedding Entrance that was all the craze just months back. Now, while that YouTube-bite apparently depicted an actual zany and entertaining wedding entrance, Indigo Productions has developed this divorce court spoof that supposedly takes place six months after the wedding day....

In recent legal evolution, few subjects have changed as much as gender rights. When a man can become a woman, for example, it represents a 180-degree turn-around that can be dizzying. It cuts across fields as broad as constitutional rights, civil rights, privacy rights, health care, and family law. In the midst of it all, there is the workweek life of the employer trying to keep their company’s anti-harassment policy up to date....

Ohio’s new “hidden compartment” law has ensnared a man driving a vehicle with a secret compartment – even though there were no drugs or weapons inside. Norman Gurley, 30, of Michigan, was arrested in late November after Ohio state troopers noticed wires running to the back of his vehicle. Those wires led to a hidden – but empty – compartment, reports Cleveland’s WKYC-TV. Is just having a hidden compartment on your car illegal in Ohio?...

Ever used an online shopping cart? Of course you have. We all have. Nearly every e-commerce site uses the ubiquitous digital representation of the real-life counterpart, yet a so-called patent troll, Soverain, alleged that its patents (purchased from the original “inventor”) covered the technology, as well as related the related technological innovation of a unique session identifier. Newegg fought back, however. And crushed them. In the Federal Circuit, the court reversed, finding claim 34, the “shopping cart” claim, to be invalid, as it was obvious based on prior art in the form of CompuServe’s pre-Internet online shopping mall....

Butter assault, butter fight… you might think that flinging some butter at someone is completely harmless. After all, the stuff melts. Dawn Elizabeth Rhash, 49, of Florida, was arrested for doing just that. Apparently, Rhash got into an argument with her male roommate about whose food was in the fridge. She got so agitated that she threw some butter at him, which struck him in the leg, according to AOL News....

Tech giant Google has been ordered to pay 500,000 Euros, or roughly $650,000, to a competitor by a French court. French company Bottin Cartographes had complained the company was engaging in some unfair competition. Why? Because Google offered its map services for free. The nerve! How could they do such a thing? Offering something for free? That is totally not cool. The company’s Maps API is available to businesses for a nice price of $0....

Last week we went over the three big don’ts of holiday office parties, and while we gave some helpful advice on what not to wear (i.e., ugly Christmas sweaters and too much cleavage), we thought it might be helpful for some tips on what to wear. Here are some suggestions for what to wear to your holiday party for both guys and gals. 1. Please Shave “Movember,” “No Shave November,” whatever you want to call it, that awful (if charitable) month is over....