Hiring a lawyer may cost a bundle, but at least it's free to check out the legal code and determine exactly what the law is. Except when it's not: Welcome to the odd and expensive legal realm of codes and standards.
When San Francisco outlawed free toys with meals that don't meet certain nutritional requirements, the McDonald's Happy Meal looked set to become a bit less happy there. But Ronald and Co. have cooked up a clever solution.
Earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted an anti-employment discrimination statute in a pro-employee way. On Tuesday the Court did it again, in Staub v. Proctor -- a case involving alleged bias by supervisors against an employee.
Vaccine makers such as Pfizer are breathing easier now that the Supreme Court has ruled they can't be sued for defective vaccine designs. The majority opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia was unequivocal: Congress has barred lawsuits over the rare but unavoidable side effects of vital vaccines.
Two foreclosure middlemen, LPS Default Solutions and Prommis Solutions, are accused of illegally paying non-attorneys to practice law so banks and law firms could save on document filing costs. It's more than a money issue -- the errors these rushed non-attorneys are making may lead to another messy stage of the mortgage meltdown.
Among the state systems governing foreclosure, Hawaii has a particularly fraud-riddled, draconian process. Elderly Suzanne Bonds was unbelievably exploited by that process in 2004, but Hawaii's courts refused to help. Now, her attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
Note to people who have been murdered, raped, beaten, or robbed by your country's army, with the assistance of a corporation such as transporting the attacking troops, feeding them, paying them, and giving them access to corporate property as a staging ground: You cannot sue the corporation in U.S. courts.
With so many jurors talking about cases they're on via social networks, judges are now updating their warnings to jurors about the sanctity of jury deliberations to include social media. Some are even confiscating smartphones in the courtroom.
The Texas AG is investigating Google for allegedly manipulating search results to hurt its competitors, which could be an antitrust violation. Three companies, two in the U.S. and one in the U.K., have all complained of Google search manipulation.
A group of 700 investors is arguing that customers of convicted ex-financier Bernard Madoff should be entitled to recoveries from the Securities Investor Protection Corp. even if they collected more from the fraudulent schemes than they invested.
