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Here at FindLaw, we understand the pressures of being a legal professional - most of us are recovering lawyers - so we want to help by tossing you that preferred life preserver of the legal profession, the short list. Today’s offering: Third Circuit Court of Appeals judicial nominee Patty Shwartz. President Obama nominated Patty Shwartz to fill Senior Judge Maryanne Trump Barry’s seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals last October, but the nomination hasn’t been without controversy....

In a sex discrimination action, dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff failed to timely respond to defendant’s motion to dismiss, and plaintiff’s assertion in his motion for extension of time that his counsel was occupied with other hearings did not constitute excusable neglect; and 2) plaintiff’s complaint failed to allege facts showing that he was treated differently from similarly-situated female employees. Read Hawks v. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, No....

This Tenth Circuit bank fraud ruling in US v. Marvin Iverson helps clarify the general trend in the circuit to treat banking documents and FDIC certificates as exemptable hearsay. In this case, the court found that a number of the hearsay exceptions allowed a key piece of evidence into the body of evidence. The defendant was convicted by a jury after he entered into a scheme to defraud JPMorgan Chase and Big Horn Federal Savings under statute 18 U....

If you are a parent, the hardest part of estate planning is considering who will care for your minor children if you die. If you die and your children are without a surviving parent, a probate court makes that choice. What Is a Legal Guardian? A legal guardian has custody of your children. They manage your child’s education, well-being, healthcare, and living arrangements. How Do I Name My Child’s Guardian? A critical estate planning document is a last will and testament or “will....

Many liberals want Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to retire immediately, despite her status as a liberal lion and the leader of the “left” side of the bench. Conservatives want her to stick around, again, despite her political leanings and even though she’s shown no signs of slowing down whatsoever. Why? Everybody is worried about Ginsburg’s potential replacement. If she retires while President Barack Obama is in office, and before this year’s midterms, there’s a good chance she’ll be replaced with a like-minded judge, leaving the 4-4-Kennedy split....

The hard thing about words is, you can’t recall them once they leave your mouth. It’s not like you can delete a memo that has already been sent, either. But the problem speaks volumes about the need for editors. Every legal department needs one because if you don’t catch certain writing errors, the boss probably will. Even though you will make mistakes, you definitely don’t want your boss to see them....

In plaintiff’s employment discrimination and retaliation action against her former employer, summary judgment in favor of defendant is affirmed where, because plaintiff failed to present evidence that defendant acted with retaliatory intent when it fired her, a jury could not infer that defendant fired her because she took FMLA leave. Read Long v. Teachers’ Ret. Sys. of State of Illinois, No. 08-3094 In plaintiffs’ class action lawsuit against defendant-automobile insurance providers, defendant’s petition for permission to appeal is granted and the judgment of the district court granting plaintiff’s motion to remand the action to the state court is affirmed where the new claims added by the class certification order relate back to the relevant transaction or occurrence....

“Exceptional cases” warranting attorneys’ fees under the Lanham Act Nightingale Home Healthcare, Inc. v. Anodyne Therapy, LLC, 10-2327, concerned a challenge to the district court’s award of defendant’s request for attorneys’ fees based on 15 U.S.C. section 1117(a), which allows attorneys’ fees to be awarded to prevailing parties in Lanham Act suits, but only in “exceptional cases,” in a home healthcare services provider’s suit against a seller of infrared lamps under the Lanham Act....

A child born to an American is an American citizen – right? Not exactly. Everyone born in the U.S., of course, gets citizenship, much to Donald Trump’s chagrin. Children of American citizens born abroad get “derivative citizenship,” or citizenship through parents, only under certain conditions. When it comes to derivative citizenship, the deciding factor is often the American parent’s gender, if the child was born out of wedlock. That means many children born outside the U....

In US v. Garcia, No. 09-2281, the court of appeals affirmed conviction for possession with intent to distribute marijuana, holding that 1) the arresting officer did not transform a routine stop into an investigative detention; and 2) because the initial stop was not unconstitutionally prolonged, and defendant consented to the post-stop encounter, the court need not consider whether the officer also had reasonable suspicion to prolong the stop. In Hirman v....

The federal court down in San Diego recently issued a big, but relatively brief, ruling in the ongoing battle between Apple and Qualcomm. (To give you some perspective on how “ongoing” this has been, the ruling is listed as Document 737, and it was a ruling on a 12(b) motion.) As reported by Courthouse News Service, Judge Curiel dismissed (without prejudice) 56 separate claims brought by Apple and its contract manufacturers against Qualcomm basically alleging the chipmaker was trying to double dip by selling the chips then demanding unjustified royalties....

The Fourth District decided three criminal case matters today involving a Fourth Amendment claim, a defendant’s claim that a magistrate judge erred in granting government’s motion to take defendant’s money held in US Marshal’s custody for restitution, and a defendant’s challenge to his sentence. In Gentry v. Sevier, No. 08-3574, the court faced a challenge to the district court’s denial of habeas relief on his conviction for burglary related crimes....

In former college president’s action against the college’s Board of Trustees alleging violation of his state and federal statutory and constitutional rights, denial of defendant’s motion for qualified immunity is affirmed where plaintiff’s employment was terminated in an open session of the Board for alleged misconduct including dishonesty - an accepted stigmatizing charge - and thus, plaintiff sufficiently demonstrated a violation of his clearly established due process right to a post-termination name-clearing hearing....

The first decision of the Supreme Court’s October 2015 Term is out and it’s unanimous. On Tuesday, the Court released its first opinion, on the first case it heard arguments from this term: OBB Personenverkehr AG v. Sachs – we’ll call it Sachs from now on, since Personenverkehr doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. It’s a case involving the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and the ability of U.S. citizens to sue foreign government entities....

President Obama won a small victory in the U.S. Senate last week as Alaska Supreme Court Justice Morgan Christen was confirmed for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Justice Christen was appointed the Alaska Superior Court in 2001, and became the presiding judge of the state’s Third Judicial District in 2005. In 2009, then-Governor Sarah Palin appointed Justice Christen to the Alaska Supreme Court. There are still three Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judicial nominees awaiting Senate votes: President Obama nominated District Judge Jacqueline Nguyen, Los Angeles attorney Paul Watford, and Arizona Supreme Court Justice Andrew Hurwitz to the appellate bench in September, October, and November, respectively....

Anna Sorokin talked a good game, enough to talk big law firms out of their fees. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Perkins Coie, and Lowenstein Sandler all bought into her story. She said she was a German heiress, and needed legal representation for cultural projects. About a quarter million dollars in fees later, they found out the backstory: it was a bigtime scam. BigLaw Scam Sorokin, also known as Anna Delvey, allegedly ran a scam on banks, businesses, hotels, and friends....

In Estate of Oliva v. Dep’t of Law & Pub. Safety, No. 09-2082, the Third Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants and denial of plaintiff’s motion for leave to amend his complaint in an action by the estate of a now deceased state trooper who committed suicide, claiming harassment by numerous individuals connected with the State Police for his objections to what he believed was a State Police practice to profile motorists when making traffic stops....

Summer is here, and injuries are near. Sorry, the poet made me do it. But seriously, summertime injuries are about as predictable as heat waves and heatstroke. It’s time to put on your shades, slather on the sunscreen, and get an extra layer of legal protection. Here are the areas where you’ll need it the most on the job: Heatstroke Heatstroke happens when your body temperature rises above 104 degrees due to heat exposure....

The Supreme Court has its boring years. The Court didn’t do much of note in 1888, for example. 1952 was a total snooze. But 2015? No way. Few years have brought as many important and exciting Supreme Court decisions as 2015. Spanning from same-sex marriage to Facebook threats, from lethal injections to Obamacare, it wasn’t a dull year. Here are 2015’s five most interesting, exciting, and important decisions. 1. Obergefell v....

US ex rel. Lemmon v. Envirocare of Utah, Inc., No. 09-4079, involved a False Claims Act action against a government contractor by one of its former employees alleging improper hazardous-and-radioactive-waste-disposal. The court reversed the dismissal of the complaint, holding that 1) implied false certification claims did not involve – let alone require – an explicit certification of regulatory compliance; and 2) to sustain their express certification claims, plaintiffs needed only to have alleged, with sufficient factual basis, that the requests contained a false statement and that the statement was material to the government’s decision to pay....