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The manager of an Illinois White Castle restaurant is seeking enforcement of the state’s biometric data privacy law on behalf of all the chain’s employees for what she claims is a decade of violations. The proposed class-action lawsuit against the fast-food chain alleges that fingerprint scans used to access restaurant computer systems violate the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The term “biometric data” covers a variety of identifiers, including fingerprints, retinal scans, voice patterns, signatures, and facial recognition....

There’s really no nice way to say this: Ted Grauer’s expert witness got pwned on cross-examination. Grauer was on trial for attempted enticement of a minor to engage in illicit sexual activity after soliciting 14-year-old “Jenny” — who, in reality, was Deputy Sheriff Jessup Schroeder — for sex in the Iowa Romance chatroom. Grauer’s “human sexuality expert,” Dr. James Herriot, told the court that “Internet chatrooms … are primarily an entertainment medium where adults engage in fantasy “age-play,” often “a naughty schoolgirl” and older man scenario....

This week, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals clarified that – despite the government’s increasing interference to every aspect of a person’s life – having “a case of the attitude” is not an arrestable offense. The Los Lunas, New Mexico Police Department received an anonymous call reporting a loud argument at Michael Storey’s address. The Department dispatched Officer Taylor to investigate. Though Taylor didn’t hear an argument when he arrived at Storey’s residence, he proceeded to ask Storey about the yelling match....

(Note: This blog was updated November 6, 2019) When the going gets tough, tough lawyers look for side jobs. Actually, even when the going isn’t that tough, a lot of lawyers still like to earn a little extra money to supplement their take-home pay. But juggling multiple jobs can sometimes backfire. One lawyer’s predicament provides a good lesson: Matthew Scott Finley, a lawyer for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, was caught using downtime at work to make extra money by answering legal questions for a website....

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Action In A.M. v. Monrovia Unif. Sch. Dist., No. 09-55169, an action for violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the court affirmed summary judgment for defendants in part where 1) defendant-school district did not commit a procedural violation by failing to implement the 2005 Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or by failing to develop and implement a new valid IEP within thirty days of the student at issue transferring into the district; and 2) defendant placed the student in the least restrictive environment appropriate....

Your pet is part of your family, so it is easy to imagine that a landlord’s pet policy may be the key factor when you are deciding which apartment to rent. Because pets can potentially damage an apartment, it is common for landlords to charge tenants additional pet-related fees and/or deposits. But are landlords able to keep all of those pet-related charges once you move out? In the case of pet deposits, the answer is typically: No....

In an action for unpaid wages under the Seamen’s Wage Act, the district court’s order granting defendant’s motion to compel arbitration is affirmed where claims under the Act are subject to arbitration pursuant to the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards and plaintiff’s claim was subject to a valid arbitration agreement. Read Balen v. Holland Am. Line Inc., No. 07-36011 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted May 6, 2009...

As lawyers, we all have had at least one client that made our skin crawl. We all know who that is, too, but we won’t admit it for ethical reasons – or maybe financial reasons. In any case, the question is, can you charge that guy a higher hourly rate? The answer is, of course! After all, you have to make more money if you are going to sell your soul....

Sergeant Kyll Lavalais worked for the Village of Melrose Park Police Department for over twenty years. Of about 75 officers, he was the only African-American officer in the department. In 2010, feeling he was being discriminated against, he filed a complaint with the EEOC. In January 2011, he filed another claim with the EEOC claiming he was retaliated against for making the initial claim the year before. One month later, Lavalais was made a sergeant and assigned to the midnight shift....

It’s really not necessary to read the tea leaves in court decisions. A form of divination, tasseography is the practice of telling a person’s fortune by reading patterns in tea leaves. It is wholly baloney, yet even lawyers try to read things into the leaves of court decisions all the time. In Bell v. Vacuforce, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals was quite clear about the lawyers’ positions in the case....

Worldwide Equip., Inc. v. US, No. 08-5950, concerned a plaintiff’s suit for a refund of $119,302 in heavy-truck excise taxes it paid the IRS for the first quarter of 2004, related to the sale of certain models of coal-hauler dump trucks. In vacating and remanding the district court’s grant of defendant-government’s motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s claim and on its counterclaim of $1,149,140 in excise taxes claimed to be due for the period from 1999 to early 2003, the court held that the government was not entitled to summary judgment on the basis of its argument that the truck model’s primary function was dual use, as evidence submitted by plaintiff supports that, by design, the model’s primary function is to haul coal off-highway....

US v. Horn, 09-5090, concerned proceedings arising from defendant’s motion for resentencing based on Guidelines Amendment 709, arguing that he was not a career offender under the amendment because his two prior robbery convictions would no longer count as separate offenses. In reversing the district court’s grant of the motion, the court held that the district court lacked the authority to resentence defendant because 18 U.S.C. section 3582(c)(2) and U.S.S.G. section 1B1....

In plaintiff’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against various state officials claiming that his termination from the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) was the result of a newspaper article quoting the plaintiff about his two citizen state court suits seeking to compel enforcement of the state’s liquor licensing laws and the MGCB’s employee qualification rules, dismissal of the suit under Younger v. Harris is vacated and remanded as Younger does not apply when the federal plaintiff is also the plaintiff in the state court action, and the plaintiff is not attempting to use the federal courts to shield him from state court enforcement efforts....

In April, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a federal hacking charge against a California man, finding that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which outlaws computer use that “exceeds authorized access,” was inapplicable to the case. For months, we’ve wondered whether the Justice Department would appeal that decision to the Supreme Court. This week, we got our answer. The DOJ has decided not to petition for Supreme Court review, reports Wired....

Legal cannabis is not just a budding industry for growers and sellers. A whole new line of business presents opportunities for a lot of other ancillary professionals: lawyers, accountants, real estate investors, bankers, and more. But in Georgia, a state that is just now dipping a toe into the medical marijuana business, providing legal representation to weed entrepreneurs could mean professional consequences. That’s because the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that lawyers are still open to disciplinary sanctions for getting involved in this newly legal business....

The battle for marriage equality in the State of Hawaii has been taken out of the Ninth Circuit’s hands (for now) and placed into the hands of a special legislative session. Now, instead of a court debating the nuances of Hawaii’s truly unique marriage amendment, parties fronting the heavy cost of litigation, and appeals raging on for years, same-sex marriage could come to the Aloha State as soon as late October, unless the heavily Democratic state legislature fails to act....

Retired-Justice John Paul Stevens has had quite a week, between national honors and the national discourse. Tuesday, President Obama awarded Justice Stevens the Medal of Freedom for his dedication to the Constitution. The Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor in the country. During the ceremony, Obama praised Justice Stevens practical approach the law, reports The Wall Street Journal. “He is the third-longest serving justice in the history of the court....

If you’ve been following the “Kids for Cash” judicial corruption story out of Pennsylvania, then you’d be interested in the latest news involving the “Kids for Cash” judge. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. is appealing his conviction to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, reports The Associated Press. He was convicted on 12 charges of racketeering and was sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2010. Ciavarella was accused of taking $2....

While we do our share of stories about lawyers gone bad and irate judges here at FindLaw, most go through their days competently, respectfully, and professionally. And sometimes, there’s a story that makes you realize that there are some nice people in the legal profession, too. Here are two recent examples. Hold My Baby, I Got This Law school can be stressful, more so when you have children. Particularly so when you have a one-year old....

In 2009, Alonzo King allegedly menaced a group of people with a shotgun. He was arrested and charged with first- and second-degree assault. During booking, officers swabbed his cheek for purposes of DNA identification. His DNA matched an unsolved 2003 rape case. After additional samples were obtained from King, the match was verified and he was convicted of the cold-case rape. The FBI DNA identification standard used, which is required of all laboratories participating in the 50 state and federal Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), tests 13 CODIS loci from non-identifying “junk DNA,” which contain sufficient information to identify a person to a near-certainty (about 1 in 100 trillion)....