‘Testosterone-laden’ cops ogled city attorney’s driver’s license, claim says; city settles

A notice-of-claim letter written on behalf of Minneapolis assistant city attorney Paula Kruchowski apparently proved persuasive. According to the letter, more than a hundred police officers ogled Kruchowski’s driver’s license photo by accessing an online database, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Kruchowski is liaison to the police domestic-assault unit for…

Dec 19, 2013 1:41 PM CST

Reporter vows to pursue defamation suit against Toronto Mayor Rob Ford

Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale is vowing to follow through on his threat to sue Mayor Rob Ford for suggesting in a television interview that Dale is a pedophile. Dale said Tuesday that he would proceed with a defamation suit against Ford after rejecting the mayor’s attempt at an apology,…

Dec 18, 2013 10:14 PM CST

Gay students are routinely bullied in one Miss. school district, suit alleges

Gay students in one Mississippi school district are subject to routine bullying, a lawsuit against the district alleges. The suit, filed Tuesday in federal court in Gulfport, alleges that district officials have done little to remedy the situation, the Sun Herald reports. The case was filed on behalf of Destin…

Dec 18, 2013 7:35 PM CST

Florida lawyer arrested in prostitution sting

An Orlando lawyer is one of 80 people who have been arrested in a prostitution sting. Richard Sierra, 47, of Altamonte Springs, is a lawyer with the Orlando firm of Kosto & Rotella, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Detectives say Sierra traveled to an undisclosed location to have a “girlfriend experience”…

Dec 17, 2013 10:30 PM CST

Shareholders suit accuses IBM of defrauding investors by hiding its cooperation with NSA program

IBM is being sued by a group of shareholders for who say it concealed its cooperation in a National Security Agency surveillance program that has cost the company sales and led to a decline in stock prices. In a suit filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Pension…

Dec 16, 2013 10:31 PM CST

NSA phone-data collection program likely unconstitutional, judge says

A National Security Agency program that collects information from nearly all telephone calls made to or from the United States is probably unconstitutional, a federal judge held Monday. In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon of Washington, D.C., said the NSA program appears to run afoul of the…

Dec 16, 2013 8:50 PM CST

Autocomplete search led to government stalking, lawsuit contends

Image from Shutterstock. A former employee with a government contractor claims the government began a campaign of harassment against him because of Google’s autocomplete feature. Jeffrey Kantor says in a federal lawsuit (PDF) that he intended to search for “How do I build a radio-controlled airplane?” in October 2009 because…

Dec 12, 2013 1:38 PM CST

Will there be a SCOTUS vacancy in 2014? Not according to this legal prognosticator

There won’t be a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy in 2014, there won’t be a U.S. prosecution of Edward Snowden, and there will be little court scrutiny of U.S. surveillance. Those are among the 2014 legal prognostications by legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker He also asserts that legal…

Dec 11, 2013 12:15 PM CST

When will law grads and law jobs reach equilibrium? Between 2015 and 2021, depending on who you ask

Back in October at the Midwest Association of Prelaw Advisors conference, University of St. Thomas School of Law professor Jerry Organ (who also blogs at The Legal Whiteboard) predicted that, owing to a decreasing number of law students, available jobs will meet or exceed the number of law school graduates…

Dec 6, 2013 2:30 PM CST

Jodi Arias jurors won’t have to disclose Twitter accounts, judge rules

An Arizona judge has ruled that jurors considering the sentence for Jodi Arias won’t have to disclose their Twitter accounts. Judge Sherry Stephens rejected a defense bid to obtain the account information so jurors’ tweets could be monitored, report the Arizona Republic and ABC15.com. Stephens said there was no reason…

Dec 6, 2013 1:45 PM CST

‘Granny cam’ law aimed at curbing nursing-home abuse takes effect in Oklahoma

Outcry over nursing-home abuse caught by a secret video has spurred Oklahoma to become the third state to pass a law explicitly allowing cameras in rooms of long-term care residents. The law passed after Doris Racher placed a secret, motion-activated camera in the room of her mother, 96-year-old Eryetha Mayberry,…

Nov 20, 2013 11:45 AM CST

Travelers may sue airline for alleged sex-toy prank, 5th Circuit says

A federal appeals court has ruled that a lawsuit against an airline for allegedly taping a sex toy to the top of a checked bag should survive a motion to dismiss. The suit for intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and negligence is not pre-empted by an airline…

Nov 12, 2013 11:50 AM CST

Dating website information allowed in trial of accused movie theater shooter

A Colorado judge is permitting prosecutors to use information from dating websites in the trial of accused movie theater shooter James Holmes. Judge Carlos Samour of Arapahoe County ruled on Thursday that Holmes had no expectation of privacy in comments he made on his profile in an effort to find…

Nov 8, 2013 2:24 PM CST

Victims are taking on ‘revenge porn’ websites for posting photos they didn’t consent to

Nov 1, 2013 9:30 AM CDT

Teen wrestler sues after he is suspended for tweet saying he will ‘drill’ his teammates

A high-school wrestler in Minnesota has filed a suit claiming his school violated his constitutional rights when it suspended him over a tweet. The 16-year-old youth from Shakopee High School says he was indefinitely suspended for a tweet he sent in August some time before a football scrimmage, the Minneapolis…

Oct 23, 2013 1:53 PM CDT