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Tasers are often viewed as a non-lethal alternative to subdue criminal suspects, but they are far from perfectly safe. Victims have suffered miscarriages, brain damage, and even death. Therefore, tasers should be used rarely and only with good reason. It turns out that a man asking “What for?” while his hands are above his head and his back is facing police is not a good enough reason. Darsean Kelley got a $110,000 settlement from the city of Aurora, Colorado, without even having to file a lawsuit, after body camera footage showed officer an officer tasing him in the back....

What would you do if you were saddled with high medical bill debt? Would you declare bankruptcy? With the rising cost of healthcare, it seems that high medical bills and bankruptcy are starting to go hand-in-hand. About 20% of Americans cite medical bills as the reason behind their bankruptcy when they seek financial consulting, according to a recent study by CredAbility. This is an increase from just a few years ago, when about 12-13% of Americans cited medical debt as the reason behind their bankruptcy, according to The New York Times....

The Wall Street Journal reports that plaintiffs’ lawyers and safety advocates are asking for Toyota black box data access in order to gain some knowledge about what may be causing the sudden acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles that spurred massive recalls. So far, Toyota will only allow black box access if it is asked to do so by court order, a request from law enforcement, or a request from federal regulators such as the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)....

Yesterday, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Today, that definition is an unconstitutional violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples have the fundamental right to marry. Obergefell v. Hodges This case was actually a combination of four cases from different states. In the named case Obergefell v....

A 14-year-old boy drowned during his high-school swim class in Connecticut. Malvrick Donkor was reportedly underwater for 17 minutes before anyone noticed him, the website Gothamist reports. Surveillance tapes show Donkor climbing down a ladder into the deep end of the pool. You can reportedly see him sinking into the water before other students swim around and even above him, seemingly unaware that Donkor was in trouble below. One source reportedly said that Donkor, an recent immigrant from Ghana, likely just slipped underwater without any splashing, screaming, and flailing that many typically associate with drowning, Gothamist reports....

In yet another Tesla Autopilot crash, Heather Lommatzsch filed suit against Tesla in a Utah state court for negligence, among other claims. She crashed her Tesla Model S into a fire engine in May 2018 while Autopilot was on and she was looking at her phone. Lommatzsch was under the erroneous impression that the car would safely stop on its own if another object, like a fire engine, was in its way....

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego is one of the premier scientific research labs in the world. After all, it’s named after the man who cured polio. And you would think that an institute studying cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, would treat all of its researchers equally, and reward them based on merit alone. But three female professors at Salk have sued the institute, claiming a “hostile environment in which they are undermined, disrespected, disparaged, and treated unequally....

As a small business owner, you should already be aware that you have a responsibility to protect your customers and employees from harassment in the workplace. But that’s a pretty broad obligation. What, specifically, do you need to do to prevent harassment? What are your legal responsibilities when responding to complaints of harassment? And do they vary depending on the type of harassment? Here are the most common workplace harassment questions small business owners face, and where to look for answers:...

How old do you have to be in order to pursue wrongful death action against the killer of your father? According to an appellate court in New York, negative 42 days old is sufficient. That’s right, the court ruled that Colon’s unborn son can sue. Confused? Here’s how the story goes. In 2002, Jose Colon learned that his off-and-on girlfriend Tina Feliciano was pregnant. Days later, Colon, 20, was exiting a house as police officers approached....

It’s a sad fact that some people don’t know how to be parents and deserve to have a court terminate their parental rights. It isn’t a decision to be taken lightly, since it’s often a permanent solution. But for parents who have shown repeated failure to care for the physical and emotional health of their child, it may be the only option. An unfit parent can choose to voluntarily terminate parental rights....

Divorce isn’t often the basis of a civil rights lawsuit and a request for punitive damages. Well, except when your divorce involves a “dirty DUI.” Mitchell Katz has filed a lawsuit against his estranged wife, Alicia Spenger, and private investigator Chris Butler over such a scheme. The pair allegedly set up a rouse that ended in Katz being arrested for driving under the influence. Spenger is believed to have paid Butler $8,100 to make it happen....

Back in August, we wrote about a Florida gun range proclaiming itself “Muslim-free” and promptly being sued. We wrote how this kind of religious discrimination was probably a bad idea, from a moral, legal, and profitable standpoint. Apparently Chad and Nicole Neal over at Save Yourself Survival and Tactical Gun Range in Muskogee County, Oklahoma aren’t regular readers. First, Save Yourself posted a sign out front that declared the shooting range “Muslim-free....

The Hollywood hit, Minority Report was a sci-fi thriller that showed technology capable of predicting crime, and police using this knowledge to stop criminals before they even start. Although the pre-crime technology in Minority Report was the result of three psychic mutants, life seems to be imitating art in many ways. The Huffington Post reports that Google and the CIA have invested in Recorded Future – a company that monitors a web surfers every action to make connections, and ultimately predict the future....

Yesterday, the Supreme Court made it more difficult for plaintiffs to prevail in workplace age discrimination cases. Despite the increased burden on plaintiffs, employers in the current economic climate of layoffs and cutbacks should be careful to abide by age discrimination laws. The upshot of the case is that now the burden rests solely on the plaintiff to prove that age was the deciding factor in the firing, demotion, or other adverse treatment they received from an employer....

Beware of a new wage-hour app released by the Department of Labor. Named DOL-Timesheet, employees can use the iPhone app to track hours worked and calculate wages. This includes overtime pay, and may eventually include bonuses, commissions, tips and holiday pay. In the event of an investigation, these real-time wage and hour records can be used against you. And with the rise of the overtime lawsuit, such an event is increasingly likely....

If you print and enlarge a photo that someone posts on social media and display it in a gallery, is it art? Perhaps more importantly, is it your art? Photographer David Graham does not think so and is suing Richard Prince and his gallerist Lawrence Gagosian for copyright infringement. The suit raises questions about fair use in the age of social media. But the notion of fair use is not new to Prince who made his name in the seventies “rephotographing” other artists’ works....

December 15 is recognized as Bill of Rights Day, a time when we reflect on the ratification of the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791. The Bill of Rights contains some of our most cherished civil rights and some of the foundations of our legal system, so it only seems right to remember the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution in some fashion. So how did Bill of Rights Day come to be recognized?...

The FDA has issued a letter about Brazilian Blowout’s formaldehyde levels to the salon product’s parent company. The FDA alleges that Brazilian Blowouts are unsafe to customers and salon workers. A “Brazilian Blowout” is a hair-straightening treatment much-loved by regular consumers and Hollywood powerhouses. Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry and Nicole Richie are amongst the stars who have received the treatment. It can help tame and straighten curly or frizzy hair....

Heather Peters won her Honda small claims lawsuit on Wednesday, earning a $9,867 judgment from a California state judge. Peters brought the small claims suit after opting out of a proposed settlement in a Honda class action. The company was accused of overstating the fuel economy associated with its hybrid vehicles. To settle those claims, the car manufacturer proposed a $200 settlement. It would also provide covered hybrid owners with a $1,000 nontransferable credit towards a new car....

CAMP’ing in the National Forest is not your typical family weekend. To crack down on Mexican drug cartels’ illegal marijuana grows on federal and state land, California created CAMP, or Campaign Against Marijuana Planting. This recent crackdown was not just an effort by California police. It was a multi-agency collaboration between numerous government agencies, including the California Department of Justice, the United States Department of Agriculture, the United States Forest Service, the United States Department of Interior, the National Park Service, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the United States Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration, the California National Guard, the California Bureau of Land Management and the Central Valley High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program and other local law enforcement departments....